Leadership has many interesting definitions. I recently had the chance to hear speakers from the Kansas Leadership Center talk about their model for Adaptive Leadership when it comes to problem solving and they used this definition: "mobilizing people to do difficult work."
Their model made me think about the factor that what a lot of leaders need to do is "give." Give of their time, knowledge, skills, and ideas. They give coaching, mentoring and guidance. They give autonomy, support and inspiration. The list could go on. Contrary to a past view that once you get the title that denotes leadership you just "give orders", leadership has a lot more to do with giving of yourself. And in many cases today it doesn't even include the title.
So - to build upon the theme of "generosity burnout" in our last newsletter, I think it is important to thing about giving well as a leader. The Harvard Business Review also interviewed leaders who give and how they have learned to do it in a way that does not lead to exhaustion or take away from their own team. Read and listen here.