Generosity of Spirit: Why is it so difficult to implement?

I previously discussed the topic of Generosity of Spirit as a winning perspective for leadership.  Generous Spirit leaders focus relentlessly on the “how” as well as the ”what”.  They realise their role is to win collectively by lifting others.  By their consistent behaviour, they model generosity of spirit and demand it unapologetically from all those they lead. 

I have worked with some incredible leaders in wonderful companies.  In my experience, leaders who consistently adopt a perspective of Generosity of Spirit are more successful in driving sustainable business success and engagement.  It can be the basis of competitive advantage.  Simply put, people contribute more when they feel respected, trusted, valued, empowered.  This has never been more relevant as many recent surveys show that the majority of employees are disengaged and unfulfilled by their work situation.

There are many leaders and companies who will never buy into this.  They steadfastly believe a more individual-oriented and ruthless focus on the “what” will deliver better results for them.  They are more comfortable with the classic command, control and compliance approach to management, which is based on low trust.  They perceive alternative approaches such as Generosity of Spirit as being too soft.  Whilst I strongly believe this not to be the case, I almost admire the purity and consistency of their approach.

But there are also many leaders who state they believe in similar principles to the ones that are behind Generosity of Spirit.  However they are not successful in embedding the principles in their organisations/business units/teams they lead.  It may be something they say for effect rather than something they do (in my view the worst crime of leadership) but often the feelings are very genuine.

In truth, it can be fiendishly difficult for business and leaders to adopt a Generosity of Spirit perspective.  Especially in larger, established companies.

In Biology, homeostatis is the ability to maintain internal stability in an organism in response to environmental changes.  In business it is the ability to resist change or at least anything more than superficial, incremental change at a time when the world around us is changing.  Increasingly leaders (rightly) talk about the need to disrupt the external market whilst simultaneously ignoring the need for internal disruption.  It is very easy as a leader in practice to pay lip service to Darwin’s view on evolution that it is the not the most intelligent or strongest of the species that survive but the most adaptable.

Delivering change is hard.  It requires consistent leadership from the top.  It demands CEOs to have a long-term perspective as well as a short-term view.  This can be very difficult given the huge pressures on them for short-term performance. 

Adopting the perspective of Generosity is not how leaders have been conditioned to behave over the years.  At a wider societal level, the focus is on self, rather than community.  As Simon Sinek notes wryly, you go into any bookshop (in the days when we could go into shops!) and you will see huge sections on self-help and hardly any books on helping others.  Many leaders have been successful due to a different way of working and so have little motivation to change beyond window-dressing.

Another challenge is Generosity takes bravery as a leader.  It comes authentically from the heart.  You only get authenticity from the teams you lead if you model it yourself as a leader.  I know from experience that this can seem a very dangerous place as a leader.  It often feels a smarter, self-interest choice to play it safe and not to stick your head above the parapet.  This bravery means taking tough decisions when people do not behave in the desired way even if they deliver on the “what”.  The “how” and the “what” must be equally non-negotiable.  Nothing destroys in practice all good intentions on values than tolerating (and even worse rewarding) consistently bad behaviours, especially in leaders. 

Generosity in leaders is linked to humility.  Historically this has not been a trait often associated with successful leaders.  All leaders inevitably have an ego or else they would not be in that position.  But Generous Spirit leaders are focused on winning by lifting others, rather than reinforcing their own self-importance.  I love C.S. Lewis’ definition of humility as not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less.  

In addition, over time we become conditioned to adopt a sense of learnt helplessness at work.  We grumble about continuous meetings, zoom/teams calls, lack of trust etc but learn to accept it as the way it is.  We forget to truly challenge in part because it has become normal to us.  Or if we challenge, we challenge on the margins only. 

Finally, reward systems can be a practical deterrent to Generosity of Spirit.  Performance metrics and bonuses typically focus on the wrong measures.  They all too often measure what is precise, short-term but wrong, rather than incentivise what is directionally right and important for long-term growth.  Most reward systems need to change dramatically to truly encourage generosity of spirit.

So embedding a genuine culture of Generosity of Spirit is difficult.  But most things in life that are valuable are not easy.  The size of the prize when you get it right can be hugely significant.

I would love your feedback on this.  Have you experienced or modelled Generosity of Spirit at work?  Have you experienced the opposite style of leadership?