Exploring our Value of Generosity

On this episode of the Leadership Vision Podcast, we explore the team value of generosity. Nathan, Brian, and Linda share their experiences of generosity through their individual Strengths, and share examples of generosity experienced with clients, teammates, and loved ones.

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SPEAKER_01 0:03

We would not be where we're at today if it wasn't for the profound acts of generosity that others have expressed towards us. And I feel that I'm indebted to the legacy of all the individuals that have helped build leadership vision in the last 21 years. I followed up with one of our clients, a member of one of the teams. And, you know, it was above and beyond. It was off the paper. And I just reached out to this guy and just said, yeah, I really want to follow up on some of the things that you said. 90-minute conversation later, you know, we I really got to talk to this guy and make a connection. That's a generous expression that I've received in the past. I just feel like there's just so many ways that we can pass that along.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

You're listening to the Leadership Vision Podcast, where we share our expertise in the discovery, practice, and implementation of a strengths-based approach to people, teams, and culture. For more resources about developing your strengths, the strengths of your team, or the strengths of your entire organization, visit us on the web at Leadership Vision Consulting.com. Hello everyone, my name is Nathan Freeberg, and today on the podcast, and actually for the next couple of weeks, we are going to be taking a deep dive into the leadership vision values. Last week we did an episode, kind of an overview of all five of our values, but today we're going to be talking about generosity specifically. So we would love to hear some feedback from you as you listen to this and maybe have some questions or perhaps are wrestling with what are your own values? What do those look like in your life? So this is a conversation between Brian Schubring, the president and founder of Leadership Vision, and Linda Schubring, the vice president, and myself. And we're going to be doing a deep dive into what is generosity, how do we apply it to our business, to ourselves, and our strengths. We would love to hear some feedback, so please drop us an email after you listen to this Connect at Leadership Vision Consulting.com, or you can comment on the accompanying blog post or on social media. Enjoy. Welcome to the first in our series of episodes here on the Leadership Vision values. I'm joined today by Dr. and Mr.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

I love it.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

Schubring. Yeah, whatever. Um, so uh to start, I before we get into our actual values, I'm curious why we're even talking about this at all. Aren't values an internal uh thing that we write on, you know, our our mouse pads if we still had mouse pads and uh and a big whiteboard in our office if we had a if we had a break room. So who would like to just talk a little bit about like why are we talking about values? What's the importance of values? Why is this something that everyone should listen to?

SPEAKER_01 2:54

I think it's important for all of us to occasionally just revisit, you know, what are our personal values and how do they guide us? Because I truly believe that our personal values, they guide us in our decisions, they ground us emotionally and relationally, and values are always guiding and grounding us in everything that we're doing in life. And oftentimes it's helpful to just remember what are those values that are having such a profound influence on who we are as people and how we connect to others. And so when we go through a practice of naming our values, even discussing our values, it's it's also an invitation for others to ask the question are you practicing those or how are you? And how can they be clearly seen? Because values are those elements of our life, those natural tendencies of our character that do express themselves over and over again. They're tested over time, they develop piece by piece, one step at a time. They're there. So I think it is important to discuss what they are as a reminder of what it is that's truly grounding us.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

I think we can all probably all think of articles we've read or news reports we've seen of large companies that have gone under for all kinds of corruption that had values like integrity, honesty, and whatnot as their value. It's like, um, clearly they're not living that out based on all of these cover-ups and just stuff that they've done that is that is clearly not a representation of that. So today we're gonna be talking about generosity. It's one of our values, and uh, I should say the five values that we hold at leadership vision are generosity, courage, wisdom, team, and fun. I think I need to point out that we are really fun, and so that value is gonna be woven through all of these conversations, and we're saving that one for the last. These are in no particular order, but I think it's cool that we're starting here with generosity because we as we've talked about many times, I wouldn't be here without the generosity of so many people in my life, including the two of you. You guys wouldn't be here without the generosity of so many people in your life, including me. Uh just kidding. Absolutely. Well, Brian, why don't you just define it? Or Linda, just define what do we mean by generosity? We're not just talking about giving away money, although perhaps that's part of it. It's it's a much bigger, broader, all-encompassing than that. So, what is generosity and why is it a value?

SPEAKER_00 5:20

I'll let Brian define this, but I do want to say, you know, in in that introduction, Nathan, what I'm hearing is these are values are lived. They are detected, they are noticed. So even when you say fun is everywhere, um, it's the same thing with with any of the other values. We want people to detect that in internally and externally. So, Brian, what is generosity?

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Well, generosity is firstly an authentic recognition and thankfulness for what we have. Secondly, generosity is an action, like Linda was just referencing, of giving, serving, and being toward other people without a need for recognition in return. Generosity is an action out of our abundance, knowing that life is best lived when it is shared.

SPEAKER_02 6:07

I think that's a great, a great setup for what generosity is. It's a little ambiguous, Brian, no offense. Linda, I wonder if you could share a story about what like what is this actually, you talk about live values, what what does that actually look like on a practical basis?

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Yes, well, you know, in Brian's definition, we talk about, you know, it it um an out of an abundance kind of sense. And sometimes it's you don't even know what you're abundant in. Um and and so sometimes it surprises you. And and I would love to share a story about how when I experienced and kind of lived generosity when I had nothing to give.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

That seems beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

So I think back to this summer, there were there were participants that were in a Zoom call, and we were getting to know each other, and the context for this is uh it was the last days of my father's life. And we had talked as a family, and we just, yep, we were gonna continue to press on with the work, and because we were all at home, I could get up and see him and be with him every day. But we were gonna hold our sessions as usual. But I felt like, okay, I can be really present to our people. This is my call, this is who I am. I feel very much alive, but I don't have anything to give. You know, there's no abundance there. And so even looking at the values, I wonder what that would look like. So, you know, off camera, I was thinking, like, who am I to do this? You know, I think I'm this strong woman. You know what? I am my, you know, and sitting with my father, I was reminded that I can trace a lot of who I am and who I've become because of his tenderness, because of his love for me. My father believed in me, and he would tell anyone that would listen a story about me or something about me. And so I'm I'm sitting with him, and it almost gave me fuel to go and be present and be generous with our clients. Now, there was this time when I'm I'm speaking with this gentleman, um, let's call him, let's call him George. And George, in this 60-minute conversation with him, so it was a one-hour conversation about his life where I'm detecting some of his strengths, I'm I'm seeing where they are at play. I'm listening to him, and I realized right away, like he's this private person. He is, you know, he doesn't really share a lot, but all of a sudden he started talking about his daughter. To the point of he brought a gigantic picture of her to put up in front of the camera so that I could see uh see her, and he just completely lit up. He lit up, his heart expanded, his love grew, and I just kept asking questions. I was there present, right? And he shared with this with such a generous spirit about how much he loves this little girl and has been shaped by the love that they share, and then how that has made him even more generous of a person. And all of a sudden there was a sense of like, okay, personal and professional life have have collided, and I just knew that if George loved his daughter like my father loved me, that that little girl would grow up to be strong too, or mostly strong, as we are. I'm not strong all the time. Uh, but so we were coming back and we're on this group call, and uh, we were in our learning community, and so that's a time when Brian and I speak back to each person, and I shared some of those sentiments about George and his daughter, and I was tying them to my life. And what I didn't realize is that most of the people on the Zoom call were emotional, and there were very few dry eyes. I mean, I was keeping it together mostly, um, but I was like, wait a second, what is happening? This is even happening on Zoom. And his team members were able to see him in a new light, and then they had all these experiences where they could attest to his expressions of care, his expressions of generosity, and how much you know they valued him as a team member. And what happened was gratitude among the team was stirred, and and it was this realization back to, huh, I have nothing to give right now. But if I show up and be present, if I show up and continue to call out beautiful things in people, generosity will be multiplied. And so when we think about generosity, especially at Leadership Vision, it's not just so, you know, we give something to get something back. It's showing up and being present, living in the space of gratitude and expanding our lives, knowing that we, you know, all good things will be stirred and come back sometimes in spades.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

I love that, Linda. Because part of the way that we practice our values with our clients is by creating an environment where that value can be practiced. The story that Linda just shared that happened on Zoom, it happened with one of our clients, and we have the good fortune of being able to work with 15 teams. Every team is going to be given the platform to express generosity toward other team members. And so oftentimes we think about generosity as an expression of giving away finances or providing for the material needs of someone else. And what we're looking for is our clients that we're serving is giving them the place where they can express verbal generosity, um, behavioral generosity, the observational generosity, because they have an abundance of experience with their team members. And what we want to do is simply give people a chance to generously express their gratefulness for other people, their value for others, the reason why they have fun with them, the reason why they love working with them. And that's as much of an expression of our values as anything that that we're doing is providing the place where others can practice the value of generosity to their team members.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

And what I like about what you both just said was that authentic recognition and thankfulness for what we have and how being generous really comes from a place of authenticity sharing. Have you found that when working with clients that it's I don't want to say that simple, but just through sharing, through your own authentic generosity that it creates that, or is there more uh perhaps formula a formula formula for that or steps or uh something else to try to help others be generous? I'm thinking specifically with like their story and uh even I guess vulnerability is connected to that too.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Because part of the value of generosity, it is an expression, which we are talking about, and values are also an invitation. I mean, to be fair, when a company hires us, that's an expression of generosity towards us. They're going to be investing in their people, they're gonna carve out the time for their people to get together, they're gonna pay us for the work that we're doing, and all of that is an expression of generosity. In return, we want to be able to invite others to be in a place where they can express generosity towards others too. So that's part of what it is that we are trying to do is within our sessions, give people a place to practice a value that they may not say is one of their own, but it is a value that knits human beings together in a way that I feel is so needed now in this virtual reality. Like, how can we knit people together through asking others to express their observations, their value, their beliefs in their team members?

SPEAKER_00 14:04

And knitting them together around something that is positive, something that is is strong. So, Nathan, I don't think there's any formulas. I don't think it's you do this, this, and this, and then you get that and that, and then that's how you grow and get better. I think it's something that is modeled, and then it becomes contagious.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Whenever we're expressing our value of generosity, that is a modeled behavior. When you are modeling a behavior, that is the invitation for others to contribute back and to mirror that value back in the presence of other people. We don't know what level of interaction a client's going to bring. All we know is that if we model it in a healthy way, if we model generosity in a generative way, and like Linda's saying, if we model generosity as positive observations of how others are contributing, people will come and contribute into that. And then that's kind of what we're doing. And that's very fluid. It's the art side of the that complements the science side. And Linda and I and our other consultants have this unique capacity to be able to kind of ride those waves of relationship and emotion to get others to contribute into a conversation. Oftentimes throughout this learning community, we have a real difficulty controlling the time. Because once that that ball gets moving, everyone wants a chance to contribute or everybody's looking forward to being spoken to. Because generosity is also received. And when you're in a professional setting and you're receiving the compliments and the accolades, the appreciations from your colleagues in ways that you never have before, that's profound.

SPEAKER_02 15:57

Is that the goal with having generosity as a value then? Is to foster this authentic environment because we know without that you can't really reach any sort of level of understanding about yourself or other people or teamwork or culture shift.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

I don't think we could do this work if we weren't generous of spirit. Otherwise, it's just a clock in professional development. Thank you for your time. I'm listening, it's interesting. No, no, this is this is something that we are sharing life with our people. We are sharing our experiences. We are seeking to relate at a variety of different levels, and we are demonstrating care because we pay attention to their stories and we actually, they're like, you remember me. I was like, oh, and I remember your strengths, and I remember that this is where you went to school. And it just is this honoring that then I keep saying it's contagious. It is we want to stir that in others.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

The reason why generosity is a value for me, and the reason why I think it was so important for leadership vision to have generosity as a value, is a reminder to us that we have so much to give, that we are a privileged group of people. We've had tremendous opportunities, tremendous education, we've been parented well, we have great families. There's something about that dynamic that I feel we have to give that away. And if it isn't for the value of generosity that says give, give, give, um, I just don't think that the company would be the same. It's a reminder of how much we have. We can never extinguish all the resources that we've been given. We truly work from a place of abundance, not just in the realm of strengths and where we evolved from, but in this present reality where people are still looking to us to help them build, grow, develop, and engage their people.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

And we've had an abundance of suffering and hardship and humanity that we can speak to. So it isn't just, you know, coming in from an ivory tower telling people that, you know, go and be generous. It's like, hey, we're hanging out with you, I want to learn.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

Um so generosity really isn't about you'd mentioned something at the at the beginning about working with a client and I'll do a little extra for you to build that relationship. It's really about, like you said, the the generosity of spirit of I'm gonna share, I'm gonna open myself up, be vulnerable perhaps, be generous with who I am as a person to create a connection, a relational connection that will help someone else perhaps make a connection that will help a team better understand one another, to get into perhaps some of the the deep weeds of stuff that maybe you want to keep out of a you know a professional or business setting, but ultimately that is what is going to create team cohesion and stronger working relationships and a stronger company culture, which ultimately is better for the bottom line. I mean, is that if I could sum it up sort of in a crude way, is that part of this? Does any of that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Yeah, but it it is applicable because we are a strengths-based consulting company. We use strengths as a language for people to better understand who they are. The value of generosity is a reminder that when you are applied in an area of strength or in an area where your strengths are truly generative, you have an abundance of energy, enthusiasm, creativity, innovation within that. You'll never extinguish what resource that strength provides. That's what you have. And so to give that away as a generative expression of who you are, that is an example of the value of generosity.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

And I think it's important because generosity then becomes a grid or a lens for decision making. Why would we go with this client? Why would we choose to spend our time this way or that way? I think all the values, no matter if you have family values or if you are in an organization that that um espouses certain values, to know that it's a grid for decision making and that you can, you know, live and decide out of those values. I think that's for us where generosity is is so important that way.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

So to close this out, I want to make this uh very applicable. One of the activities that we do with clients is that we have them identify two or three of their values and then have them look for examples where they see their strengths actually living out those values. So I wonder if we want to do a little activity and if you want to maybe clarify that extra exercise a little bit first, where the three of us will share an example or two of how we see our strengths displaying generosity, and then perhaps the flip side of where we say, you know, this part of this one of my strengths is maybe, I guess, would greediness be the opposite of generosity? Yes. Maybe being a little a little greedy. Does that seem too vulnerable, or is that exactly what we're asking people to do as we do this?

SPEAKER_00 21:17

I think it's a challenge. I well, of course it's vulnerable, but I think it's a challenge and and it's an exercise that even if you know you haven't considered the value of generosity before, or it's not an organizational value, or whatever, like to even practice you know, we all have capacity for being generous. So then what strengths show up to support that? So I think I would say, you know, when someone experiences your generosity, what strengths of yours might be at play?

SPEAKER_02 21:52

And I think even if you haven't done strengths finder, you can still uh do this activity and just think about like what What am I good at? What are my strengths? Maybe I don't know, apply it to other assessments you've taken. So who wants to go first?

SPEAKER_01 22:05

This may or may not be the go first one, but when my strength of strategic is practicing generosity, like when that strength is at play, it looks like this. The factors that I'm considering in the decision, I didn't generate. Like I didn't say these were the important factors, these were the three most important elements we have to decide. I've actually asked other people, what are you thinking? What are you seeing? Where do you think we should go? And I may have one input of five, but that's how my strength of strategic is generous. I do not bring the five elements to decide on. I ask for most of them, and maybe I bring one.

SPEAKER_02 22:47

That's actually, I think that's a great place to start, and I'm gonna keep that in there because it reminds me not to butt in front of you, Linda, but it reminds me of um so I think in a similar way, when my perhaps strengths of ideation, adaptability, and maybe maximizer are most generous, it's the same thing. It's not me coming and saying, these are my ideas, these are the best ideas, we have to do them. I was recently, I'm kind of in the middle of it still, helping with something with my son's school, and someone basically said, I need to do this certain thing. It seems like you might be able to help me. And I was like, Oh, we could do this, this, this, or this. And presented some different ideas, and like, oh, I think number two is the one I want to go with. And so then, you know, went down that rabbit hole and it was very just kind of generous with my, this is gonna sound like I'm bragging, but just very generous with my time and and really generous to where they wanted to go. So as they would say, I want to pivot more to the left on this thing, I would go that way. And they would say, I need to go a little bit more to the right, I would go that way. And it was more fun than had I just sort of plowed through with this is my idea all the way to the end. It seems like we ended at a really good solution for this thing we were working on. Um, and now I'm getting feedback from other people and on this little committee, like, oh, this is cool, this is great. And I was like, Yeah, well, I technically did a bunch of the work, but it was her idea, it was his idea, it was their idea that kind of helped us get there. So I think when my I'll just use ideation is really greedy, it's when it's when I think that my ideas are the only ideas and the best ideas. And if you suggest a different idea that I didn't come up with, then you are a terrible human being. And I know that you guys have never seen that side of me ever in the last 12 years that we've been working together. So thank you for not commenting either way on my story.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

That's why I leaned really far back from the microphone during that whole video.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

I can still see you.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

No, but even that no, but that example that you shared, I've seen that time and again over the last 20 years. Thank you. No, really.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

That's true. We've known each other a little bit longer than that, haven't we? Yeah. Yeah. Well, what about you, Linda? Do you have a ready example?

SPEAKER_00 24:56

Yeah, I think when someone experiences my generosity, they experience me seeing them as an individual, seeing them uniquely, yes, and being willing to bend and flex to kind of whatever's happening in the moment. So I point to my individualization and my adaptability. And so I'll just kind of swoop into this space. Um, and then it's kind of this expectation that we share, you know, like I'll share a little bit, then you share a little bit, and then we'll see kind of where it goes with my adaptability, maybe similar to yours, Nathan. Like I don't, you know, sometimes I'll guide it with my strategic, but other times it is just this free flow that generates generosity. And and so I've always learned, and maybe this was from my parents, but I learned to be generous with my story. Um, you know, just share who you are, even the hard things, people will be able to connect to that, to relate to that. And then I think people also see that they are they are noticed, they are they are seen, uh, and rarely exposed. I try to channel those, especially, you know, when we're when we're trying to connect on Zoom.

SPEAKER_02 26:14

Knowing you as long as I have, I think that individualization and adaptability, I've seen you do that uh with me personally, of kind of what do you need, how do we need to kind of best fit your your current situation, your strengths, your whatever. I've seen you do that with uh employees and team members, people above you, below you, in a couple different different from leadership vision work contexts I've seen you in. You know, integrity is not one of our values because it feels like that's just like it should be an automatic for everyone. But I I've it's a given. So I've seen you be generous with that in in multiple contexts, I think is what I'm saying. And so I I feel like that's not only true for me personally, but just again, what I've observed externally. So uh please keep doing that.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

Thank you. Well, and and I think it was something I learned. It you know, it was it was the shaping of a very generous set of parents. And it was just like that's just what we do. We share, we give, we're present, we love, and to feel the ripples of that, I almost feel the weight of continuing that legacy. So thank you for for saying that.

SPEAKER_02 27:29

Yeah. Well, and Brian, I was I was gonna say with yours too, I think some of our best ideas as a company haven't I gotta be careful here. Ooh haven't come directly from you, but what you've done is been able to take and synthesize and mash together like a bunch of pretty good ideas to make the best idea, if you will. And so I think that's maybe why you and I both work well and sometimes don't work well together, is in that like when it's really good, that's kind of what you're doing. It's like, Brian, let me dump out this bucket of ideas I have on the table, and you're like, uh, these 914 are not gonna work. Let's focus on these six. And that's like, oh, okay, I can do that, and then go forward.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

So and that's the experience of what my connectedness does. Sure. Because I'm looking for what's meaningful or what things can connect together to create something that you didn't bring in in the first place. So it's putting those two things together, it's the mixing of the colors that that creates something. I don't mind that process. It's challenging because I'm having to connect things that are new and foreign, but I'm also attracted to that. As I'm hearing all three of us give examples, one of the realizations I'm having is that strengths see the opportunity. And so how we show up to the opportunity that can be an expression of value or not. And so we engage a strength to express a value. Or we can just engage a strength, I don't care. But when it comes to a value, because like you're saying, my ideation sees this, my strategic sees a decision, you know, your individualization sees a person, but then how we show up, that's the expression of value. Because it's then saying, you know, that these ideas may or may not work, but here's some ideas for you to work with. What are your ideas on what the best decision is? You know, what uniquenesses do you think you bring? So it's that sense of you're setting yourself up to be able to express value, but it's after strengths trigger something in you. That's why I think that our work is so important because the language of strengths helps us understand as individuals when we are neurologically triggered to be engaged, to give, to connect to people, and that I think is just so important. Then the question is how? And values help us express ourselves to other people in a value-driven, generative way.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Thank you for listening to the Leadership Vision Podcast where we share our expertise in the discovery, practice, and implementation of a strengths-based approach to people, teams, and culture. For more resources about developing your strengths, the strengths of your team, or the strengths of your entire organization, visit us on the web at Leadership Vision Consulting.com. If you found value from this episode, we'd appreciate it if you would subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and a host of others. Please share this podcast and our other resources with anyone you think would benefit from going deeper into our strengths-based approach to individual, team, and organizational development. I'm Nathan Freeberg, and on behalf of our entire team, thanks for listening.