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The true meaning of life is to plant trees,
under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
- Nelson Henderson
I am holding in my hand a graceful, inspirational book entitled
Ramban's Ladder: A Meditation on Generosity and Why It is
Necessary to Give by Julie Salamon. The book is based on the
teachings of Ramban, a physician and philosopher who, more than a
thousand years ago, developed Ramban's Ladder, which outlines the
various forms of giving from the lowest – handing out money
begrudgingly, as one might to a panhandler – to the highest,
helping someone become self-reliant. I have long been meditating
on the whole issue of generosity as an important quality of
leadership: observing leaders who had it, and those who lacked it.
When we think of generosity, our thoughts automatically drift to
gifts of money or charity. In the context of leadership, there are
other gifts that don't have a monetary value, but whose value is
beyond price. These include giving someone a chance; giving
someone the benefit of the doubt; and giving others a reason to
want to work for you. It entails giving others latitude,
permission to make mistakes, and all the information that they need
to do the job. It's giving them the authority that goes with
responsibility - it's giving them due credit for their ideas. In a
nutshell, all of this translates to generosity of spirit, a
quality we admire in leaders.
Generosity, a word which once meant 'of noble birth,' used to be
associated with members of the aristocracy who, by virtue of their
privileges, were expected to show generosity towards those in
lesser standing. A leader too, by virtue of her position, and the
power and privileges that she holds relative to those she leads,
has the same expectations and obligations. A prime obligation is
to lead with a generous heart, and to be guided by a nobility of mind.
A leader's generosity has a positive spreading effect -
conversely, its absence has a series of negative consequences
that, if a leader paused to reflect on them, may stop her in her
tracks.
I am a firm believer that people need more than just 'a nice job
close to home.' Most people want to find meaning in their jobs -
they want to feel that they are a part of something bigger and
something better. They want to know that what they do matters. A
leader with a generous spirit understands this need, and connects
the dots for people - the dots that help them see how the work
they perform, no matter how small it may be in the scheme of
things, has a bearing on the ultimate vision of the company.
There is a well-known anecdote that is related by Tom Peters about
a hospital in the US that treats cancer. During a series of staff
interviews, an interviewer asked the housekeeper what her job
entailed. She responded, "I help to cure cancer." Somewhere in
that hospital, a leader connected the dots for this individual, and
made her feel that she was an integral part of the hospital's
mission. Do you do that for the people who do the work in your
unit or organization?
There is a lot of talk these days about lack of engagement in the
workforce. Imagine how engaged people are when their leader makes
them feel that they are a fundamental part of the success of the
organization; that everyone, from the receptionist or mail clerk
to the Vice President of Product Development, constitutes a
binding thread, tightly interwoven into the company fabric - each
equally doing its part to give the fabric its strength.
A leader with a generous spirit delegates not just routine work,
but understands about delegating worthwhile work that becomes a
gift of development and growth for someone else. How we love those
leaders. These are the leaders that make us want to get out of bed
in the morning and go to work to give that person the very best
that we have to offer. These are the leaders who get our
discretionary effort, every day.
And what about gifts of information? In a survey on effective
motivation published by 1000 Ventures, one of the top items that
individuals want in the workplace is the ability to be 'in' on
things. This was rated 9 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the
highest. Managers ranked this item as 1! This is a large chasm in
understanding. The quickest way to satisfy this need in
constituents is to share information. We have all come across some
leaders who are inclined to hoard crucial information as the
currency of power. Leaders with a generous spirit give employees a
chance to get under the hood and to be a part of the inner circle.
Freely and generously sharing know-how, expertise, and ideas is not
only beneficial for employees - it's a smart way of doing
business.
Albert Camus said: "Real generosity toward the future consists in
giving all to what is present." How often, as leaders, we are so
focused on future achievements, on realizing the vision of the
organization, that in the process, we neglect the people who are there. A
leader of a successful software firm confessed to me once that she
woke up one day realizing how much she had disconnected
emotionally from the people who did the work in her organization,
while focusing on the strategic imperatives of the company. Today,
we have a tendency to be too self-absorbed. We become
self-involved to the point where, without intending
it, we exclude others; and we often only consciously notice
that we have excluded them when they have become disengaged.
Self-absorption inherently prevents generosity. Once in a while,
it helps to stop and ask oneself: Am I giving enough to the people around me?
There is an African village where the greeting words for 'good
morning' or 'hello' are: "I am here if you are here." Imagine the
gift we give others when we are fully present with them – when we
truly see them. Perhaps this is what Ralph Waldo Emerson meant
when he said: "The only gift is the gift of thyself." Bill Clinton
recently ended a speech to a 6,000-member audience with an
exhortation to "see more people." This preceded his reference to
all the people who do the clean-up work behind the scenes after
the audience leaves. Do we give a thought to the people who are
unnoticed in our organizations, those who quietly work in the
background?
While generosity in its pure sense is altruistic, you do still get something back from it: surprise dividends in the form of a
recycling of goodwill, a surplus of cooperation, and the sheer
satisfaction of seeing another benefit from our giving of
ourselves, our time, our attention, our knowledge, the very best
that we have to offer those who cross our paths at work or
life. We will never know what opportunities we may have missed in
life by showing up tight-fisted. It is hard to receive anything if
we don't open our hands to give.
As a leader, giving people the gift of not just our appreciation
for good work, but our genuine admiration for their talents, is
generosity of spirit at its pinnacle. This is the difference
between saying to someone: "Great job" versus "This was pure
genius;" or "I appreciated your help" versus "I couldn't have done
it without you." When it comes to genuine praise, like the sun at
high noon, give resplendently. When you see good work, say it, and
say it from the heart, just as you thought it. Free up the thought,
and let it breathe - let it fly out there in the form of generous
words, and watch what you get back. Giving is ultimately sharing.
Here are some practical tips to enhance our generosity of spirit:
Give people a sense of importance
In Adele Lynn's book, In Search of Honor: Lessons from Workers in
How to Build Trust, we learn that 55% of workers value "giving
people a sense of importance" as the number one item for building
trust in the workplace. Consider what small actions you could take
intentionally today to make people feel that the work they do is
important, and that they themselves, as people, are important to
your team.
Give feedback, not criticism
If giving frequent criticism is your style of management, consider
some of these questions: Is your motivation genuine, or is it to
gain points? Are you picking the right moment? Are you stopping to
reflect how you might deliver the feedback while still honoring
the other person?
Give people visibility
Giving people visibility in your organization is a special gift we
bestow to help others shine and grow. I encourage you to think how
you might give people more access to senior executives, and more
access to your boss. Consider as well that people like to know
that their boss's boss knows the great contributions they made to
a project, or about their significant effort in writing a report that does
not bear their name. Knowing that our leader is representing us
well to upper management is a high-octane motivator, and engenders
fierce loyalty.
Give anonymously
Real generosity of spirit is doing something for someone without
their knowledge. Think of one or two deserving people in your
organization that you can help by planting a career-enhancing seed
on their behalf - perhaps saying something positive about their
work to someone in authority?
Know when to forgive
Martin Luther King said that "The old law of an eye for an eye
leaves everyone blind." Consider how harboring vindictive
thoughts, even though so compelling at times, is nothing but
violence to oneself. A characteristic of a generous person is a
total lack of resentment - it's in effect being too noble, too big
for that. Who do you need to forgive? What do you need to let go?
Give encouragement
Look around you and pick someone who needs encouragement, and
resolve to give them that. Consider that some people have never
received encouragement in their life - not from teachers, not from
bosses, not even from parents.
Give opportunity
One of the most valuable gifts we can give someone is giving them
a chance. Is there someone right now to whom you could give a
second chance to prove themselves? If so, what active steps can
you take to create the right circumstances for them to succeed?
What doors can you open for someone who is well deserving, but not
well positioned to be noticed?
Share your knowledge and experience
Resolve to become a philanthropist of know-how. What knowledge,
expertise, or best practices can you share with others as a way to
enrich them? For inspiration, read about other leaders who
practice teaching in their organization for everyone's benefit -
for example, Jack Welch, whose calendar was filled with hundreds of
hours spent teaching thousands of GE managers and executives at the
company's training center at Croton-on-Hudson; or the ex-CEO of
Intel, Andy Grove, who devoted considerable amounts of time to
teaching newly hired and senior managers his philosophy on how to
lead in an industry where innovation goes stale very quickly.
Give moral support
Public speaking is known to be among the greatest fears
experienced by millions of people. The next time you attend a
presentation given by an apprehensive team member, practice giving
them moral support. The simplest of generous acts are abstaining
from checking your Blackberry, giving the odd nod in agreement,
and practicing looking with kind eyes. Finally, take some
inspiration from Walt Whitman's beautiful words: "The habit of
giving enhances the desire to give." Giving is like building a muscle.
It requires practice and persistence - once it becomes habitual,
you will emerge as a stronger leader.
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