'The Skill Gap Holding Many Believers Back' Dr David Yarnes
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
There is a strong need in the world for continual overall development, including the development of skills. Skill development can often be overlooked in the church, but this concept became clear to me while I was pursuing one of my most ambitious professional goals.A partner and I had just finished the construction of a new hotel which was part of a major hotel chain.
Though I was generally familiar with management, I was new to the hotel business and unfamiliar with managing a hotel. I worked to learn every detail of the architecture and construction, but as the opening approached, staffing became one of my biggest challenges.Our job market lacked the surplus of people needed for all the positions.
My ambitious goal was to win the coveted Hotel Quality Excellence Award. Not only is this award prestigious in the industry, it is also very difficult to achieve. There is peer-to-peer measuring with hotels, and there are continuous customer surveys. I was not only focused on opening a profitable hotel, but also winning this award. My aim was to hire a staff that would help us achieve this award-winning status.
One night, as I combed over the holes in our personnel plan, I came up with what I thought was an excellent idea. I had no idea this would turn out disastrous.
I began soliciting potential applicants from the growing number of pastors, missionaries, and church workers I knew in the area. I thought, “Who better to promote excellence than some of the areas’ top spiritual leaders?”I could not have been more wrong.I began holding interviews, reviewing resumes, and filling our roster with some of the most significant spiritual men and women in our area. As the selection process moved to the training phase, several things began to alarm me.
There were a great deal of people showing up late for the meetings. The breaks and lunch hours, although filled with Bible studies and prayer, began to run past their allotted time. The detailed reporting necessary to run a quality hotel operation was slipshod at best.
When I began to meet with my new hires to review their performance, they were all very sensitive and attentive but somehow did not get the point.We all had to work hard to achieve our goal. One night, after reviewing our failing progress, in desperation I sat down and combed through our personnel files and key performance indicators. Almost invariably the men and women I had chosen solely based on their “spiritual aptitude” were performing poorly.I want to state this clearly—I don’t feel they had bad character or were in any manner deceitful or trying to shortchange me in their work.
They just, without exception, lacked the needed skill and self-development required for their positions. Their skillsets were largely formed around interpersonal interaction, counseling, and public speaking.Their self-development lacked the depth, training, and experience necessary to manage and motivate other team members. Many had been working their entire lives on their own, or in groups of two or three. Now they were part of a sixty-member, close-knit, high-performance organization.I knew what I had to do, but it was difficult.
One by one, I sought replacements. Searching primarily for those who had high skill, and secondly for those that possessed team development and management experience. One by one, almost without exception, I had to let go of all my closest Christian colleagues.
The men and women I hired instead were highly skilled professionals who knew how to function as a team, though I knew half of them had never attended a church, and those who did, I would not have put behind a pulpit. With this new team, the hotel began running smoothly and really serving with the excellence I was seeking.
Our team went on to win the Quality Excellence Award for hotel management two out of the five years I was actively managing it.This experience taught me a lesson I have never forgotten: spirituality alone does not replace the need for growth, discipline, skill, and continual development.God desires excellence in every area of life. Passion, sincerity, and good intentions are important, but they must be practically strengthened if we are going to lead effectively.Development requires intentionality.
God Bless,
Dr. Dave Yarnes
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