Aspiring to Leadership

Before Paul presented his qualifications for leaders, he encouraged Christians to desire leadership: “This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.”(1 Timothy 3:1). Providing a climate where people feel free and motivated to cultivate and implement constructive ideas is the challenge of talented leaders. Those who succeed in selling good ideas to others win financially, gain power, and assume a leadership role themselves. In this passage Paul is stating that if a man desires the pastoral office and from love of Christ was ready to deny himself and undergo hardships by devoting himself to that service, he sought to be employed in a good work, and his desire should be approved, provided he was qualified for the office. “To optimize an organization’s ability to achieve sustained excellence, it must recognize the need for proactive talent management and have a systematic way of accomplishing the activity.”

Paul applies talent management later in the letter when he urges Timothy to accept his call to leadership. “Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.” (1 Timothy 4:14). As someone once said, “A company without money can always borrow it, but a company without leadership is bankrupt.” This sense of urgency is Paul’s talent management tool – he had to get Timothy engaged. “Explaining, asking, and involving are at the heart of engaging people in your business, but the causes of, and contributors to, engagement go deeper than that. Ultimately you engage to get performance…”

Berger, Lance A. and Berger, Dorothy R. (2004). The Talent Management Handbook: Creating Organizational Excellence By Identifying, Developing, and Promoting Your Best People. New York, New York: McGraw-Hill Professional.

Gubman, Edward L. (1998). Talent Solution: Aligning Strategy & People to Achieve Extraordinary Results. Blacklick, Ohio: McGraw-Hill Professional Book Group.

Holy Bible. (1997). King James Version. Grand Raids, Michgan: Zondervan Publishing.