Generosity

I’ve been thinking about generosity a lot recently. ??How it can take many forms – generosity of time, money, spirit. ??How it is – to me – one of the most important qualities in a person – and a company.?? ??I’ve been thinking of its bizarre etymology (it comes from the Latin ‘Generosus’ which means ‘of noble birth’) and how it is absolutely not just the preserve of the rich. ???In fact, it often has very little to do with money at all.

I spoke at a conference on Friday – organised by the marvellous Hannah Foxwell. I went expecting just another AI conference – but this was fundamentally different.?? Hannah had designed the conference to be as inclusive as possible.?? She had thought of everything – a creche so that parents with young children could attend; colour coded lanyards so that people who did not want to appear in photographs could signal so; stickers for lanyards which indicated whether you were comfortable in being engaged in conversation.??? This is inclusivity at its finest – but it is also generosity.?? A generosity of spirit and attitude that thinks of others before oneself.

Generosity like this is contagious, I think.?? If ever my company looks to hold a conference, I will be taking learnings from Hannah and ensuring we apply them.????

Some of the best leaders I have ever worked with have applied the ‘generosity principle’.?? They have been generous with their wisdom, with their time, with their contacts and with their knowledge.?? They have always assumed positive intent (generous with their empathy) and have delighted in helping – and seeing - others succeed.

The poorest leaders (and there have been a handful) – have been fundamentally un-generous.? They think of themselves before others.? ?They guard their knowledge, skills and contacts as if scared that sharing them would somehow diminish their own status and power.?? The ‘un-generous’ leader glories in their own achievements and has little time for or patience with anyone in their team who might be struggling.??? They think as an individual – not a collective.

As a Sales leader, I try to cultivate generosity among my teams.?? Sales is not an obvious place for generosity to thrive – we think automatically of the alpha sales lead, elbows out, jealously guarding their pipeline and prospects.?? But the generous sales team succeeds as a whole.?? And as a leader you must model the values.?? My black book is open to the whole team.?? We sit down and I make introductions for them. ??And my network is such that if I don’t know someone, then someone in my (very generous) network will.? ?I hire for generosity – it is always part of the screening questions.?? With global enterprise clients it is imperative that sales leads in different geographies work together to understand the best route into a prospect – and that they share intel and insights.

The ’un-generous’ leader puts profit before the needs of their Clients.?? They count every penny, not understanding that in doing so, the pounds may well walk out of the door.?? At AutogenAI we recognise that for many of our Clients, we are the first GenAI software that their teams have used.??? We therefore walk hand in hand with them, offering support, additional training, strategy workshops.?? We come into their team meetings and share our insights and experience. ?We hold regular dinners / events to keep clients up to speed with the latest GenAI developments. ?We brief leadership and AI Steercos.?? We offer licences at reduced rates for SMEs and not for profits.?? We do all of this because it’s the right thing to do – and because, ultimately, it’s good for business.

Whatever your discipline: sales, marketing, ops, finance, HR – generosity is a fundamental quality that helps your teams – and therefore your business – succeed.???