Generosity as a whole means different things to different people. To one person, it may mean giving money to charity. To another, it may be volunteering at a food bank. But what does it mean to be generous in your career?
For engineers, generosity in their careers can mean three things:
- Teaching others around them, even when not tasked to.
- Sharing ideas for improvements with the world or with your company.
- Marketing to push good ideas forward, or to stop bad ideas from happening.
The last item is what may seem the most confusing. Marketing? That’s generous?
Yes.
Marketing can be a generous act. When you bring together facts, figures, and stories, presenting them consistently to an audience that is willing to listen, you are being generous. Anybody can make a statement, and while it’s more generous than saying nothing, putting in effort to help others make a decision in their best interest is a generous act.
If you received a lukewarm response to an idea and it’s going to be a big benefit, don’t stop trying to convince the right people. Be generous. It may be that generosity is just the thing your career is missing.
