We all benefit from generosity

I had an experience today that (no exaggeration) changed the course of my career. I talked, honestly, about the ups and downs of starting my own consultancy with a fellow consultant in a different tech sector than I normally swim in. This is a person that I don’t know very well but whose real leadership and humanity impressed and stuck with me for the last few years despite a fleeting interaction.

We didn’t have an agenda for our meeting— just a “hey, we should connect” as pretext (I’d been a panelist in a session he moderated a few years ago). But we both arrived at the meeting, having not talked one-on-one since our panel presentation pre-pandemic, each with a sincere compliment for each other that was similar at base… “you stick in memory as someone I respect more than our short interaction might otherwise merit which means it’s important to stay in touch.”

I found myself able to share with him candidly the fact that I’m having utter stage fright about sharing my voice in this new career role. Me, out from the mantle of Tessitura or “Chief of Product” or “builder of ecommerce for arts and culture” and into my new self-defined role… “helper of organizations achieve innovation greatness” (my ardent hope anyway).

And he said the most wonderful thing to me. He said, “The world needs plaid flannel shirt-wearing Kristin Darrow to share her voice and speak honestly and candidly about what she sees.”

He said a lot of other wise and uplifting things but this sentence really stuck with me. And he reiterated it again in an email response.

Here is a guy that doesn’t know me well but sees enough in a brief interaction to extend a genuine hand of kindness and curiosity and generosity… and a certain degree of vulnerability that business requires of sheer generosity.

So. This blog post is a sincere thank you to this wise and generous person (who I’m not naming because I never told him I’d blog about him)… not only for saying that wonderful affirmation of what my heart knows to be true (we ALL DESERVE A STAGE TO SHARE OUR MOST BRILLIANT SELVES IN WHATEVER SHIRT WE BLOODY WELL CHOOSE) but also a thank you for reminding me who I ardently hope to be for other people. Bringer of light. Bringer of humanity and generosity into business.

Flannel shirt wearing Kristin… signing off.