{"id":534726,"date":"2026-04-16T20:33:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T20:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/534726\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T20:33:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T20:33:12","slug":"how-to-become-a-generous-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/534726\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Become a Generous Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

One positive way to distinguish yourself as a leader is through your generosity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Generosity is a multidimensional capability that can take many forms. While financial generosity (such as charitable donations and philanthropy) is certainly important, and often top of mind when people think of someone as generous, there are other expressions of generosity worth considering.<\/p>\n

In many years of studying the life and work of Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, I have been struck by how many of his former students, colleagues, and associates (many in leadership<\/a> positions) spoke of his generosity of time, talent, knowledge, and attention<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mentorship: Sharing Time and Talent<\/p>\n

Even late in life, Drucker\u2019s schedule was extremely busy as a writer, consultant, and professor at the Drucker School of Management, at Claremont Graduate University, in Claremont, California, where he taught until his death at the age of 95 in 2005.<\/p>\n

Yet Drucker often made time for others, sharing his knowledge and being a role model, including helping to advance the careers of former students. He also displayed a spirit of generosity by mentoring people, including high-level executives such as the late Max De Pree, longtime CEO of the innovative furniture\/design company Herman Miller. One of the company\u2019s executives, Michele Hunt, has described De Pree\u2019s mentorship of her, and its fortuitous consequences: \u201cMax was generous,\u201d Hunt wrote in 2010, \u201cand he gave the leaders of Herman Miller access to Peter. I took full advantage of this opportunity, and Peter became my mentor as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Volunteerism: New Interests, Skills, and Talents<\/p>\n

Drucker believed that volunteerism was essential to helping establish what he called \u201ca functioning society.\u201d His pro bono consulting extended from major nonprofits such as Girl Scouts of the USA and the Salvation Army to smaller arts, educational, and cultural institutions. Knowledge workers he influenced diversified into such volunteer settings as a local chamber of commerce, hospitals, hospices, schools, museums, and other cultural institutions.<\/p>\n

In a 2002 speech to a major conference of business-oriented librarians in Los Angeles, Drucker outlined a simple formula for discovering volunteer opportunities: Find an organization that fits your values, something you believe in, and work for it. This holds benefits for the doer but also contribtes to the organization and furthers its mission.<\/p>\n

He also emphasized that, as a volunteer, you meet people you might not interact with otherwise. Volunteerism can also help ensure that your main job doesn\u2019t consume your life, and that you might discover new interests, skills and talents. It\u2019s possible that in a volunteer setting you may take on leadership roles that your current work does not offer.<\/p>\n

Servant Leadership: Defining Reality<\/p>\n

One of the most generous forms of leadership is servant leadership, which continues to gain traction since it was first espoused in the 1970s by the late Robert K. Greenleaf, an AT&T executive, author, and leadership expert.<\/p>\n

As described by the Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership: \u201cServant Leadership is a non-traditional leadership philosophy<\/a>, embedded in a set of behaviors and practices that place the primary emphasis on the well-being of those being served.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drucker was a friend, professional associate, and neighbor of Greenleaf, and wrote the foreword to a collection of Greenleaf\u2019s writing, On Becoming a Servant-Leader. Although servant leadership was not a topic Drucker wrote about otherwise, it is in keeping with his view that leaders should be humble and put the needs of their organizations ahead of their own.<\/p>\n

Servant leadership is also congruent with Drucker\u2019s belief that leadership is not based on charisma and a person\u2019s personal magnetism<\/a> but on hard work, diligence, grit, resilience<\/a>, and sense of responsibility. <\/p>\n

Max De Pree of Herman Miller was both a practitioner of and commentator on this type of leadership. In his book Leadership Is an Art, he writes: \u201cThe first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between the two, the leader must become a servant and a debtor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leadership Essential Reads<\/p>\n

Moments of Impact: Becoming a Generous Leader<\/p>\n

Joe Davis has been with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) for nearly 40 years and has served as a Managing Director and Senior Partner. He is also Chair of the Board of Trustees at his alma mater, Whitman College. His LinkedIn profile notes that he is \u201con a mission to bring generosity to leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although he does not specifically write about servant leadership in his book The Generous Leader: 7 Ways to Give of Yourself for Everyone\u2019s Gain, his message fits well with that concept. He has deliberately expressed his leadership generosity at BCG, demonstrating that high level executives can take the time to display care, kindness, good manners, and gratitude<\/a>. He also advocates for the positive recognition of colleagues (including crafting genuinely felt handwritten notes) and other forms of time-honored virtues that aren\u2019t always on display in the halls of power.<\/p>\n

Employees of organizations (and by extension, volunteers as well) need to know that their leaders genuinely care about them. \u201cToday\u2019s expectations,\u201d Davis writes, \u201care based on recognizing humanity, acknowledging the fundamental importance of quality of life, and embracing true partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One positive way to distinguish yourself as a leader is through your generosity. Generosity is a multidimensional capability…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-534726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}