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The Generous Leader by Joe Davis

The Generous Leader by Joe Davis

by Parker · 92 things on Twos

7 ways to give yourself for everyone’s gain
Foreword
The most important thing a leader can do is freely give of themselves to help their employees thrive and reach their true potential.
The more money, resources, and authority a person has, the more time they can dedicate to something other than survival and the greater the impact they can have.
“Step back, rest, take a breath, spend time with friends, family and with yourself.”
If you don’t care for yourself, you can’t care for others.
Great achievements start with people.
Introduction
Connecting personally and deeply, becoming a generous com-municator.
Being curious, listening to learn, becoming a generous listener.
Welcoming everyone, generously including many.
Standing up for others, becoming a generous action ally.
Growing others with recognition and feedback, becoming a generous developer.
Making small acts that will have big impacts, generous moments.
Being vulnerable, crossing your own line, giving up the mask.
One must lead with the heart—keeping generosity the key consideration in all decisions and actions.
The top four leadership qualities valued by employees: recognition, coaching and development, empathetic listening, and care.
Generosity is an act that is given freely without expectation of benefit for the giver.
Collaborating, showing respect, giving recognition, exhibiting humility, providing validation, paying close attention, ensuring accessibility, doing for others-these are the acts of a generous leader.
It’s the finding the commonality between all of us, and connecting through it, that is at the core of our best humanity.
Chapter 1: Generous Leadership, Defined
Generous is willing to give help, kindness, etc., especially more than is usual or expected.
Give help without thought of benefit to oneself, and doing it with the reflexivity it requires.
The essence of the giver must be completely authentic in order for these acts to be interpreted as intended, as truly generous.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” - Aristotle
It is not just the giving of oneself; it is also doing it without hesitation.
Connect deeply and personally with your colleagues. Show humility, be genuine and caring. Listen to others, truly aiming to understand their perspectives and to uncover from them what you do not know. Find opportunities to learn from them. Really see your people and make them feel seen. Recognize their contributions, leverage their strengths for their own advancement, and push them, honestly and directly, to be more than they believed possible.
Chapter 2: Connect Personally and Deeply: Generous Communication
The greatest driver of employee engagement worldwide is if people feel their managers and organizations have genuine concern for their well-being.
Connecting broadly, through heartfelt and intentional emotion, will go a long way toward inspiring and motivating your teams and employees.
When you make time to connect with the person, and not just the person in their role, you make them feel seen.
When you communicate with simple and honest messages, you establish credibility and trust.
Whatever news you are bringing, keep in mind the listener: where they're coming from, how they will be affected, and how they will hear your message.
Chapter 3: Be Curious: Generous Listening
Generous leadership is about setting yourself aside to make room for the way someone else is thinking, to make room for the way they might see the world. It's an openness and an active setting-aside of our own experiences and beliefs to believe in another way of being, another person's way of seeing the world.
You can’t just come in with what you are going to say. You need to understand where they are coming from, and what they are going to hear.
Tactically, you learn from all the talent in the room, and you will be able to tap into better possible outcomes.
We don’t want to slow down and ask questions.
We are often stuck in our own minds, believing we know it all, believing we are right.
The best managers engage and empower employees by asking and listening more than talking and telling.
Taking the perspectives of others provoked selection of options we typically wouldn’t take into consideration and might allow us to come up with better ideas and hence make better decisions.
Do not assume you know what others might bring to a meeting or conversation.
Chapter 4: Welcome Everyone: Generous Inclusion
You want the lines of communication to be open with your team, and empathy is the way to accomplish this.
The burden is on you to ensure your tables are inclusive, which means you may need to expand your mindset, humility, confidence, and patience; this is the mindset of a generous leader.
Not only that you invite people into the room, but that they are heard and valued and that they understand they are essential to a successful result.
This kind of inclusion encourages individuals to think collectively about the direction of the organization, beyond just their role and space, into broader possibilities.
When people felt they could bring their full self into the workplace and believed their perspective mattered, they engaged more openly and were 2.4 times less likely to quit.
Start each meeting by spending 5 to 10 minutes recognizing and showing appreciation for specific team members; offer inspiration by sharing quotes and stories; end each session by recognizing and giving specific praise for people's meeting contributions.
When leaders value diverse points of view, listen to learn, are humble about what they do not know, have an open mindset about others' experiences, and enable all to engage, they are rewarded with a 17 percent increase in perceived team performance, a 20 percent increase in decision-making quality, and a 29 percent increase in collaboration.
Chapter 5: Stand Up For Them: The Generous Ally
You do not know what you do not know. To support people who have life experiences that are far different from your own, you need to recognize.
A good ally is one who shows up and shuts up. They listen, they are present.
Chapter 6: Recognition and Feedback: Generous Development
A key role of the leader, then, is to first recognize potential and then help people fully develop that potential by showing consideration and respect for them—and for their work contributions— and by creating opportunities for them to further grow.
The best feedback is delivered promptly, clearly, directly, and honestly, even bluntly. It is candidly telling it like it is, addressing critical and potentially very tough topics, but also calling out and helping people to leverage their strengths. You give this feedback in service to the betterment of the person receiving it—to advance their opportunities.
The biggest challenges in recognition and development are investing the time it takes to build rapport and understand another's strengths and opportunities, and having the sensitivity, the self-awareness, and, importantly, the courage to deliver the message.
Two of the top four qualities people look for in their leaders are recognition (number one) and coaching and development (number two).
Effective feedback, tough love or not, needs to come from a place of honesty and care.
Rapport is built when recognition becomes an ongoing practice of positive reinforcement of strengths and acknowledgment of achievement and effort.
Feedback is not about you. It’s about helping another improve.
No one wants to hear mush. If they are going to be given suggestions on how to improve their performance, they need to understand clearly and viscerally their development needs.
CALL TO ACTION As you prepare feedback, think through the words. Do you have vivid examples of both the good and the bad? Then practice your delivery, stepping back and listening to yourself. Are you abundantly clear in what you are saying? If you were in the employee's shoes, would you understand the improvement opportunities presented and the actions you'd need to take? If not, rethink the content and practice again.
Chapter 7: Small Acts, Big Impact: Generous Moments
Small gestures aggregate to represent something big. They show effort, thoughtfulness, and intention; they say I'm paying attention to you. You are important.
Research about simple acts of kindness and other small gestures has shown multiple positive impacts. Happiness is boosted. Stress is re-duced. Overall life satisfaction is improved, and a heightened general sense of well-being is fostered. Relationship bonds are strengthened.
Ask about people’s personal lives and remember things about them.
Ask about big events in the world so they know there is more than just the job.
Be on time. Being on time shows a huge level of respect for colleagues at every level in the organization. Conversely, if leaders are late, everyone in the room will assume that means they don't matter a whole heck of a lot to that person.
Chapter 8: Be Vulnerable: Give Up the Mask
By repressing emotions, we greatly inhibit human functioning.
“You should never expect more from others than you give.” - Brian Gross
Chapter 9: Change Yourself: Be Generous in Your Own Personal Growth
Grow by growing others.
Effective leadership takes experimentation, testing, listening, and understanding this is not about you. It is about the entire team, the organization, moving forward together.
"It is not all about what you are doing in your box; you must understand how your work connects to the organization's goals, and how your work impacts others. The more you understand all the connections, the easier it will be for you to anticipate and solve problems. Likewise, the rate of failure goes up immeasurably when those connections are not made. Always strive to learn and seek to understand what you do not know." - Joanne Crevoiserat
"What you did, how hard you worked, how well you did in trying is all good, but it does not matter! As a leader, outcomes matter. This takes maturity. But the sooner you get it, the sooner you will step past yourself, listen to others, and connect more fully with your teams, and the sooner you will release, and be able to leverage, all the human traits critical to get positive results." - Joaquin Duato
I believe one should never shy away from opportunities that allow us to learn and grow, to learn and perform.
"I would strongly recommend that a younger me collect experiences. Be bold; do not hesitate. It is so natural to think everyone else has it figured out. The game is really all about learning.” - Fran Katsoudas
It is OK to have a general plan, but be wary of being too specific. Fill it with aspiration and vision, and then be ready for the twists and turns-and when they come, grab the good ones.
Chapter 10: Something Bigger
Ten guiding actions to be a generous leader
Start the day caring.
Always remember I do not know what I do not know.
Find constant opportunities to engage, listen, and hear.
Work hard to hear from, and team with, the broadest possible set of voices.
Engage honestly; be real.
Speak plainly, directly, and honestly in all interactions.
Make decisions decisively, yet with the confidence and humbleness to adjust if wrong.
Make productive use of each moment each day.
Live each day positively, with high energy and a smile that exudes confidence.
Care for myself, my health, and my well-being (exercise, sleep, diet).