Problems of leadership: liberality
Consider the pros and cons of liberality for a leader. On the one hand it can bond the leader very closely to her/his followers. Everyone loves someone who would give you "the shirt off their back." And we can all imagine how people might feel toward a leader who is too frugal or stingy with gifts. Think of situations where followers do not feel like they are fairly compensated for their efforts. For example Achilles complains to Agamemnon thusly:
In another sense, liberality may be personally rewarding and a fulfilling motive for undertaking the leadership role if the leader is the type of person who takes pleasure in the happiness of others.And now my prize you threaten in person to strip from me,
for whom I laboured much, the gift of the sons of the Achaians.
Never, when the Achaians sack some well-founded citadel
of the Trojans, do I have a prize that is equal to your prize.
Always the greater part of the painful fighting is the work of
my hands; but when the time comes to distribute the booty
yours is far the greater reward, and I with some small thing
yet dear to me go back to my ships when I am weary with fighting.
(Iliad 1.161-168, translation Lattimore)
On the other hand, the liberal leader may give too recklessly and deprive herself/himself of necessary resources down the road. And those who do not benefit from the leader's liberality may feel excluded (i.e., that a strong statement has been made as to who the leaders friends are and who they are not); given that anyone's resources are finite this seems inevitable. Those who do benefit from the leader's liberality may regret that they have entered into an asymmetrical relationship by receiving benefits that they cannot possibly hope to repay; this circumstance may be attended by feelings of shame, guilt, or inferiority. Finally, liberality may lead to indulgence and lack of discipline in the followers in the sense that they may feel fully satisfied in their relationship with their leader and in their material prosperity that they no longer wish to carry on in whatever endeavors they were pursuing with the leader.
FURTHER READING
See "The Problems with Loving Humanity" in Norman B. Sandridge's Loving Humanity Learning and Being Honored (2012).