Time And Talent Management

CORE PRACTICE #94: Consider what only you can do when deciding where to volunteer or what causes to support.

Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith. —Galatians 6:10

TONY

Tom Lamphere, chaplain of the Minnesota Vikings, is a close friend of mine and has played a special role as a counselor for me ever since I coached in Minnesota in the early 1990s. Among many words of wisdom he has provided, he made the point that while there are plenty of things I could do to help people, many of those could be done just as well by someone else.

That’s true for all of us.

God has given us all different gifts and put us in different positions to help other people and organizations. The key to maximizing our impact is to focus on helping in those areas that mesh with our particular gifts.

For example, I have always enjoyed public speaking, and coaching helped me develop that skill, so speaking engagements have seemed like a good use of my gifts. I can use a hammer, but it’s not my strong suit. So taking a day to build homes with Habitat for Humanity might be noble, but it probably wouldn’t be too productive. In fact, it might take more people to undo the damage I would cause. At the same time, however, I can’t possibly accept every speaking engagement I’m offered.

At each stop in my career, Lauren and I tried to discern how I could maximize my impact while still maintaining sufficient time for my responsibilities as an employee, father, and husband.

It wasn’t easy because there were so many great charitable organizations that we could support. Every organization that has reached out to me is striving to make a positive impact and has participants who passionately believe in the mission.

After I retired from coaching, I had even more difficulty with this. I was excited to have more free time to volunteer, but after a year, Lauren sat me down. “Tony, we are in danger of seeing less of you than we did when you were coaching. All of these causes are wonderful, but you’re going to wear yourself out and shortchange your family as well.” And she was right. Her counsel was wise.

Just because I had more free time did not mean the two of us could be any less judicious in deciding which activities and organizations to assist. As Tom had told me eighteen years earlier, I still needed to figure out which things only I could do and which ones someone else could easily do as well as or better.

God wants us to give of our time, and I am not trying to discourage people from doing that. We’ve all seen how hard it can be to get volunteers for church or other charitable events. Ultimately, however, our primary focus should be on our faith and our family, and we have to understand that we’re not indispensable. If someone else is as well-equipped as we are to take on a task, we should think long and hard about letting that other person do it.

After all, the Lord of the universe is in control of it all!

Adventure Application: You and your spouse should be engaged in the world around you. But take a few minutes to take stock of both of your activities. Are you overcommitted? Are there things that you could let someone else do?