Working In Your Strengths: Part 1
Posted on 13 August 2011
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about working in my strengths. Like many of you techs, I probably have many strengths that pertain to the tech world. For me, the two at the top are 1) being a good trouble shooter, and 2) being a people person/ people encourager. Both of those have served me well over my career in tech and life in general. I am also a dreamer, creator, and builder. And, even though I am often sarcastic and dark, deep down I am actually an optimist, a “glass half full” kind of guy.
The last two years has been tough on everyone, while I have my views on economics, politics, and faith during hard times, I will save those for another (or several) post. Everyone has been effected, and those of us on church staffs are no exception. Like any company a church has bills to pay and mouths to feed, that’s just the fact. Economic down turn = people having less money = giving goes down = church budget gets cut = layoffs….. well you all know the drill.
I can’t tell you how many TD’s I have spoken to that have seen their church go through this very thing. Those blessed enough to survive the carnage have had to take on multiple responsibilities, like becoming the Communications Director, the I.T. Director, the building Maintenance Supervisor, and even Worship Leader (and I’m not kidding about that one). While it’s great to keep your job in these trying times, it can be overwhelming, tiring, and even depressing. It can make you question your calling and your sanity.
One of the major things our new Executive Pastor has focused on in the last eight months is to help our staff get back to doing what we were all hired to do, or at least what our strengths are. Oddly enough, I think it has been a more difficult process that he expected. Though I think all of us want to let the jobs that we don’t like and are not good at go, it sometimes can be harder than we thought. I myself had to make a conscious decision to stop answering our “Help Desk” emails, even though we now have contracted an I.T. company to do that work.
Not working in your strengths can zap you mentally, physically, and worst of all, spiritually. I have only recently realized how exhausted to the core I am. Working against my grain has really taken a toll on me.
So what am I doing about it? Stay tuned for Part 2.
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