Want People to Work Harder? Be Generous

Generosity is a funny thing. Most of us want to be labeled “generous.” It’s a sign of being a good person. I think of the character in A Christmas Carol, Fezziwig, Scrooge’s first boss and original mentor. While the young Scrooge furiously works away on Christmas Eve, Fezziwig insists he stop work and enjoy the holiday celebration with his colleagues. Fezziwig is this gregarious, generous character—a benevolent boss, if you will. 
 
When you run a company or a department, it is easy to view people and situations solely in terms of dollars and cents. Everyone is a number that needs to be multiplied by X revenue to help the company achieve Y in the bottom line. As someone who has run an agency for close to a decade now, it’s so easy for me to fall into this trap. Every hire needs to be something that adds more value to our organization. While this sentiment is literally true—a company that consistently loses money fails to be a company for very long unless investors continue to prop it up—it is missing an even greater truth in business and in life. The way to get the most value from a new hire is to empower them to be the best version of themselves. It is to consider every new hire or new decision to invest time and resources as an act of generosity that aims to further the other.  
 
The data—and, let’s be honest, your heart—tells you generosity is a needed skill for good leaders. Now, here are three practical ways to enhance your generous nature. 

1. Go beyond the basics 

Prominent American sociologist Randy Hodson coined the term “management citizenship behavior” (MCB) in a 2002 article and it still rings true today. His research concluded that MCB reduces conflict between employees and managers and has a strong positive effect on organizational citizenship behavior. Generous citizen managers consistently drive higher employee performance, with studies showing their behavior leads to better engagement, retention, productivity, and profitability in organizations.   

Researcher Martha Crowley, in a massive study, combed through survey research and a meta-analysis of 263 studies involving nearly 1.4 million employees, showing that managerial citizenship behaviors improve growth, profitability, earnings, and productivity. It also decreases absenteeism, turnover, theft, product defects, and accidents.

But how do you MCB? Here are a few tips: 

• Support employees individually: Coach and mentor your employees. Be empathetic. They have lives that go beyond the physical or virtual walls of your organization. Listen. Be generous with your time. 
• Facilitate teamwork and morale: Address conflict head-on and work quickly to resolve situations. Encourage collaboration and recognize when the team succeeds. 
• Champion organizational values: Model ethical behavior along with a growth mindset.  

2. Be an ethical and resilient leader

Look, we all have examples of icky leaders. From political leaders to CEOs to coaches, we have seen unethical behavior modeled, often very openly, in the public eye. 
 
But doing the right thing—beyond it being the right thing to do—is rewarded more often than not in business. 
 
Ethical companies outperform their peers. LRN Corporation has years of consistent data that illustrate this fact. Companies with strong ethical cultures are found to outperform those that are weaker by 50 percent. Companies with strong ethical cultures have a 2.6 times higher likelihood of being adaptable, which is an important factor in company resilience.  
 
Ethics company-wide starts with company leadership. Leaders decide to act in a manner that promotes a sense of morality and to amplify an organization’s positive mission. “The time is always right to do what is right,” said Martin Luther King Jr. That’s true in life, and it’s true in business. 
 
One way to fine-tune your moral compass as a business leader is to take a quick 30-second ethics check before a tough decision or conversation. Ask yourself: 
 
Is it fair? 

Would I be proud to explain it publicly? 

Does it align with our stated values? 

A little bit of discernment goes a long way and can save you headaches, or worse, in the long run. 

3. Polish your transparency muscle 

I’ve been told more than once that I wear my heart on my sleeve. When I hear that phrase, I think of vulnerability. It is incredibly important to be vulnerable to be a generous manager. You have a certain responsibility to be there for your people and to show up. When it is appropriate to do so, managers should illustrate the human side of who they are.  

Transparency can do powerful things within an organization. Earlier this year, I took the risk of telling our team our ambitious growth plans—sharing where we wanted to be as an organization, from revenue to new clients and other critical KPIs. I realized, as so many other leaders have, that being transparent, authentic, and open motivates the people you want on your team.  

Transparency anchors you as a leader and instills trust, as long as you take it seriously and follow through.  
 
If you take anything from this article, consider this: Generosity needs to come from the heart and a place of truth. Be a generous manager, not because you have an ulterior motive or an extra KPI to hit, but because that is just who you are.

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