The Generous Leader

Stop feeling stuck in traditional leadership approaches—master 7 heart-led actions that transform how you lead, connect authentically with your team, and drive business growth.

Leading with only technical skills isn't enough anymore. You need people to build a successful business—and today's workforce demands leaders who see beyond the bottom line. If you're feeling stuck or sensing that traditional leadership advice isn't connecting, this is your roadmap to the modern leadership approach that actually works.

Through 7 practical, heart-led actions, you'll learn to connect authentically with your team, drive engagement, and achieve measurable business results. Being vulnerable takes courage, but when you lead with generosity, you unlock profound benefits:

• deeper team connections
• stronger organizational performance
• accelerated career growth
• broader societal impact

This proven framework includes the following:

1. Generous communication to build trust
2. Generous listening to understand perspectives
3. Generous inclusion to invite collaboration
4. Becoming an ally to create opportunities
5. Generous development to validate and expand potential
6. Generous moments to acknowledge what matters
7. Showing up authentically without masks

Through unforgettable stories from the author and CEOs of well-recognized companies, you'll see exactly how generous leadership transformed their organizations and careers. Winner of the NYC Big Book Award Distinguished Favorite and Eric Hoffer First Horizon Award finalist, this is the trusted reference for leaders ready to master modern leadership.“Unlocks deep insight into what it takes to become the kind of leader that leaves a legacy far beyond business results. Most people will remember the great leaders not for what they did for the business but what they did for them, how they made them feel. The generous leader is inside all of us.”
—Chip Bergh, CEO, Levi Strauss and Co.

“Through real-life examples, Joe Davis provides today’s leader with an actionable guide to building leadership skills that benefit everyone.”
—Joaquin Duato, CEO, Johnson & Johnson

“This book is both inspiring and entertaining. You’ll find Joe’s very personal stories about leadership during external shocks and concrete action plans immensely useful—they will make you an even better leader!”
—Christoph Schweizer, CEO, Boston Consulting Group

“Joe Davis has led with generosity his entire career. Now he has given us a compelling and invaluable guide to leadership that changes lives. These are times that call for generous leadership.”
—Dan Schulman, President and CEO, PayPal

“As a woman of color, working for Joe turned my stereotypical expectations of white male leadership upside down. Joe’s book holds all of these lessons and more—his actionable examples and advice will make you a stronger leader, friend, ally, spouse, parent, and collaborator in every arena.”
—Jane Park, founder and CEO, Tokki
 
“A generous leader is an authentic leader, and Joe Davis demonstrates his authenticity through the words and actions included in his story. By leading the reader through a journey of learning, challenges, successes, and failures, Joe models how he brings his whole self to work—humbly, fully, unabashedly—and helps others unlock their potential. A great read for leaders willing to sit around the kitchen table and give of themselves to grow others.”
—Ashley M. Grice, CEO and Managing Director, BCG BrightHouse
 
“I have worked closely with Joe at Boston Consulting Group, and I have seen his philosophy and ethos of generous leadership in action. The Generous Leader reflects the empathy, humanity, selfless leadership, and experienced insights of the author and those he has served.”
—Rony Abovitz, founder of MAKO Surgical, Magic Leap, Sun and Thunder, and SynthBeeJoe Davis is a Managing Director and Senior Partner at the Boston Consulting Group. He is a former Head of BCG in North America and member of the firm’s Executive Committee.  He oversaw BCG’s operations in the US, Canada and Mexico and was recognized as one of the Top 25 Consultants of the year in 2011. 

In The Generous Leader Joe tells a story about a performance review from early in his career: to summarize, he was told he is not the best at problem solving in a vacuum, but in collaboration with others, can solve any challenge. Why? Because early in Joe’s career this mentor identified his key strength—Joe was a person who could connect with anyone.

This ability to connect with people became the foundation of a successful career at Boston Consulting Group, spanning more than 35 years, across multiple offices around the world, opening and growing offices, starting businesses, and helping to grow the firm. For more than three decades, Joe’s passion for people and his desire to support their development, inspired teams to work harder and better than they thought possible, creating exceptional collaborative results for BCG and its clients.

In keeping with his constant commitment to champion people and their dreams, Joe currently serves as Chair of BCG’s Center for Inclusion and Equity.  He is a co-founding Steering Committee member of CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion and the Sothern Communities Initiative.

Joe is a graduate of Whitman College and currently serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees. Joe previously served as Vice Chair of B Capital Group. He earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Joe has benefited from the generosity of a loving family: Sarah, his wife of more than 40 years, whom he met at Whitman College, his four children and their partners, and seven grandchildren. When he is not traveling the world for work or to be with family, you can find Joe running or gardening as his moving meditation.