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Every organization, not just non-profits, has vision, mission, values, and culture. Beth is back this week to discuss with Zach how those elements play out at Forerunner Mentoring and what it takes to develop your organization's vision, mission, values, and culture.
Show Notes
Every organization, not just non-profits, has vision, mission, values, and culture. Beth is back this week to discuss with Zach how those elements play out at Forerunner Mentoring and what it takes to develop your organization's vision, mission, values, and culture.
Purchase the You Can Mentor book:
You Can Mentor: How to Impact Your Community, Fulfill the Great Commission, and Break Generational Curses
youcanmentor.com
Purchase the You Can Mentor book:
You Can Mentor: How to Impact Your Community, Fulfill the Great Commission, and Break Generational Curses
youcanmentor.com
Creators and Guests
What is You Can Mentor: A Christian Youth Mentoring Podcast?
You Can Mentor is a network that equips and encourages mentors and mentoring leaders through resources and relationships to love God, love others, and make disciples in their own community. We want to see Christian mentors thrive.
We want to hear from you! Send any mentoring questions to hello@youcanmentor.com, and we'll answer them on our podcast. We want to help you become the best possible mentor you can be. Also, if you are a mentoring organization, church, or non-profit, connect with us to join our mentoring network or to be spotlighted on our show.
Please find out more at www.youcanmentor.com or find us on social media. You will find more resources on our website to help equip and encourage mentors. We have downloadable resources, cohort opportunities, and an opportunity to build relationships with other Christian mentoring leaders.
You can mentor is a podcast about the power of building relationships with kids from hard places in the name of Jesus. Every episode will help you overcome common mentoring obstacles and give you the confidence you need to invest in the lives of others. You can mentor.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the You Can Mentor podcast. Zach Garza here with my good friend, miss Beth Winter. Beth, say hi.
Speaker 3:Hey.
Speaker 2:Beth, what's going on with you? Give us a little update on life.
Speaker 3:Well, just cooking a lot. You know? Just got back in my house, back in my kitchen. So
Speaker 2:So why don't you tell the people at home what happened to your kitchen?
Speaker 3:About 3 months ago, we found out our kitchen was just riddled with mold. So and then rats came into the picture, and then roaches came into
Speaker 2:the picture. It's just been like World War 3 over there. Yeah.
Speaker 3:It was Armageddon over there.
Speaker 2:So you were, like, cooking all of your meals on
Speaker 3:The microwave Yeah. In the living room.
Speaker 2:So we're back. We we've got Beth here. She is feeling nourished and
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Feeling very cookie today.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah. I had salmon last night for dinner. So
Speaker 2:Sounds, sounds good. Sounds good. Alright. Well, today, we're talking about vision, mission, values, and priority outcomes. We're still on our leading and building and starting a mentoring organization.
Speaker 2:So if you have started a mentoring org or want to start 1, this is the podcast for you. And we're just gonna kinda talk about what what we do here at the nonprofit that we're involved with and why vision is important, why mission is important, why all of these things matter. So, Beth, tell us about those things.
Speaker 3:Which one do you want me to start with?
Speaker 2:Well, just kinda talk about just, like, a general here's why these things are good.
Speaker 3:Okay. Well, I think all of them are good because, really, in any job, like, I've talked to a lot of millennials who get into a job and they think, this is the this is the passions I have. This is what I'm gonna do for the rest of my life, and then they burn out. And it's because if you don't have a vision or, like, a something to anchor you to why you're doing what you're doing, eventually, like, all the perks and things will just become monotonous, and it won't matter to you anymore. But if you're anchored to something greater and you're looking forward to the future and you can, like, kind of take hold of, this is why I am showing up and doing this every day, it's gonna keep you there.
Speaker 3:It's gonna keep you going. So vision is the anchor.
Speaker 2:Yeah. For sure. I I kinda like to paint this picture of, you know, going on a vacation. All of us as a kid, I hope, went on a family vacation or 2. And what's what's the first thing you need to know when you're going on a vacation?
Speaker 3:Where are you going?
Speaker 2:Where are you going? Where are you going? And where you're going dictates everything else. It dictates what kind of transportation you're gonna have. It dictates what you're gonna pack.
Speaker 2:It dictates who you're going to invite.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Like, all of these things matter when it comes to deciding and figuring out what your ultimate goal is. Yeah. And that is what vision is. You know, it is talking about the future. It's talking about where you're going.
Speaker 2:It is long term. Right? And so, like, for us, it is to fill the potential of every young man in Lake Highlands growing up without a father. That is our vision statement. Like, that is, hey, in a perfect world, every kid would have a father at home teaching them how to be a man of God.
Speaker 2:That isn't happening and that is the issue and we're laser focused on that. Yeah. And this is the thing about vision is you can't just talk about vision once.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:But you have to talk about it over and over and over and over. So so I guess we're gonna start off talking about vision.
Speaker 3:Sounds great.
Speaker 2:So, like, tell us how we do vision here, and tell us what that looks like talking about it again and again and again.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I remember when when I started, I think it was, like, the first day of our training. We just talked about vision the whole time. And I'm a really practical person, and so there's a part of me that's like, alright. We got that.
Speaker 3:Let's move on to how do I do my job. But the longer I've been here, the more I've seen that is the most important part of the job is having the vision of why you're coming here, what we're doing. And so for us, we we we really talk about it every day. Like, it's it's plastered all over our walls. It's on our t shirts.
Speaker 3:Whenever we have conversations with our staff in prayer, it's it's brought up in everything that we do. Even just, like, in the community, in the last week or so, I've had people ask me, okay. What's the future of 4 Runner gonna look like? Are y'all gonna add girls? Are you gonna expand outside of the Lake Highlands community?
Speaker 3:And if we didn't have this vision of knowing this is what we're called to, it would be really easy to get off track and kind of detour and be like, oh, yeah. Maybe we should go this way. And so, like, with your driving or your vacation analogy, it would be really easy for us to end up, you know, in Tulsa when we were trying to go to Toledo or something. I don't even know where Toledo is.
Speaker 2:Yes. Tulsa, Toledo analogy. That's a good one. I understand.
Speaker 3:But but, really, like, we we talk about it all the time because I don't I don't remember the day that I memorized why we do what we do here, our vision, but I do. I know it, and it comes out in everything that we do.
Speaker 2:So Yeah. I was talking to someone a couple months ago, and we were talking about, me stepping down as executive director and trying to find a new guy or girl or woman. Excuse me. And one thing that they said was one of the most important things is they have to have to be able to promote vision. They have to be able to keep vision at the forefront.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Now, I think one thing that we need to specify is you don't have to come up with the vision.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:So like, there's people like me, you know, that's my number one strength is, futuristic. So I'm all about vision. I'm all about the future. It's pretty easy for me to come up with a vision. However, not all people are like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I'm not.
Speaker 2:But it's okay for someone to take someone else's vision. Yeah. So so you don't have to as a leader, you don't necessarily have to come up with a vision, but you do have to prioritize it. You do have to make sure that you are promoting it. And kind of like what Beth said, like we it's literally all over our offices.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. It's on our t shirts. Like, you can't go anywhere where we're at without seeing our vision. And so, like, fulfilling the potential of every young man in Lake Highlands where we serve growing up without a father figure, like, our job is done when that's done.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:So if your vision isn't complete, you've still got work to do. Yeah. Right? Yeah. So that is vision.
Speaker 2:It's talking about the future. It's talking about where you're going. It's super important. Someone once said, you you aren't talking about the vision enough if people aren't making fun of how often you talk about it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's like whenever they start to mock you, that's when you know that you're onto something good. Yeah. So next up, let's talk about mission. So if the vision is talking about the future, it's talking about where you're going. The mission is what you do to make that vision happen.
Speaker 2:It's it's the how are you going to get there. So for us, our vision is to fulfill the potential of every young man in the Highlands growing up without a father figure at home. Our mission is by providing mentoring, programming, and family support in the name of Jesus. So we have the where we're going, and we have the how we're gonna make that happen. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So talk to us about mission and and how that kinda plays a part in in your job.
Speaker 3:Well, this kind of comes into where I think my strengths enter the room because I'm a doer. And so if you can just tell me, like, sell me the story, Let me capture it. Let me let me see what you're painting. I'll be able to come in and be like, alright. This is how we're gonna do it.
Speaker 3:Like, we can get this done. And so which I think that's really cool that, like, I think the Lord sets up orgs for success to have, okay, here's this kind of person. We need one of them. This is their strengths, and then we also need this kind of person who's the executor kind of person. So
Speaker 2:Yeah. Which, like, that's why for those of you guys who don't know, we're super big on Gallup's strength finders. Mhmm. We're really big on the Enneagram Culture Index, Myers Briggs. I kind of feel like we have a ton of them.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But all of those give a little bit of insight into how a person is wired, what their personality is like, how they deal with providing a solution to different kinds of issues. And creating a team is a lot like creating a sports team. For those of you guys who know how to play the game of the game of basketball, if you've got a bunch of, if you've got a bunch of centers out there, well, your team's not going to be very good. Just like if you have a have have a bunch of point guards out there, your team won't be good.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. Playing football, you can't have 11 offensive linemen because different people need to execute different parts of
Speaker 3:The game.
Speaker 2:The strategy. Mhmm. And so that's like for me, I'm all about vision. But I know that because I'm all about vision, I'm not the best executor. So I surrounded myself with people like you, Beth, who do execute.
Speaker 2:So I can dream it. I can create the vision, but then the mission part is up to my executors. So I love that. Like, I I love that the Lord has created teams in such a way that we really do need each other.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So yeah. So going going from our mission, there's a book. It's called Vision Drift. I don't know who the author is, but it's an awesome book about how good quality nonprofits have, over the years, gone away from their vision and gone away from from how or the why they were founded. Right?
Speaker 3:Like,
Speaker 2:the institutions like that used to back in the fifties, back in the sixties used to be all about promoting Christ. Now they have drifted into just providing services. Mhmm. Right? So for us, one thing that we've learned, a way to help vision drift from happening to, make sure that we are aligned with God's call for us is to focus in on priority outcomes.
Speaker 2:So can you just kinda share with the people what is a priority outcome and why is it important?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Our well, a priority outcome are I think it should probably be less than, like, 5 things so that it's really focused, really clear. These are the things that if everyone that we serve in our program has these things, we've succeeded. And so it's like the win. What is the win?
Speaker 3:This is what we're aiming for. This is a bucket. So for us at 4 Runner Mentoring, we've come up with kind of 3 things that we wanna serve our families with. So every aspect of our program, we want to empower your son to meet his potential in 3 areas, relationships, education, and identity.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, like, why I love priority outcomes is just to make it super simple.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:If it's not if it doesn't have to do with this list, we're not doing it.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:So it's like, there are a 1,000 great things out there. Yeah. People have come up to us over the last, you know, couple years. Hey, Zach, you need to start a food bank. You need to start providing, you know, winter coats.
Speaker 2:You need to start a sports league. You need to do all of these awesome things. And I continuously say, hey, look, those are great things, but that's not our call. Yeah. Our call is to fulfill potential through relationships, education, and identity.
Speaker 2:If it doesn't have to do with those things, then someone else can go and do it. Yeah. Because we are super passionate about relationships. But there's someone out there who's just as passionate about building relationship through sports. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Or there's someone out there who's just as passionate about, you know, providing food. And so instead of us trying to do everything, let's find someone who like, that area is their heartbeat, and let's encourage them and let's spur them on and let's partner with them as they do their call. And so priority outcomes, the wins, the end goals, it's, we can put this up on our wall, which this these are up on our wall. And it's like, whenever we're in a meeting, and we're like, hey, how about we do this? We can point to that poster and say, does it have to do with relationships?
Speaker 2:Does it have to do with education? Does it have to do with identity? If the answer is no, we don't even have to talk about it. Yeah. Because it's not our job.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's someone else's job. Now we can go connect. We can go partner. We can go support, but we don't have to do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And I think why I love priority outcomes is it kinda it kinda is a boundary. Like, that's not our weight to carry.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:That's not our call. Hey, I don't need to do everything for our kids. God has provided us with a community and with people who can help.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And so I just love these, like, priority outcomes. It is for our own good. Mhmm. It keeps us focused. It keeps us doing what we're passionate about.
Speaker 2:And, ultimately, it really helps us stay in the call that God has for us. Mhmm. So why don't you go through these and just kinda explain them out? Explain relationships, what we mean by that, education, and identity.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So, like, going back to our mission, our end goals go into our mission. And so in our mentoring, we want there to be relationships, education, identity. In our programming, we want that. In our family support, we want that.
Speaker 3:So relationships, the things that we're looking for is how can we help this kid, this mom, our people build a relationship with Jesus, with mentors, with their peers, and with their family. We want them to be healthy relationships, positive relationships, and so we're not checking that off of, oh, that's a win unless it's like, this is a good thing. This is a good relationship. Education. So this one is, I think, one where you can really get in over your head really quick if you don't have clear vision on what this means.
Speaker 3:And so for us, what we mean by education is we provide homework help through tutoring, literacy enrichment, life skills, just basic life skills, and biblical knowledge. And then identity, we focus on building character as a man of God, self awareness, a growth mindset, and vision for his future story.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, like, these I mean, this plays a part in everything we do. It plays a part in our curriculum. It plays a part in what we talk about. It plays a part in what we celebrate.
Speaker 2:I mean, they are they are vital.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So taking it back, like, the vision going back to the story about going on vacation.
Speaker 3:Vacation.
Speaker 2:K. We're going to Toledo. So the vision is the destination. Like, hey, we are going to Toledo. Like, Toledo's awesome.
Speaker 2:I don't know what's there, but it sounds great. That's where we're going. The mission is the how we're gonna get there. We're gonna go to Toledo, and we're gonna fly. Right?
Speaker 2:And this is how we're gonna get there. Yeah. And then the priority outcomes, that's kinda like, hey, this is what we're gonna pack. Mhmm. Like, we're gonna pack only these things because these are the most important things that I need to take on the plane to get to Toledo.
Speaker 3:It's good.
Speaker 2:Right? Yeah. Man, I hope that makes sense.
Speaker 3:It I'm tracking.
Speaker 2:Okay. Good. Good. Good. And then I think the last thing, Beth, which in my in my opinion, I mean, I think the vision is extremely I mean, all of these are so important, but values Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, values is the who's going with you and what kind of people are they? It's the like, hey, we can go to Toledo, we can go on a plane, and I can pack everything that I need. But if I'm not going with people who would like Toledo or who want to be there with me and who don't know why we're going there
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And who don't believe in it. Yeah. It's gonna not be fun. And it's ultimately gonna be a pretty bad trip. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So so that is values. What we say is core values are behavioral traits that are inherent in an organization. These are the heart of everything we do.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And this plays a ton into hiring. Yeah. And it plays a ton into culture because we all know that culture is everything. Yep. Culture eats strategy for breakfast.
Speaker 2:That's a saying by some guy who is probably smarter than me. But it's like, you can have the best plans, you can have the best vision, you can have the best everything. But if your culture stinks, and if people don't wanna work with you Yeah. And if people don't like who they work with, ultimately, it's not gonna matter. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because you've gotta have a culture that people like to be a part
Speaker 3:of Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And that people like to work in. And And if people don't like coming to work, they're not gonna serve well. And your values play a ton into who you bring on to your team. I say, and currently we're hiring a couple people. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:It's like, these are the things that you can't teach. It's like either you care about it or you don't. So whenever we're filling out job applications, whenever we're having job interviews, we're asking very specific questions to to gauge where they're at in these different values.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so so yeah. So here are our values here at for runner mentoring program. And, like, these are just things that we kinda found ourselves saying a lot. Mhmm. And they're I mean, what I love about all of these things is they're all organic.
Speaker 2:So your vision can change a little bit. Your mission can change a little bit. Your priority outcomes can change some. So can all of our values. Obviously, you don't wanna change them too often.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But, like like, for us, our current thing is it's every young man, every young man in Lake Highlands. Like, that's our current vision. Yeah. Back in 2015, it was every young man who goes to this school in Lake Highlands.
Speaker 2:So as we've kinda started to grow, like
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Things have changed. But one thing that we just found ourselves saying all the time that we put on a t shirt, that is our number one core core value is relationships change lives. So why don't you just just kinda talk about that and why that matters here and try to paint a picture of what that tangibly looks like as you work for or volunteer or are a part of our family here at 4 Runner?
Speaker 3:Yeah. I mean, relationships have to be above everything else here. And, you know, with if you're a tutor or a volunteer and you're coming in, it's not just about providing a service and checking that off and feeling good. It's like, wow. I had a conversation with a kid today who really needed to have a conversation, and I was there for him, for our families, for the kids that we serve.
Speaker 3:We don't just wanna be somebody who provides a product for them or a service to them. We want to be somebody that they know and who they feel known by because we just believe that through the relationships we build here, that is how Jesus is gonna change a life because Jesus uses us as vessels for his love to be made known in the world. And so for us, relationships has to be at the center because Jesus has to be at the center, and that's where he shows up in our world Yeah. Through relationships.
Speaker 2:And, like, for for us specifically, it's it's like it's intentionality.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:It's like this kid, obviously, he's having a hard day. Yeah. I'm gonna be intentional and go ask him about it. And I know it's gonna be messy. I know it might not end well, but I don't care because Yeah.
Speaker 3:Might be awkward.
Speaker 2:But we've got to enter into their world. Yeah. And that's our second piece is like, hey, be intentional about entering into their world. Yeah. You can talk about what they had for lunch.
Speaker 2:You can talk about sports. You can talk about this and that. All of all of that's good. But if the Lord opens up a door to talk about the deeper things, we take advantage of that.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Because we're trying to get at the heart. And it's like we are, we are respectful. Like we build relationships because you do that through kindness and through showing up. And like we don't run away from conflict. Like we Yeah.
Speaker 2:We run towards the gunfire.
Speaker 3:Which that one's really big for being on staff too.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's real big. Yeah. Especially for me because you guys can't tell I'm like a conflict machine. I love it. And I'll force you to enter into conflict with me because I've got this strange sense of I can tell when people aren't happy and I'm not afraid to be like, hey, what's going on?
Speaker 2:And 2 of us have had this conversation.
Speaker 3:It's true. We've had a lot of those.
Speaker 2:Relationships change lives. Why I do that? Like, why I go into your office and I have these hard talks with you? Maybe it's me because I spoke too soon. Maybe it's me because I was not kind enough.
Speaker 2:I mean, most of the time it's on me, but I am I'm doing that because I care about you. And because you're more than just a, you know, director of programs. Like you're a person and our kids are people. And this is the thing about your values is this doesn't just it's it's not just about the kids. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like, I don't just build relationships with the kids or with the moms. I build relationships with my staff, with everyone. Yeah. With our donors, with our supporters, with our like, people
Speaker 3:The principles, the teachers.
Speaker 2:Matter. Mhmm. And that's relationships change lives. So when you sign up to work for us, you better care about people. And if you don't, you're not gonna last long.
Speaker 2:I mean, it is it is just that simple. And so that's our first one. The second one is always be growing. Why don't you kinda share what that looks like and
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah. So Always Be Growing for us is just the ability to walk in humility of knowing that you you never are at the end of your learning journey. And so we really value reflecting on ourselves and as an organization, how can we improve? Where are we weak?
Speaker 3:What can we do to get better? We read a lot of books. We do a lot of trainings. We have a lot of discussions. So much that I think even people in my life have been like, y'all are, like, always on something over there.
Speaker 3:Like, you're always reading a new book. You're always on some new hype train of, like, really implementing something. But it's just because we really do value that the Lord is always ready to teach us something if we are always ready to come to him and learn.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And I think what's so cool about your values is if these are important to you as a leader, you find time for it.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So every, staff meeting, we have staff meeting every Monday that lasts about an hour. Mhmm. But the last 30 minutes of that is as the leader, I'm I'm teaching something. So whether it's an article, whether it's, hey, listen to this podcast before you come to the meeting and we're gonna talk about it, whether it's a book, whether it's reflecting upon something that happened this past week, like, we are intentional about always be growing, and I'm making time for it. We relationships change lives.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:I think one of the best things we did over the last couple of years is we have a staff dinner. Yeah. Every month, everyone who's involved with us as a part time or full time staff, they come over to my house for dinner. And, yeah, we we might talk about work here and there, but it's about building relationships. And it's helped.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's helped build trust. And so as a leader, you you have to make time for this.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Trust the process. 3rd one. Why don't you talk about that and just kinda what that looks like here?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Trust the process. This one's really hard for me because I wanna know where we're going. But this is like we are we are called to do our job and let the Lord do his job. And so we pray that we can just learn to trust him, and we have faith that he will come through in his perfect timing.
Speaker 3:But in the meantime, we're just gonna trust the Lord with the results of our ministry. We're gonna pray. We're gonna do what we can on our end of heaven and our responsibilities here, but we're not gonna come at this like it's our job to fix people. We we lean on the Holy Spirit. We lean on the Lord to do what only he can do.
Speaker 2:Yep. I think so often and why why this is a value is because it is extremely difficult for me because I want a a plus b equals c, and that's not how relationships work. That's not how mentoring works. It's my in my flesh, I wanna fix a kid.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And we all know that doesn't go well.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:But it's like and that this happens often. If you work with the kinds of kids that we work with, there's gonna be heartache. Mhmm. You're gonna pour into a kid and you're gonna fall in love with a kid and you're gonna wake up one day and he's gonna move Mhmm. And not tell you.
Speaker 2:Yeah. He's gonna get into a fight. He's gonna make a bad decision. He's gonna say something that's extremely hurtful to you. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:But we can't focus on circumstances. We can't focus on their actions. We have to trust the process. Yeah. And the process is don't quit, show up, build up, love God, trust him, and stay in the game.
Speaker 2:And, eventually, we believe that we have faith that God's gonna move. Yeah. So Yeah. 4th one, culture of honor. Let's talk about that.
Speaker 3:This one's so big for staffing, especially, because it's like it's like you said, it's not really something you can teach. I think it's something you can grow and develop, but, basically, culture of honor is just having integrity in all everything that we do. It's a place where everybody is respected and that we view each other with just positivity and encouragement. We're building each other up. Whether the person is in the room or out of the room, everything we do is honoring
Speaker 2:to them. No gossip. Yeah. No complaining. I don't care if you're complaining about the food that we brought in, the coffee's cold, no complaining.
Speaker 2:We're not bringing any of that stuff in because we're all about honor. We're gonna honor our space. We're gonna honor our volunteers. We're gonna honor our donors. We're gonna honor our staff.
Speaker 2:We're gonna honor our kids. We're gonna honor our family. Yeah. Kids doing a 100 things wrong and one thing right. We're gonna honor that one thing.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 2:And we do not talk bad about anyone. We are not sarcastic.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:I would prefer to be the godly guy than the funny guy, a 100 times over. And we give grace, a ton of grace. Yeah. Which leads us into our next one, which is believe the best, which gotta give credit where credit is due. I stole from Will Dowell, Suzanne Wallace, and the team at Behind Every Door.
Speaker 2:So I love this. They here's here's how serious they take this phrase. They have a they have a gymnasium, and they painted it
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like, 30 feet wide. Believe the best on the wall of their gym. So believe the best. Why don't you talk about that?
Speaker 3:This is just giving people the benefit of a doubt, not taking things personally, not assuming the worst. And so if somebody says something that seems a little off, not jumping to the conclusion of, like, wow. That guy you know, it's oh, like, maybe something went wrong in their morning, and I'm just gonna know their character and know that this is just an off day for them. So giving people grace, letting people have the ability to have a bad day without it ruining what you think of them.
Speaker 2:Yep. It's like, if I come into the office and I don't say hi, because that happens because I'm pretty focused on my work.
Speaker 3:Me too.
Speaker 2:Beth and I are very similar in that way, but
Speaker 3:Sorry, everyone.
Speaker 2:But people can view that like, oh my gosh. Did I do something wrong?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Are they mad at me? Yeah.
Speaker 2:Or you can believe the best. Maybe he had a hard day. Maybe maybe he his kid was sick last night. Maybe he gotten got into it with a spouse or with a friend. Maybe they're not feeling well.
Speaker 2:I mean, there's a 1,000 things that could be the issue. And this helps me view people in the best light. It helps me not hold a grudge. It helps me be able to work together and participate as a team. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because and, you know, if I get my feelings hurt I'm a I'm a sensitive guy. I get my feelings hurt. I can go to Beth and say, hey, Beth. I could be off here.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:But you walked past me this morning and didn't say, hi. Is everything cool with us? Mhmm. And that gives her the opportunity to speak for herself. Oh, Zach, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 2:Or, yeah, Zach, there is. Whenever you cut me off in that meeting, the you know? And so that kind of goes back to the dealing with conflict. But
Speaker 3:Yeah. Which all of these do tie together too. So yeah.
Speaker 2:And so the last one, thankfulness, which it's like we're gonna focus on the good, not the bad.
Speaker 3:Yep. I
Speaker 2:mean, if you wanna focus on the bad, trust me, there's enough to focus in on. And this helps with attitude, this helps with perspective, this helps the joy of the Lord is my strength. I'm gonna enter his gates with thanksgiving and praise. Like, in his presence is fullness of joy. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And it's man, just be thankful. If and I say this a lot. If there's 99 things going wrong and one thing going right, you fixate on that one thing going right. And tell people how this plays out. Specifically, I wanna hear you share about all of our stories.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well, whenever I started part time, we I don't know if the Slack channel started then. I don't know when it started, but we have the Slack channel for our staff called stories. And it was just a place you could share a story of what you saw God doing in the program or just something you wanted to share with everybody else. And I got into this habit of intentionally when I was having a hard day thinking about, okay, god.
Speaker 3:Show me the one thing that I could see that is, like, you moving in this program, and I'm gonna I'm gonna share that with everyone else because I just think that it's easy, like you said, to focus on the 1,000 things. And there was a 1,000 things that went wrong every day in my classroom as a coach. But if you could just if I could just focus on that one thing of, like, okay. I had a breakthrough moment, tiny little nugget that nobody else would have even noticed unless they were paying attention and had the relationship that I have with this kid. And I'm gonna focus on that and give thanks for that.
Speaker 3:And so I started sharing these stories in the channel, and it just ended up becoming a huge part of our culture where every day almost there's a story posted in that channel now. And it's just it's become a source of we share these stories on our social media. We share these stories in our newsletters. It's been kind of like the thing where I will even if I'm off the clock, I will click on the stories channel if I see that there's something in there because it's like, oh, what a like, breath of fresh air. And that's like life to my soul to see that everything we're doing matters.
Speaker 2:Well and it goes back to what? Our vision. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, oh oh, this is why I'm doing it.
Speaker 2:Right. Yeah. Especially for a guy like me who I don't really hang out with the kids anymore. Yeah. I mean, I'm I'm off creating strategic plans and doing a budget and fundraising and meeting with all these I don't I don't spend time with the kids.
Speaker 2:And I got into this to spend time with kids. Yeah. But if I can read that story and I can see what the Lord is doing, I can be thankful. And I feel a part of of something bigger. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I can put 2 and 2, like, 2 and 2 together. Oh, I I met with this person this morning. They donated this paid the salary for the part time coach who wrote that story about life change that happened in a kid.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So Yeah. I think that
Speaker 2:that's big. It's just celebrate. Like, man, we gotta celebrate what God's doing. There's power in our testimony. There is power in our testimony.
Speaker 2:You know, I was in, chapter 4 of John today. It's talking about the, whenever Jesus goes to the well and meets the Samaritan woman.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And towards the end of that story, it talks about how she went into the town and she shared a story And what happened, many people came to believe Yeah. Because of her testimony. Yeah. And that's what we're doing every day. Hey.
Speaker 2:Here are the stories. Here is why we're giving thanks. Here's what God is doing. Thank you, Jesus. We're gonna celebrate that, and we're gonna appreciate.
Speaker 2:God, thank you. You're we're so grateful. Yeah. That helps a lot with our culture as well. So we are relationships change lives, always be growing, trust the process, culture of honor, believe the best in thankfulness.
Speaker 2:And let me just kind of speak to all these. I created these values as the leader and the founder because I struggle with all of them. So why did I make relationships change lives? Because I've got because I, in my flesh, I put tasks over people. Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Why did I create always be growing? Because growing is hard and I need to be reminded to do it. Yeah. Why did I create trust the process?
Speaker 2:Because I wanna quit a lot. Culture of honor. I am, by nature, the funny sarcastic guy. And what I found is that was destroying our staff. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:I focus on the bad, and I don't give thanks for what's good. Mhmm. So I put on a wall, be thankful. And I have a hard time believing the best because it's so easy to assume the worst.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so as a leader, just know that everyone needs to believe in these, but you definitely need to. And not only do you need to put it on the wall, not only do you need to put them in our handbook, you need to live these out. Yeah. This kind of like I mean, these are inherent behavioral traits. And the cool thing is, you know, I handed over the executive director role to Steven.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. And these might change. And that's okay because Steven's a different kind of leader. But nonetheless, it's up to him to enforce what he believes are the core values and what the executive team believes are the core values. And I think that that's what's so cool.
Speaker 2:It's like, as the leader, as the founder, I started relationships change lives. But Beth, to hear you talk about it, it's like it's nothing short of the Lord that you might care about relationships change lives more than I do. And I just think that that's vision. Like, the Lord gives a leader a vision. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then in his kindness and in his grace and in his mercy, he surrounds that leader with people who can support, who can challenge, who can run alongside. And ultimately, it gets to where it's not about you anymore. And that's what I love is, like, to see you value always be growing, to see Steve and value relationships, change lives, to see all of our staff, like, talk about these. I'm like, man, it's it's great.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And they all point back to our vision. They all point back to having a relationship with Jesus and
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well, what what you said though about you having to learn these things and it being hard for you, I think, is really important because you can't just put them up on a wall and expect that that's gonna change your culture. Like, you have to be growing in these yourself and going to the Lord. So
Speaker 2:it's good. As a leader, you you have to do the behavior that you want yourself to model.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:And that's
Speaker 3:And apologize when you don't. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yes. I apologize a lot. But, like, yeah. I mean, that is the healthy weight of being a leader. And you get to influence culture.
Speaker 2:You get to influence people in a good way or a bad way. And so it's up to you to figure out how you lead and how you can best lead and areas that you lead that aren't positive and how to adjust those. Because being a leader is all about being humble. Mhmm. And if you humble yourself, then he will exalt you.
Speaker 2:Typically, if you exalt yourself, then he'll humble you. Vision, mission, values, priority outcomes. We're going to Toledo, and it's gonna be awesome. We're gonna we got a way to get there. We know what to pack, and we know who's going with us.
Speaker 2:Know as a leader, as you start something, as you begin to grow something, these are vital. Mhmm. Holler at us if you want more information. Everything we have is yours. And just know this, Beth?
Speaker 3:You can mentor. Yeah.