Generosity is far more than a charitable donation you make or the amount of a birthday gift to a family member. Every day is an opportunity to be generous and to offer it in modest ways to enhance other people’s lives.
“That’s what I consider true generosity:
You give your all and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing.”
– Simone de Beauvoir
Think about how your work environment would change if acts of generosity happened on a regular basis. This ranges from being as a sympathetic ear to taking time to praise something that a co-worker is working on to bringing coffee to an employee who is buried in a project.
None of these are big and all are nominal in cost. All are ways to extend a kindness without an agenda to make the workday better for your team.
If you are a hard charging leader who perpetually demands considerable work, random acts like this make you more human and lighten the spirits of those who are working hard on your behalf.
The month of February features “Random Acts of Kindness” week (the week of February 13) and “Random Acts of Kindness” day on February 17. Making you aware of this in advance gives you the opportunity to integrate this into your company in a way that connects people.
You can encourage people to offer random acts to strangers, for example, or bring it in house in conjunction with Random Acts of Kindness Day, where everyone (voluntarily) provides a kindness to a coworker.
If people are excited by this, as the leader, encourage people to adopt this spirit of generosity regularly. Who knows? It may become a welcome part of your organizational culture.
Header image by Priscilla Du Preez/Unsplash.
