Generosity will earn your respect in your work
A generous colleague is always appreciated and respected. If you take the time and effort to understand the challenges your colleagues are facing, and support THEIR success, you will be the most valuable player … guaranteed.
Generosity will make you a better teammate
Generosity is the core value of teamwork. If you understand how it works, and apply it to your work life projects and responsibilities consistently and sincerely you will be amazed by your own successes. Remember generosity profits the giver as much or more than the recipient.
“Not everything that counts can be counted.” Einstein said that. I think he was thinking of generosity!Claire Gaudiani
Generosity will make you a better leader
When you have an opportunity to lead, think in terms of making those colleagues who report to you successful. You will benefit from their success… guaranteed. When you have an opportunity to share what you know, seek to understand the learner first and shape your “lessons” accordingly.
I have tried to apply a generous spirit in my workplaces. I have been fortunate to be entrusted with opportunities to lead in higher education and elsewhere. Here are some of my thoughts on how I tried to do my best: Vision, Lemon Spritzers, and Saying Thank You: A New Job Description for College Presidents.
More of Claire’s writings on generosity and leadership:
- Developing a Vision
A framework is given for setting the vision of new leadership during the first two years of the presidency, with time frames and tasks to engage the community in its future.
- A Decade of Achievement at Connecticut College
During the last decade we learned to embrace the role of planning. . .and that not only made us better at planning, it made us much better at dreaming.
- Confessions of a 35-Year-Old Middle Linebacker
An Essay from the Chronical of Higher Education.
Generosity will make you a better teacher
Everyone is a teacher. Whether for a child, a partner or a friend, we all help others to learn by sharing what we know. Doing so in a generous way is guaranteed to be effective! I spent years in classrooms and tried to practice generosity with my students. I have written about how I tried in the articles below:
More of Claire’s writings on generosity and teaching:
- Learning To Serve, Serving To Learn
The discipline of service learning can be applied to all areas of study, and creates an environment where both faculty and students learn.
- The Participatory Classroom
This model builds in opportunities for students to participate in teaching, evaluating, and goal-setting.
- Literature, Service and Social Reflection – CS215
Dr. Claire Gaudiani ’66 – Spring 1999 SYLLABUS
