I was reading a book by Bruce Witt called 'The Generosity Adventure.' In that book, he talks about wise choices that we make and says, "You'll reap what you sow, either generously or sparingly." He talks about a young boy who was selling goods from door to door to pay his way through school. At one point, he found that he had no money left and he was very hungry. He thought that he would ask for a glass of milk from the next house that he visited. When he got there, the door was opened by a lovely young lady. So he lost his nerve and just asked for a glass of water. She thought that he looked rather hungry and gave him a large glass of milk. He drank it slowly and then asked her, "How much do I owe you?" She looked at him gently and said, "You don't owe me anything. My mother has taught us to never to accept payment for a kindness." He replied, "Then I thank you from my heart."
His name was Howard Kelly who went on to become Dr. Howard Kelly. He was in the hospital one day when he heard about an older woman who had come in with a very rare disease. His curiosity got the better of him, as she was from a town that he had been in. when he saw this lady, he immediately recognized her. He was determined to do everything he could to save her because she was the one who had given him the glass of milk. After a long struggle, they won the battle; the bill was being prepared and sent to her. She was very nervous because she didn't have enough money to pay for this whole treatment. Dr. Kelly had asked that the bill be sent to him before it was sent to her. He wrote something on the bill and sent it to her. She took the bill with much trepidation, looked down and saw something written in the margin. It said, "Paid in full with one glass of milk." Signed, Dr. Howard Kelly.
We are sometimes generous and sometimes we get opportunities to repay that. Often, that is not the case. Often we are just moved to be generous whether we get paid back or not. I was intrigued by an article that I read in the New York Times written about two weeks ago, entitled, "Ma'am, Your Burger Has Been Paid For" by Kate Murphy. She writes about this new phenomenon that has been going around in the last 12-14 years, where people drive in to a drive-through restaurant, then not only pay for themselves, but also pay for the person behind them. So the person behind who drives up to the window and makes his order, is told, "It's been paid for," and they are so surprised.
This phenomenon has come out of a book written in 1999 by Catherine Hyde Ryan, "Pay It Forward." She writes, "Try to be kind to someone else, not in the hope of getting it back, but just doing it." What was amazing was that, sometime last December, at a Tim Horton's in Winnipeg, Manitoba, 228 consecutive cars paid it forward. They just kept paying for the person behind them. I thought to myself, it would have kept going until 229 decided that they would just accept the generosity and not do something about it.
Generosity stops when we begin to be a little stingy or we don't pay back or do what others have done for us. But it made me think about this whole aspect of generosity and paying it forward. How does generosity work itself in our workplaces? Is that something that we can think about? Is that something that can help? I'm sure it can.
I read this article by Erika Anderson, "Why Generosity Works Better In Business." She says, "Generosity is one of the core qualities that people look for in their leaders and it's not just generosity with money. In fact, research shows other things are more important to people in terms of what they hope for from their leaders. People want leaders to be generous with knowledge, time, credit, power, information and faith." She ends by saying, "It's really hard to trust and fully support a leader who is stingy, who seems to be in competition with you or who doesn't believe in your potential." How true! Generosity is something that will sow goodness in the workplace and goodness in the workplace will always have positive results.
I'm going to leave two areas of generosity with you because of time constraints. Firstly, we need to be generous with praise. Victor Lipman, writing an article in Forbes 'In Praise of Praise,' says that a sizeable percentage of the workforce today is disengaged, that is, not committed to their employer and therefore, not highly productive. He quotes a survey by Dale Carnegie National Survey that says, "Engaged employees are 29%, disengaged employees are 26% and the rest fall in the middle. One of the main reasons is that praise is not given. Employees are not recognized for the jobs that they do and it's not just monetary recognition."
He says, "There are a couple of reasons why you ought to give praise:
1. It costs nothing. Unlike many bonus programs, which can cost a lot, verbal praise always costs the same: zero rupees and zero paisa.
2. It requires little effort. "Thank you," "Great job," "I really appreciated your work on that project…" take less than 10 seconds to say.
3. It makes employees feel good.
4. When employees feel good, they work harder. They feel more valued, and feeling valued is an effective motivator – always a morale booster.
Secondly, be generous with knowledge. I remember when I was about 23 or 24, I was part of a music choir, which was one of the premier choirs in Mumbai – the Bombay Philharmonic. It was conducted by a German who was the head of the Max Mueller Bhavan in Mumbai, an acclaimed music conductor named Joachim Büehler. I went up to him and said, "Mr. Büehler, will you teach me conducting?" I think he was intrigued with the fact that a young boy would be interested in learning something. He said, "Sure, come to my house on Friday evenings at 8 o'clock and I'll teach you." For 4-5 months, every Friday I went to his house and he would spend an hour and a half teaching me, training me in the art of conducting. One day, I asked him how I could pay him back. He smiled, put his arm around me and said, "What I'm giving to you, you give to others, freely."
I've never forgotten that. He was so generous with his knowledge. Everything that he knew and learnt, he was willing to pass on to me. Be generous with knowledge.
Finally, be generous in taking responsibility when things go wrong. Jodi Glickman, writing for Harvard Business Review, talks about Mark Cuban, the owner of Dallas Mavericks team. She talks about a time when their star player missed a game-tying free throw shot. You know that 2 shots are available in a free throw and he made one and missed the second. But later, when Cuban was asked about it, this is what he said about the star player. "He made the first shot and we missed the second." Cuban's comment was distinctly subtle but inherently generous. He gave his player credit for making the first shot without assigning blame for missing the second. How nice! Isn't that what we all need to be doing?
Erika Anderson says, "We need to ask the question if you're in any position of leadership to reflect on this point. How generous are you? Would your followers say that you teach, acknowledge, support and share with them, that you believe in their potential and work to help them succeed? If not, you might want to ask yourself why, and what you can do about it."
In our Scriptures, we have a verse that says, "Give and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full - pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back."
Wise words! Being frugal, being stingy with the things that God has blessed us with, always leads to just a narrow drip into our lives. But when we are generous, when we allow the full flow of things that we have been given to go out, to reach and touch other people, things that don't cost us anything, then the flow back into our lives is something that is far more than we can ever hope or expect.
My words for you this Tuesday: try out generosity in your workplace wherever you are. May it come back to you in large measures. May God bless you.
Let me pray with you. Almighty God. Bless everyone on this call. Help us to know how to be generous to those around us, whether or not we get back generosity, whether they are able to pay it back, help us to have generous attitudes, because even as we do, You who watch us will give back to us in large measure. For that, Master, we are so grateful. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
• Bruce R Witt, "The Generosity Adventure," Story of Dr. Howard Kelly. Pg 49-50.
• Kate Murphy, "Ma'm, Your Burger has been Paid for." http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/opinion/sunday/maam-your-burger-has-been-paid-for.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=bufferc8690&utm_medium=twitter&_r=2&&pagewanted=print
• Catherine Hyde Ryan, "Pay it Forward."
• Erika Anderson, "Why Generosity Works Better in Business."
• Generous with Knowledge, Joachim Büehler
• Victor Lipman, In Praise of Praise. http://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2013/02/09/in-praise-of-praise/
• Jodi Glickman, "Be Generous at Work." http://blogs.hbr.org/2011/06/be-generous-at-work/
• Bible reference: Luke 6:38 NLT
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