Written By: Kevin Brownlee, Strategic Advisor
Do you, or an employee seem disillusioned? Has the excitement, drive, and fervor left your job? Is it hard to keep good employees? If so, it could be because one of the three needed elements of job satisfaction and effective productivity are missing.
It takes three main ingredients to make beer: barley, hops, and water. If one of those are missing, and you take a sip expecting good beer, well, it would be very frustrating or disappointing. Similarly, if you or an employee are missing one of the three main “ingredients” of talent, gifts, or drive, the results are probably not what either of you are expecting.
Let’s briefly look a little further at those three ingredients:
Talents. We are all good at some things, and not good at other things (hopefully we know the difference). God “wired” each of us to do some things very well to help others and to work effectively to produce products, enhance life, or support those who do. Matthew 25 tells about two out of three guys who used their talents to give their employer a return on investment and were greatly rewarded, however, the third didn’t and was dealt with severely.
Gifts. Different than talents, these are God-given traits or values, and to some degree, include gifts (1 Corinthians 7:7) to specifically help people God loves. Gifts could be the realization of a need, and you know how to fill that perceived need. It is something God puts on your heart and equips you to carry that out. It could be as simple as encouraging other employees around you, or as large as manufacturing inexpensive water purification equipment to send with missionaries to give to families in impoverished countries.
Drive. Those inner burning desires to do or accomplish something. To some, it’s just to be the best at something, but also the need to provide for family and have something to give to those in need. However, it could (or maybe should) be much more than that. This is the excitement you get when you realize you are good at something (talent) and found a cause you want to support (gifts), and want to put those to use. Maybe it’s a goal in life you want to accomplish, hopefully, something God would be pleased with. Psalm 37:4 says God will give you the desires of your heart if you delight in Him.
You can probably see if a person has two of those but not the third, they can work OK for a little while, but soon frustration, apathy, and low productivity occurs, usually resulting in lower-income, and employee turnover.
Agora Strategic Consulting can help you figure out what are the talents, gifts, and drive in your life, the lives of your employees, and get this…your company too! We can even help gain the third where only two occur! Contact us today so an Agora Strategic Advisor can to meet with you over coffee to see if we can help.