Being a Generous Leader

Last Friday, I joined Jennifer Wilson and Amy Vetter on their weekly Leadership Lunch Chat LIVE to explore generous leadership and the element of gratitude. What I didn’t expect was to leave our discussion both humbled by their generous feedback and also convicted to be more intentional with my generosity. 

As I shared with Jen and Amy, for us to be generous, it must be authentic, which starts with our attitude and heart.

Are we thankful? The habit of starting every day with three things you are thankful for is the base camp for us to grow our gratitude mindset. I have done this religiously for many years and journaled the last five years, which I also highly recommend. This habit is guaranteed to raise your energy level and open your eyes to more blessings and opportunities to be generous. 

Here’s my #beEvenBetter list of things I want to be more intentional with:

1. Finding more one-on-one opportunities to share and listen intently to my team members on how I can help them achieve their full potential and dreams.
2. Proactively looking for opportunities to collaborate with team members on challenges and growth.
3. Sharing my network and connecting people to each other to benefit them both. Tom Hood is an amazing connector of people if you ever need to see a role model for this one. 
4. Providing everyone in my life the benefit of good intentions. It’s so easy to interpret a word, text or action with negative intent.  
5. Demonstrating that I truly care by investing time and resources into others.
6. Look for ways to live a life of significance that impacts others without chasing success first and foremost.  
7. Seeking to serve as an advocate and sponsor to those who need a little push to fly higher. 
8. Continue to teach and share from the wonderful life experiences I have enjoyed and, most importantly, the life lessons I have learned from my many mistakes. We grow so much ourselves when we give knowledge and wisdom to others.  
9. Proactively share the joy and peace that I have from my faith in Jesus Christ. 
10. Being more vulnerable and transparent with my shortcomings, mistakes and areas for growth. Using this vulnerability to grow but also to connect to others. Each of us has strengths and weaknesses, yet together, we are strong.   

As you can see, I have a lot of work ahead of me. I also find confidence in these words from Proverbs 11:25, "The generous will prosper. He who restores others will be restored."

Thanks, Jen and Amy, for helping me see how I can be more intentional in being a generous leader, friend and family member.