How to Discover and Develop Talent

The Parable of The Pounds (Luke 19:11-27) has two stories going on in it. The one we’re interested in has a master giving 1 pound each to 10 of his servants. The master is going on an extended trip and tells his servants to invest his money and when he gets back there will be an accounting to see how they did.

When he gets back we see only the results of three of the servants… the two most profitable ones and the guy who did the worst. The star of the class was the fellow who invested his pound and made 10 more pounds. The master was very happy with him and praised him and put him in charge of ten cities.

The second guy took his pound and made five more. The master put him in charge of five cities.

The last guy was governed by the fear of losing his investment principle and instead of investing it… hid it and preserved it for his master. The master was very unhappy with him and punished him by taking the pound away from him and giving it to his star performer.

How to Discover and Develop Talent.

1. People have to be given an opportunity to perform. In this story the master did not judge the abilities of his employees. He treated them all the same. They all started on the exact same footing and had the same opportunity.

2. When a responsibility is given to someone there has to be an accounting or evaluation process.

3. Finally, after the evaluation process those who have performed well need to be rewarded (positively reinforced) and those who have not performed well must be reprimanded (negatively reinforced).

The master gave opportunity to 10 of his employees and discovered a really high performing individual who he groomed to be even better. He also discovered an employee who was a disaster.

This may sound like advice on how to run a business but it is really about God’s people and the Church.