February 11, 2002
Gallup official urges church not to put square pegs in round holes
___By David Winfrey
___Kentucky Western Recorder
___LEXINGTON, Ky. (ABP) --Every person has talent. The secret is discovering what it is and learning the best way to put it into action, according to a Gallup Poll consultant.
___"We use the word 'talent' in a celebrity kind of way," explained Dennis Hatfield, a former American Baptist pastor and now leadership consultant for Gallup. Hatfield spoke at a statewide conference for Baptist pastors in Kentucky.
___"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. 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, he warned. "If my talent doesn't make it go in this situation, it doesn't mean I'm not talented, second-class or inferior. It means I'm in the wrong darn place, and that can happen to anybody."
___Leaders should recruit people with strengths that match the job and then help them develop their talent even more, Hatfield suggested.
___"Human beings get an intrinsic satisfaction from using our talents," he 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."
___Organizations, including 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.
___"Your best way to lead is your best way to lead," he asserted. "If God wanted you to be Moses, you would have been, and you'd be really old right now."
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