By Cathie Cowie and Rhonda Kline
One of the great challenges facing the Christian workplace is identifying, developing, and retaining future talent. To attract and sustain a strong workforce, ministries must develop an organizational work culture that creates, nurtures, and measures intentional development experiences for high-potential individuals and teams.
By developing people through intentional experiences, you move them from theoretical training to hands-on work and team assignments that allow learning to be practiced, measured, and sustained. A work culture that embraces new developmental experiences sets leaders free to direct someone, in a purposed way, to a specific work and team experience. This transcends barriers created by job descriptions and traditional organizational models. Jobs remain intact while innovative work experiences expand talent development opportunities throughout the organization. A ministry that embraces intentional developmental experiences can attract, develop, and retain great people.
The biblical model (intentional development)
The Bible offers stellar examples of people assigned to complex projects that required unique solutions, or that placed them in circumstances that stretched them beyond their current experience. Within ministries, we should use such biblical models to help us accomplish our missions.
Authentic talent development in Christian ministries should be systematic and deliberate, applying sound and intentional human development systems that support our Christ-centered ministry efforts.
Experience-based model (experiential exposure)
This model allows employees to gain exposure to various career experiences that transcend their precise job descriptions. In almost all experience-based employee development models, you can provide new experiential development for employees without creating new job descriptions. The exception is when the experiential learning opportunities involve long-term job rotations.
In this experience-based model of employee development, all assignments must be clarified in writing and employee performance must be carefully measured. There can be no success if these developmental experiences are superficial, unsupervised, unmeasured, or lack accountability for specific mission-directed outcomes.
The best experience-based models for developing employee talent are highly structured and offer performance accountability. They include talent development opportunities such as:
Rotational assignments
A rotational program gives broader work opportunities for high-potential employees and provides experience and visibility needed to advance their careers. Organizations benefit from silo reduction and the spread of best practices. These assignments may involve temporary or long-term job responsibility changes.
Cross-functional assignments
Cross-functional assignments involve working on a designated project outside of one’s own division or department to yield specific results for the ministry. Individuals are selected out of a division, department, work unit, or team based on potential, skill, talent, expertise, and knowledge that will support the team and help it to achieve results.
Crisis intervention assignments
These occur when a unique team is developed to address a crisis within the organization, such as problem arising in a particular ministry or program. The skills of individual team members allow them to meet an organizational need quickly and competently, often in diverse and difficult circumstances.
Problem solving assignments
Problem solving teams can bring together staff, donors, and even suppliers (vendors) who work together to improve a workflow, process, or initiative.
Task force assignments
A task force, often multidisciplinary, is established to work on one defined task or activity.
Fixing "something” assignments
The assignments include a very specific task for an individual or team, to bring a specific solution to an organizational barrier or "stuck” problem.
Stretch assignments
Stretch assignments involve managing or coordinating a significantly larger scope of responsibility or assignment than someone would normally experience, and are usually short-term. Such stretch assignments allow individuals to be pushed beyond normal expectations, and achieve extraordinary results. In most cases, this standard of high performance will continue in the individual’s primary role.
Hot teams
These are multidisciplinary teams run by the most skilled team leaders throughout the organization, assigned to examine a process or workflow end-to-end.
Brainstorming sessions or retreats
Not all of these sessions have to be off-site. In fact, bringing them within ministry walls often spurs creative processes and memories. This helps to institutionalize brainstorming as a cultural value within your organization.
Deep-dive coaching models
Biblical models for developing talent involve deep and authentic relationships. A talent development model known as "deep-dive executive coaching” works in the same way. These executive coaching experiences allow spiritual formation and emotional intelligence to overlap. Interactions are based on an authentic, spiritually developed focus on self and others.
An executive coaching process, timed strategically in a ministry professional’s career, can mark the difference between becoming an average performer or an outstanding performer. Even a professional who has excelled in his or her craft has the opportunity to learn softer executive skills such as emotional intelligence and strategic communication (understanding flow and nuance); how to influence and leverage, manage a team, work with executive level leaders, read and support a room, and participate intentionally at optimum levels of effectiveness. Deep-dive coaching models are best designed as custom individualized models rather than a broad-brush template.
The deeper and more accurate the self-understanding, the more capable one is of achieving accurate self-awareness and interpersonal intelligence that allows for effective participation in organizational life.
The coaching plan
Every great coaching plan should include assessment. This involves measurement through dialogues, surveys, testing, or 360-degree feedback. Such data allows an assessor to illuminate areas of performance or highlight gaps in skills. Based on that analysis, you can set realistic and measurable goals. This individualized coaching plan is a carry-along tool that helps an executive to refresh awareness, reinforce self-understanding, and monitor personal accountability.
Assessment and executive coaching processes that culminate in an individualized coaching plan are the keys to starting, encouraging, and sustaining a leader’s growth. A comprehensive coaching model for your employees includes assessment (through various tools and instruments, otherwise known as diagnostics), executive coaching, and a working coaching plan that is individualized to one’s professional development objectives. The coaching plan is the individual’s "developmental dashboard.” It includes measurements that track and monitor success and desired long-range outcomes.
Performance evaluation
Implementing an effective, well-designed, organization-wide performance evaluation program is vital. Evaluation systems should be based on positive and challenging communication. Staff evaluations must be effectively processed to inspire consistent optimum performance in all jobs. It is unproductive to build innovative work experiences within an organization that does not have established and competent evaluation systems in place.
Many ministries have hedged for years on becoming successful in performance evaluations. Your people should know where they stand on every level of identified performance criteria. This allows them to perform their work in an informed, inspired, humble, connected, and prayerful manner. Organizations will never become all they can be if performance measurement is inaccurate, rushed, or inconsistent.
Metrics: Successful talent development experiences are measured!
In addition to traditional performance evaluations, it is important to implement evaluation programs for short-term, experiential-based development opportunities. You should clearly define the desired objectives for these experiential opportunities, no matter how temporary they may be, and performance needs to be evaluated on that basis. Random and poorly designed human development experiences can bring heartbreak to individuals and the organization.
Ministries must develop and use objective and comprehensive metrics for talent identification and assessment. This provides confidence that talent pools are deep and broad. We must implement all facets of leadership development measurement. This includes integrating the spiritual maturity and professional skills, and interpersonal emotional intelligence skills, which are necessary for success at every level. Every ministry can develop systems and corresponding tools that link talent development with optimum organizational strategies.
The gift
For busy ministry leaders, implementing intentional experiential development for your employees can sound overwhelming. Yet you must remember that a Christian organization, no matter its size, is either randomly living out the day-to-day accomplishment of tasks across multiple disciplines, or is strategically implementing well-orchestrated systems that support the intentional development of high-potential individuals and teams. It is your choice. But one thing is certain: If we cultivate our people well, we will then be equipped to more readily follow God’s lead and train our ministries to accomplish kingdom goals.
Cathie Cowie and Rhonda Kline will lead a full-day intensive training session entitled "Human Resources 101: Eight Pillars of a Sound HR Program” during the 2011 Christian Leadership Alliance National Conference in Dallas, April 26-28 (
claconference.org). Visit alston-kline.com to learn more.
