Nurturing organisational talent

in launching our boat and thereafter he would sit under the shade the whole day waiting for us to come back.
He could not afford a proper fishing rod, neither was he courageous enough to ask us for one.
On one of our trips, just before we launched the boat, Alan requested his gardener to come with us into the dam. Alan offered him one of his rods and he joined us in fishing. I noticed the gardener had a natural flair for hunting.
This marked the beginning of our partnership with the gardener. After a few outings the gardener was out performing both of us in getting good bites and ultimately in catching fish. On average he catches four times as much of our combined catch.
This is one example of many talents out there, which can lay dormant until someone decided to assist to bring it out. The issue of unexploited talent lying dormant out there covers a broad spectrum of our society.
There is a lot of talent going to waste in our churches, various sporting disciplines, our political arena and our companies.
In her song “We Must Work While It Is Day” Mai Charamba laments that our graveyards are full of talent, which has never been exploited. The issue of unexploited talent is quite evident in our own community church.
We have an excellent choir but once in a while, when the choir is away, there are other exceptional singers who emerge in the congregation just for a day.
Their voices are so good that one wonders why they are not part of the choir. At times I imagine what our choir would be like if the choirmaster tapped into these talents.
One parishioner told me that I must not limit my observation to the singers only.
The parishioner told me that the church has a lot of people who are gifted in healing, prophecy, preaching, organising, leading and praying. Could this be a fulfilment of Jesus’ words that “no prophet is accepted in his hometown?” (Luke 4v24).
The church, like many organisations does not seem to create a conducive environment, which will enable the talent to emerge and flourish, in particular homegrown talent.
Some companies are beginning to give titles to their senior managers such as talent search managers which is an acknowledgement that there is need to search for talent within organisations.
Scouting for talent is one thing and using the talent identified is another thing.
In the sporting arena we have talented players and players with developed skill.
Most of the soccer wizards I interacted with during my days at high school never made it to recognised soccer leagues in Zimbabwe for one reason or another.
It appears that in most cases some average, dedicated and disciplined players made it to the top leagues. For example Norman Mapeza, a national team legend and current national team coach, did not play football at high school but is the first and only local soccer player so far who has played in the European Champions League.
This is the category of players who are known to have developed skill. Developing skill is attained by practising a particular skill on a sustained basis until the player is good at it.
The theory says the more you practise a certain skill, the more likely it becomes easier to execute the desired skill.
In the long run it becomes natural when executing a particular skill. Most sports scientists argue that a person who keeps sharpening his skill will become better than the one who is talented but does not regularly practise. Talent on its own is not good enough. Talent without hard work is not good enough to sustain the one who has the talent.
The strength of the talented is that the skill is natural but without working hard or without zeal to improve the skill, the talented person will not do much.
Talent is given as a head start and positive training attitude will reinforce it.
An example is Ronaldinho vs Frank Lampard. The former is very talented but also into clubbing big time. The latter will dedicate an extra hour or so on extra practice after training with the team.
How do we nurture talent?
In my analysis of nurturing talent I am going to illustrate using the examples of Jesus Christ, Paul and Bruce Lee. Allow me then to start with Jesus Christ. The following illustrates the development path of Jesus Christ.
Luke 2v40 tells us that: “The child grew and became strong, he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.”
Luke 2v46-47 says: “After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among teachers, listening to them and asking questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.”
Mark 1v22 says: “The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teacher of law.”
Mark 1v26 reads: “The people were all so amazed that they asked each other. What is this? A new teaching – and with authority.”
The verses above illustrate that though Jesus was born talented (God given) he spent time sharpening his talent by learning from the teachers in the temple.
It is important to note that though the scribes (teachers) were talented, they did not amaze anyone because they did not work on their talent. The scribes (teachers) remained average people because they did not work on their talent. Jesus performed better than the scribes because he combined his talent with exposure to the best practices of the time.
We only started appreciating the talent in Alan’s gardener after exposing him to fishing.
Similarly, our talented singers in our community church should be exposed to singing so that their talent blossoms.
Two other important aspects coming out of these passages is that talent cannot be developed in isolation, and information sharing is crucial in the development of talent.
Bruce Lee is one of the most popular celebrities to emerge in the 1960s and 1970s.
He revolutionalised the world of martial arts through his teachings, philosophy and created a legacy for himself. He was a practitioner par excellence.
Bruce Lee’s career attracted a wide spectrum of the public such as bodybuilders, martial arts players, fitness trainers, the film production industry and film viewers all over the world.
He was a Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher and film director.
His cinematic success spawned a global industry of martial arts and schools opened and flourished worldwide.
During his life he won14 international awards and posthumously he won 37 awards. (http:www.allbrucelee.com/)