Some of you may have spotted, from a number of facebook posts, comments etc., that I have had the pleasure of attending a four day "Team Development" training course recently, a course which has included copious amounts of presentation skills, coaching skills, leadership skills and of course the pretty much mandatory "personality test" - the wonderful piece of pigeon-holing that is so beloved of trainers, HR professionals, and all those who want to try and turn the messy difficult world of people into something concrete!
In this case, the personality assessment in question was Belbin's Team Role Inventory, which does a reasonable job of assessing what each persons strengths and weaknesses are in a team context. In my case, the assessment identifies me as primarily a Monitor-Evaluator
"Monitor Evaluators are fair and logical observers and judges of what is going on in the team. Since they are good at detaching themselves from bias, they are often the ones to see all available options with the greatest clarity and impartiality. They take a broad view when problem-solving, and by moving slowly and analytically, will almost always come to the right decision. However, they can become very critical, damping enthusiasm for anything without logical grounds, and they have a hard time inspiring themselves or others to be passionate about their work."
People who know me well will probably recognise me in there -- it does seem pretty appropriate to me. And there's a lot of things in there I don't mind being true about me. But when I get to the "very critical, damping enthusiams for anything" bit, that makes me squirm a little... because actually, I don't think that's the way God wants any of us to be.
The problem is, I am like that at times. I know it, I recognise its a problem, and too often I catch myself saying something I don't really want to say - something which is almost definately "true", but something which, in what I've said, and perhaps more importantly the way I've said it, suddenly I've just shot down someone's big idea, destroying their hope, their dream, their vision.... and when I realise thats what I've done, then I feel pretty bad.
Often at the moment, before meetings I find myself asking God to help me only to speak if it is going to further his will - not just for the sake of making a point... asking him to guide my words, to use my skills and talents as a monitor-evaluator but in a way that is positive, beneficial helpful. So far its working, but I know that that's because I'm conscious of my failings, and because I'm relying on someone greater than me to help.
Today's title is (as they all are) from a U2 song - "Yahweh" - and the lyrics continue --
"Take This Mouth, So Quick to Criticise
Take This Mouth, Give it a Kiss!"
-- Lyrics which always remind me of Isaiah 6 and particularly verses 6 & 7 where Isaiah, wanting to be called and used by God, but recognising that his lips are unclean has his guilt and sin taken away by the touch of a coal from the temple of the Lord... my prayer is that my unclean mouth, my critical words, will equally be cleansed and made useful and acceptable to him...
No comments:
Post a Comment