Recruit people with the right talents ‘that match the job’

Every person has talent; the secret is discovering what it is and learning the best way to put it into action, according to a consultant with the Gallup Organization.
   
“We use the word ‘talent’ in a celebrity kind of way,” said Dennis Hatfield, a former American Baptist pastor and now leadership consultant for Gallup. Hatfield was among the speakers at the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s Shepherding the Shepherd conference for pastors.
   
“What Gallup believes, and what all of our research validates, is that every single human being is talented,” he said.
   
Theologically speaking, “God shapes us with the talent He would have us to have as He sends us into the world,” Hatfield said. “We lack nothing for the purpose to which Christ has called us.”
   
Too often, however, businesses and churches try to recruit square pegs to do round-hole jobs. “If my talent doesn’t make it go in this situation, it doesn’t mean I’m not talented, second-class or inferior,” Hatfield said. “It means I’m in the wrong darn place, and that can happen to anybody.”
   
Leaders should be about the business of recruiting people with strengths that match the job and then helping them develop their talent even more, he said.
   
“Human beings get an intrinsic satisfaction from using our talents,” Hatfield said. “What that means is, if you can see what a person’s talent is and position them so that the outcome you want fits with their talent, you don’t have to make them do it. You don’t have to police them.”
   
Churches should realize that no single leader has every strength, he added. “Almost no one sees both the forest and every individual tree.”
   
Hatfield encouraged pastors to quit focusing on their weaknesses and start building on their strengths.
   
He noted that society puts pressure on people to improve areas of weakness. “Gallup sees that essentially as a waste of time. We talk about managing weaknesses, which basically means if you find the sand in the foundation of your life, don’t build the tower there. Let someone else do the things you’re not good at.” (ABP)