Last week’s article expressed the importance of recognizing that every organization’s success depends on the generosity of its employees. Every organization has employees that make decisions every day about whether to be givers or takers.
To continue this topic, we return to the study done by Stanford University on givers and takers in organizations. The least productive workers in this study were givers—workers who had done many more favors for others than they had received. But when Flynn turned his spotlight on the top-producing workers, he found that they, too, were givers who did more favors than they received. Those in the middle were the takers. The successful givers produced 50% more annual revenue, on average, than colleagues who focused less on helping others (takers).
Three things were found that differentiated the top givers from the bottom givers. These three items need to be separated from generosity in the minds of givers. Managers: Below are some tips to assist direct reports in order to be more effective givers:
- Timidity—generous people tend to not ask for help on their own behalf. But they will advocate for others. Managers: help givers to overcome timidity by becoming agents for others.
- Availability---givers tend to drop everything when anyone asks for a favor and then their own productivity suffers. Managers: Help givers carve out time and space for uninterrupted work.
- Empathy---givers can be easily swayed by emotional appeals for their assistance. Managers: Help givers to remove the emotional aspect from their decisions and to consider perspectives over feelings.
Givers are better positioned to succeed when they distinguish these three attributes---timidity, availability, and empathy—from generosity.
