In one of his adventures, that famous boy wizard, Harry Potter has to deal with the Dementors, the feared warders of Azkaban prison who survive by sucking the joy from people. When a Dementor wants to destroy someone, they lower their hood and give their victim the “Dementor’s Kiss”, sucking out the victim’s soul. This leaves them alive but an empty shell.
What has this all got to do with work?. One of the accusations levelled at business today relates to the lack of value some organisations place on human beings. Very much like Dementors, they are accused of sucking people dry and leaving them as an empty shell on the scrap heap when they are finished. Whereas I do not subscribe to this view quite as dramatically, I certainly observe a business world that predominantly takes from people and wearing them out. In this article, I want to explore this from a different perspective – that of giving.
Many years ago I came across a book by Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal, called ‘Leading with Soul‘. In it they postulated on leadership and how people can reconnect work with spirit. One of the key ideas they presented was “the four gifts of leadership“. They suggested that very successful leaders gave gifts to their followers rather than taking from them.
The first gift was ‘authorship‘ – the authority to design the way they work. They were allowed to make mistakes, yet were the ability to learn from these situations and redesign what they do.
The second gift was that of ‘love‘ – a genuine care and concern for people and their well being. The suggested love tends to breed reciprocal love. So, if a leader genuinely cares and shows that care for the people they wish to follow them, then it is most likely this will be reciprocated. Such bonds breed loyalty and strength.
The third gift was ‘power‘. To understand the value of this gift, we must first understand power. In the ontological work, power is defined as the extent of our authority and our capacity to generate effective action to take care of our concerns. One of the most effective ways to expand our power is to use respectful requests to gain promises from others to do things for us. This builds our network of help and the bigger this network, the more powerful we are. In a work place, we can expand other’s power by giving them the authority to make certain decisions, be accountable for what they do and hold them to account if they don’t.
When genuinely given, this gift expands the power of the giver as they get more done through others.
The final gift was that of ‘significance‘ – helping people feel they have contributed in a worthwhile way. Recognition for what we have achieved builds a community to support success. More people willingly follow if their efforts are meaningful.
The idea that leadership is about giving provides a new perspective from which to engage people we wish to lead. Leaders do not take from others, they inspire and can do so through these four gifts. I invite you to reflect on the great leaders you have known. Were they givers or takers? I would be willing to bet that in some way, they gave you the gifts of authorship, love, power and significance.
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What a deep, beautifully articulated piece of wisdom. This giving of gifts creates a meaningful reciprocity and builds ongoing relationship rather than a hierarchy of power imbalance. Love it!
Thanks Sharira…
Your insight about “meaningful reciprocity” is a wonderful way of encapsulating all of those ideas!