Catalyst Day One, Session Two

Catalyst Conference
Session #2: Marcus Buckingham
I just recently have become aware of the work of Marcus Buckingham. When I arrived at Bethlehem, one of the early things that I was asked to do was take the Clifton Strengths Finder from his book Now, Discover Your Strengths. (For the record, I scored as Restorative, Input, Intellection, Achiever and Connectedness.) And in my “To Read” pile is his book First, Break All the Rules.

The focus of Buckingham’s talk was focused on the idea of strengths. A great deal of what he talked about was the process of being a manager, which I took as being applicable to my work in helping volunteers discover their gifts and talents.

“The job of a manager is to turn one person’s talent into performance.”

“The best managers see small increments of growth in others.”

"Great managers find out what is unique about each person and capitalize on it."

Sharpen, refine, contribute.

Our people’s strengths are our greatest asset.

3 Myths:
1. As you grow, your personality changes
The truth is that you become more and more of who you are.
2. You grow the most in your weakest areas.
Areas of growth are really in the areas of our strengths.
3. What the team needs you do is to chip in at your weakest areas.

What I Took Away:
For me, it was a confirmation of the idea that I need to realize and focus on my strengths. My passion drives me to take the gifts that God has given me and to not focus so much on what I am not good at. In short, I cancelled my registration for the Dale Carnegie course on “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”

So what is the take home?
I have been praying that God will give me opportunities to use my gifts and strengths in a way that glorifies him. Secondarily, I want desperately to help people discover their strengths and free them up for ministry. I am learning that a major part of my task and call is to help people be who God has called them to be. Lots of people have occupations and I think God wants me to help people to discover their calls.