Excessively kind, leader accepted (4)
I believe the answer is:
took
'accepted' is the definition.
(take can mean to accept something)
'excessively kind leader' is the wordplay.
'excessively' becomes 'too' (to too great a degree).
'leader' indicates taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'kind' is 'k'.
'too'+'k'='TOOK'
(Other definitions for took that I've seen before include "Small stem of flowers" , "Laid hold of" , "shot" , "Helped oneself to" , "removed from chessboard" .)