The 3 Gs

Editor’s note: Grit, Grace, and Giving was the focus for TANYA ARMOUR’s keynote talk at this summer’s WILMA’s Leadership Accelerator conference.

Armour, chief philanthropy officer for Novant Health Foundation, is a 2024 graduate of the WILMA Leadership Institute.

Below is an excerpt from her speech at Leadership Accelerator. For a recap of the event and conference photos, click here.

When I think about balancing my career in fund development and my family, you know it’s a challenge, but I know that I’ve been blessed to have the opportunity to work in a job that allows me to make a tremendous impact on the lives of others.

I’ve spent two-plus decades in fund development, working with connecting with donors who have a desire to connect their resources to causes that mean so much to them, that truly improve the lives of people in our community. But I’ve also spent a lifetime navigating the various roles that God has blessed me to be in, the role of daughter and sister, of wife and mother, professional, servant in my work and church, and as a friend.

And it’s not always a seamless juggle, right? …

But in all of those things, I’ve learned some really good lessons, lessons that help me to stay grounded and growing.

And I call them the three Gs.

The first is grace, and the second is grit, and the third is giving.

Grace is defined as an opportunity to express kindness and courtesy to people. And I offer grace to people often, but I really have a hard time doing it for myself. But what I’ve learned over time is that I have to give myself grace, to be present where God places me, and to grow where I’m planted, because I really believe that nothing happens by mistake.

Everything is intentional, and every opportunity, every place you find yourself, is an opportunity for you to grow and to learn, even when it’s fantastic, and also when it’s uncomfortable. …

When things don’t go your way, you might tend to be a little bit negative, but if you take a second to change your attitude, it might look a little bit different. I also think, ‘Okay, I’m in this tough situation, what skills can I build in this place that will make this situation better?’ Also, it might make me a little bit more marketable in another position.

So, what can I do? Are they skills like problem-solving? Are they skills like conflict resolution? What skills can you build to make the situation better? And then overall, what can I do to improve this? What am I bringing? So, our first instinct when things aren’t necessarily going our way, we want to be frustrated and complain, and I think we should give ourselves the grace to do that, but we don’t want to stay in that position too long. …

So, second G: grit – good old grit, good old resilience? We want to be able to bounce back when things happen. We want to be able to continue to move toward our goals. …

It’s an initiative that you want to do. It doesn’t exactly look like you want it to look. Execute it anyway and find out where things didn’t work so well. And then take a step back, refine it, and do it again. Keep moving towards your goal. Keep refining, keep getting better. That’s what life is all about. We can’t stay stuck in a place of failure, because that does not allow us to be progressive. …

Then our third G is giving. … So, the act of giving is an invisible thread in all of our lives. The word philanthropy means the love of humankind. So, when you give, you are acting upon that love because you want to make the human experience better. That’s why we give.

Caring about and nurturing human potential is not what we do when we become successful. It is how we become successful, because when we give, it multiplies in the lives of others. …

So, my encouragement to you today is grow gracefully in uncomfortable situations. Be resilient. Do not give in to stagnation. Keep moving forward. And give – give of your heart, give of your time.

Because every room that you walk into, each circumstance you find yourself in, is an opportunity to show up with grace, to press forward with purpose, and to give generously from the heart, because that, my friends, that is how we lead, that is how we live, and that’s how we leave a legacy.”

To view more of photographer Madeline Gray’s work, go to madelinegrayphoto.com.

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