Transcript: 5 Essentials for Building God's Kingdom Through Higher Education // Greg Christy, Northwestern University

Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast

“5 Essentials for Building God's Kingdom Through Higher Education"

September 23, 2024

Greg Christy

Intro: Are you ready to transform your leadership to see your organization flourish like never before? In today's episode, we're diving deep into the secret sauce that propels flourishing workplaces, and that's inspirational leadership. We've got some incredible insights lined up for you from a top leader who's honed the art of leading with mission and purpose. Trust me; you don't want to miss this conversation. It's packed with the kind of wisdom that can transform the way you lead.

Welcome: Welcome to the Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast, your home for open, honest, and insightful conversations to help develop your leadership, your team, and build a flourishing workplace culture.

Al Lopus: Hi, I'm Al Lopus, the co-founder of the Best Christian Workplaces and author of the book Road to Flourishing. My passion is to equip Christian leaders like you cultivate engaged, flourishing workplaces.

This fall, we've dedicated our Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast to one of the most powerful drivers of flourishing cultures, and that's inspirational leadership. So join us as we dive into insightful conversations with top leaders, who will provide you with the tools and inspiration to grow and excel in your leadership journey.

I’m delighted to welcome Greg Christy to the podcast today. Greg is the president of Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa.

Throughout our conversation, you'll hear Greg talk about the importance of regularly communicating the mission and vision of your organization; how the senior leader can help the organization create positive change over time; the specific impact an improved culture has on students and the organization, as it has at Northwestern; and how to address today's cultural issues with your staff and constituents in a Christian ministry; and finally, the importance for leaders to continue their growth as a leader.

I think you're going to love this interview with Greg Christy. But before we dive in, this podcast is proudly sponsored by the Best Christian Workplaces’ Employee Engagement Survey. Don't wait; this fall is the perfect time to gather vital insights from your employees to assess the health of your workplace culture. As today's guest wisely notes, culture eats strategy for breakfast, and it's no wonder their organization has enjoyed six consecutive years of record growth. Ready to transform your culture? Visit workplaces.org to learn more and start your journey to becoming a flourishing workplace today.

And hello to our new listeners. Thanks for joining us as we honor your investment of time by creating valuable lessons like this.

But let me tell you just a little bit more about Greg Christy. Greg has been the president of Northwestern University since 2008, and under his leadership, Northwestern has developed a new strategic and campus master plans and adopted new mission, vision, diversity, and Christian identity statements. The College has also added a number of academic majors and launched online and graduate programs, expanding Northwestern's reach and helping to set multiple employment records. He has also overseen many capital improvements on the campus, and he serves higher education with leadership roles in regional organizations.

Prior to Northwestern, Greg had leadership roles in several different colleges and universities in Iowa and South Dakota. He has a bachelor's degree in management from Simpson College and a master's degree in physical education and sports management from Western Illinois University.

Here’s my conversation with Greg Christy.

Greg, it’s great to have you on the podcast today, and looking forward to our conversation.

Greg Christy: Me, too, Al. Thanks so much for the invitation.

Al: Greg, you've been at Northwestern College for, oh, about 15 years, and tell us a little bit about Northwestern College and the distinctives of your college community.

Greg: Absolutely. We're a standout Christian college. You know, really, it's all about our mission of engaging students in courageous and faithful learning and living that empowers them to follow Christ and pursue God’s redeeming work in the world. That's our mission. That's what we talk about. And I think that we feel like those three things, I tell people, if you don't know anything else about our mission statement, we're intentionally Christian, rigorous academics, and we build community in ways that few places do that I've been a part of in the past. So I think those three things together, a Christian academic community, really, summarizes what we're about at Northwestern.

Al: And tell us a little bit about where you are and kind of the scope of Northwestern College.

Greg: We're located in Orange City, Iowa. So, we are about 45 minutes north of Sioux City, Iowa, and about an hour and 15 minutes south of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. So we're tucked up in the northwest corner of Iowa. Founded in 1882. Something a little bit different about us, we were founded as a classical academy in 1882 and later became a junior college in 1928, and then now we've been a four-year college since 1961, so relatively young as four-year colleges go.

Al: And you've been working with the Best Christian Workplaces to measure employee engagement now for several years.

Greg: We have.

Al: And we've had steady improvement over the long term. And your story is about faithful work over time. In fact, we congratulate you that you're a certified best Christian workplace. So let's go back and think about the early years when progress might have been a little slower than you may have wanted. So how did you encourage your team, maybe even encourage yourself, to keep moving forward to make the improvements that you've made now? And what are some of those practices that you and your team implemented that helped you move things along?

Greg: Absolutely. I've been here since January 1 of 2008, so several years. I inherited a leadership team when I came. Really good team of people. But then changes happen over time. And 2014, really, since I think I heard at a Global Leadership Summit, perhaps, someone talk about having used Best Christian Workplace. And we’d looked at the Chronicle has something, but I was really looking for something that was more Christ centered in terms of serving our people. And so that's when we started was 2014. And we learned a lot from that first time of surveying, things that were going well and some other things that weren't going as well.

And 2015 really became a critical year. That year I made a number of very hard decisions about some people in some key leadership roles that we needed to help transition, and that was a bit of a tumultuous time, if you will, as we said goodbye to some valued people that we cared about, but, perhaps, their time for leadership was transitioning. And so, actually had—Cary Humphries actually came in and did some focus groups with a few folks on our campus after surveying in 2015. That was our low point in terms of our score, and gathered some information from those, not only the Survey but from those focus groups were really critical. So since that time, we've been doing it every year since, and we've just really been pretty steadily growing since that time.

I believe culture is so, so important. The old saying, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast every day,” is, I think, pretty true. And so I believe strongly that people feel good. People really feel great about the work they're doing. And I've talked for a long time here about we want to make this a better place to work every year at Northwestern.

And so, yeah, pleased to make steady progress, really, since 2015; and this year, delighted that we finally got over that hump to become a certified best Christian workplace.

Al: Yeah. And congratulations. And I really appreciate your leadership.

Part of this is that your faculty and staff are really clear about the mission and vision of the college, and you articulated it so well. So how do you, as a leader, keep the mission and vision of the school in the forefront of your decision making and day-to-day management? Share a couple of examples of how you’ve seen individuals or teams embracing the mission of the College and living it out.

Greg: Absolutely. I realized right away when I got here, after my first year—you know, you come in first year, especially I was quite young at that point in my professional career and just in terms of my age. So I was listening more than I was talking and coming out with grand plans that first year—but it became very evident to me we weren't clear about what our mission was. We had a mission statement. It was about a page long. It really was more of just more descriptive-type things. So that mission I just shared with you, we took a whole academic year to work on that together as a community. We had a team, of course, that worked on that, but we took it to the faculty, we took it to the board, we took it to everybody, and got it down to, what's at the core of what we're really about at Northwestern? And that was really important. As I look back now, now that I'm in my 17th year here at Northwestern, I now hear faculty members quoting from the mission statement when they’re talking to prospective students. I hear students even using phrases from our mission statement. You'll routinely hear people talk about, at Northwestern we're about courageous and faithful learning and living, and we're about following Christ and pursuing God's redeeming work in the world. And so it's been really gratifying to see how it's not just something that's on—well, it is posted around campus, it's embedded in our culture; it's embedded in our people. And I routinely hear people referring to, talking, and as I review prospective students who come visit campus, they all frequently on those Surveys I see everybody say, everybody I visit with on campus, from admissions to faculty to a coach, we're all saying the same thing about what Northwestern College is all about.

Al: Yeah. Well, that's so important. I appreciate you sharing that. And I look at the strengths that come out of your Employee Engagement Survey. And, you know, sustainable strategy is right on the top of the list, where it's so clear that your employees, your faculty, your staff would recommend Northwestern College as a place to send their friends to college. Yeah, that's just critical. Yeah.

So, you've been in your leadership position now, as you said, for more than a decade. And you mentioned, also, that there were some changes in your leadership, and there have been changes over time. There naturally are. How do you prepare your team for change when you have those kinds of transitions, and how do you recruit and hire people who are a complement and embrace the culture and the mission that you've got to help build into Northwestern College?

Greg: I've been fortunate to have some really good mentors in my life. Two presidents that I worked for before I came here, when I was a vice president for advancement, I learned a lot from both of them. So I just have been really blessed to have some good leaders in my life that I've learned a lot from.

One of the things was just how important hiring is. I believe every person we hire is going to help us further that mission as a Christian academic community or detract from that mission. And so I, to start with, I meet with every single finalist for a job at Northwestern, whether that's a faculty position, administrative, maintenance staff, it doesn't matter what position it is here at the college, full-time employees, I want to meet with every single one of them. And obviously, others know better than me about their professional skills that they're bringing to the particular role, but I'm looking for mission fit, and so I just feel that's very important.

In terms of when it comes to making changes and that sort of thing, obviously, I really believe strongly is building teams. So I've really worked hard to have our leadership team be one that really works together as a team. And the leadership team is their primary, number-one team, not the team that they lead, but the leadership team is their number-one focus. And so that's something I instilled right when I got here and continue to instill as members have changed in that due to retirements and other factors.

But, you know, it's never easy when you have to say goodbye to someone or help someone move on that you care about deeply, who has been a part of your team. We try to keep things simple here, and keep it all about that mission and all about Christian academic community. And there just comes a time, sometimes naturally, where it becomes evident not only to me, but others on the team—the leadership team, I’m speaking of—that there needs to be some changes if we’re going to achieve our full potential and truly flourish as an institution.

And so, like I mentioned, 2015, that was a big year, where I made a number of changes. And as I look back now, our growth as an institution, enrollments, even with the Best Christian Workplace Surveys, it was very hard year having to say goodbye to key people. But I explained that to the team, as much as you can, right? There's certain things you just can't share, and tried to bless every person who was leaving us and even helped some of them in terms of where they were going next. None of them were bad people; they're all great people that I loved and cared for. But it was just time for us to have a new voice in a particular role. And so you try to model that by blessing the people as much as you can, as hard as it is to deliver that message that, “You're not going to be able to continue with us, but I'll help you wherever I can, wherever God's calling you next.”

And then, in terms of searches, I'm a big believer in, you know, I put together search committees that have a diverse group of people on those search committees, but make it very clear they're a search committee, not a selection committee. And so the search committee's job is to go out and find the two or three best candidates that we can bring to campus, in terms of the leadership team, I'm speaking about. People are going to be in a vice president's role, but my job as president, I feel, is not from an ego standpoint, but just from a responsibility standpoint, I feel like it’s my job to make the final decision on who we’re going to hire in those key leadership roles that I’m going to be working with directly. So I think there’s a big difference between a selection committee and a search committee. I make it very clear, “Your job is to search. Bring the best two or three individuals to campus.” And I hope it's evident to all of us who the right person is. But if it's not, it's my responsibility, for better or worse, to bear the brunt of taking the responsibility to make that final call on who I sense God's calling here to join us.

Al: Greg, that’s really helpful. I appreciate your focus. You know, even at your size, that you meet with every finalist to make sure there's mission fit. And what an opportunity, also, to bridge into that person's onboarding, you know, where they've had the opportunity to hear from the president, “This is our mission. This is our vision. This is our culture. This is the way we do things around here.” And that's great. And then, yeah, that focus on the leadership team, how their number-one job is organization, not their team. Absolutely.

Greg: That's a hard thing. That's not necessarily the way it is everywhere. I remember, in my early days, that was kind of it came as a surprise to some folks when I first shared that. Now, you know, I've been here long enough and we've turned over enough leaders, now everybody is totally on the same page. And in those early days when I first came, that was a new concept for some people.

Al: Yeah. It's a search committee, not a selection committee. So, absolutely. Amen.

Greg, you know, there’s a lot of different constituencies that you serve as the president of a Christian university or Christian college. I've heard many people say, “Your job is the hardest in Christendom.” And part of it is because your mission is to equip students. It's accomplished through faculty and staff. But there's parents, there's alumni, there's donors. I mean, you have a whole group of diverse constituents that are in play when you're in your role. So how do you, as a leader, listen to these different needs while staying focused on the big picture, that mission and vision, and also keeping a strategic view of where you are and what you need to do to move forward as an organization?

Greg: Well, one of the first things, maybe goes back to one of your earlier questions, but I think keeping the mission front and center with every constituent group. And there's not a mission for this part of the College, and there's not a different mission for another part of the College. Or there's not a mission internally or a mission externally. Our mission is our mission, internally, externally, across the campus.

So, I feel like I even use the term sometimes that you've probably heard me share the mission ad nauseum, because I believe it's my job to be the one who constantly remind us the big picture of why it is we're here. We all have different roles to play at the College, whether we're a faculty member, a staff member, a student, a trustee, an alum, a friend, a parent, we all have different roles to play, and every one of those roles is important, but we're all trying to achieve the same goal of helping us engage students in courageous and faithful learning and living that empowers them to follow Christ and pursue God’s redeeming work in the world. If it doesn't, if something we're doing or a constituent group, be they internal or external, isn't about or has lost focus on that goal, that mission, then we need to have some conversation about that.

But we're really blessed here. We don't get it right every day. Our people are deeply committed. We don't fight at Northwestern about what the mission is. People are sold out to “This is our mission.” And they had a hand in developing it, right? After I first came, the entire campus community developed this mission statement. It wasn't my mission statement. This is our mission statement. Ultimately, it’s God's mission. But I think reminding people frequently about what the mission is, and then, as you're interacting with all these different groups, internal and external, just constantly reminding each of them, “Here's what we're doing. Here's what we're about at Northwestern. This is the impact we're trying to have in students. It's really about building God's Kingdom through education.”

Al: Again, I look at your results, and at the top of the list is you're involving employees in decisions that impact them; you're seeking their suggestions. You just described how you've involved them in the modification, the focus on the mission of the organization. I mean, that's really excellent. But let me ask now a bottom-line question that I often am asked by leaders, and in your case, so how does the faculty and staff engagement actually impact, you know, your customers, your students, and their experience at Northwestern College? Have you seen improvements in your student experience, including retention, growth, and discipleship of students as a result of the improved culture at the College?

Greg: We really have, Al, and it's been a blessing to observe that. I think there is a direct correlation between how engaged your faculty and staff are and the kind of experience that your students are going to have. We exist to serve students, to educate students, to serve students. So I do believe that as we've made continuous progress in becoming a better place to work every year, as people have felt that, experienced that, we've seen now, this year we have our sixth year in a row of record total enrollment. We have our largest freshman class in 15 years this year. We've had strong retention over these last seasons, hovering around 77 to 80% retention of our freshman class each year.

We have people who come to work at Northwestern and stay at Northwestern. It's not unusual for us at our celebration banquet each spring for faculty and staff, when we celebrate people's years of service, to have numerous people who've been here 25 years, 30 years, even some 35, 40 years at the institution. So people come, people tend to come to Northwestern and stay at Northwestern. Whether that's as a student or faculty or staff member, people want to be a part of what we're doing.

And in terms of the student experience in particular, we survey our students each year about numerous things. But two to highlight would be our student-life experience. We really believe in, and we have a pretty unique residential-life program, where we have professional resident directors in every hall. Their only job is to care for, love, and disciple the students in their hall. And we also have freshmen through seniors in every residence hall. We believe having upper-class students mentoring younger students is a really good model, and that works. And that's something that's distinctive about our residence-life program. When we survey students near the end of the first semester, our students will tell us that basically they're satisfied or very satisfied with their residence-life experience by the rates of, like, 92 to 95%.

Our Christian formation, we have a chapel program at Northwestern, so students accumulate Christian-formation credits. They get those credits by going to chapel, by attending some lectures with some of our chapel speakers in a smaller-group-type setting. We call it an Ngage series, “N” being the letter that stands for Northwestern, but Ngage. And so students, we worship together twice a week on campus. We have discipleship groups in every residence hall, of every wing of every residence hall on campus.

So when we survey our students about are you—and our four goals, I should mention, our vision for learning, our four goals for our graduate is that, number one, that they be persons who trust, love, and worship God, that they be persons who engage ideas, that they connect knowledge and experience, and finally, that they follow God's call. That's our four goals for our graduates. That was developed by our faculty. That was actually done before I got here. Spoke volumes to me about this place. The faculty voted on that and voted unanimously, 100%, that those are the four goals of the college.

But when we survey our students about their Christian-formation experience, they also report levels of 80 to 85%, 90% are satisfied with their Christian-formation experience.

Al: Yeah. Well, again, I just reflect on your top 10. Faculty and staff are saying, “Yes, Northwestern College reflects Christ to the world.” And you're in the 86th percentile of Christian higher ed. That's just remarkable.

I trust you’re enjoying our podcast today. We’ll be right back after an important word for leaders.

Female: Are you a leader searching for ways to enhance your organization's workplace culture and foster employee engagement? Well, we have just the solution for you. It's our proven Best Christian Workplaces Employee Engagement Survey for the Christian-led workplace. Picture this: your organization radiating with a renewed sense of purpose, where employees are excited to come to work every day. With our Employee Engagement Survey, you'll gain powerful insights into the heart of your organization, discover hidden strengths, uncover areas for improvement, and unlock the full potential of your team. But that's not all. By conducting the Survey, you'll see productivity skyrocket, increased job satisfaction, and decreased turnover rates. Imagine the impact on your mission as your team unites around a shared vision driven by purpose and fueled by a positive workplace culture. Your organization will become a beacon of light, inspiring others with its exceptional leadership. Don't wait any longer to create a flourishing workplace. Visit our website at workplaces.org, and ask for the Employee Engagement Survey Sample Report today. Take the first step towards transforming your organization into a thriving, purpose-driven powerhouse. Together, let's build a workplace culture that honors God and empowers your team to flourish.

Al: And welcome back with Greg Christy.

What a story. So, did I get this right? Six years of year-after-year record enrollment in the last six years, and this year is your largest freshman class. And 80% of your freshmen are retained to the next year. Yeah, I mean, wow. Yeah.

Greg: Yeah. We were a little bit down on freshman retention this fall from last fall from that standard. But we've been hovering around the 78 to 80%.

One of the other things we're most proud of, I should just say, about our graduates—I mentioned what we want from our graduates—while it’s not explicitly listed in those four goals, one of the things I'm most touched by and warms my heart, is that 87% of our graduates report to us. Whether they've been out five years, 10 years, 30 years, whatever, 87% are still engaged and actively involved in church and service after they leave Northwestern. That's a countercultural statistic in this day and age, and so it's something we're very grateful for.

Al: Okay. Well, if there's any parents who want to know where they should send their students for college, those are compelling statistics. Wow. Yeah. Greg, thanks.

You know, leading a Christian college is complex. And there's many pressures to make sure that you're staying faithful to the biblical principles of your mission while engaging the culture and social issues that we are all experiencing today. So share some insight into how you and your team are navigating this issue, the pressure over culture and social issues. How do you engage students and other constituents in these important dialogues?

Greg: Absolutely. It's very important, very important. And of course, we get lots of questions from prospective families, students as well, “Where does the college stand on this issue or that issue?” So we try to be very clear.

Just to give you one example, obviously in our day and age right now, human sexuality would be one of those, I say issues, and we're really talking about people's lives. But it's an issue, it's a topic of conversation in our greater culture. So at Northwestern, the way we try to handle that, we have a stated position that we believe God's good design for all human sexuality is in context of a marriage between a man and a woman. We believe that’s what Scripture teaches. And we’re very upfront with prospective students, parents, families, others. “This is what Northwestern believes. Your son or daughter is going to hear this from our campus pastor. They're going to hear this around campus.” At the same time, we want to be very clear about what we believe and have a position that states that, as such.

We also, though, want to have a posture of humility toward others as well. And we're a what's called an “open enrollment” Christian college. So while we hire only Christian faculty and staff to work at Northwestern, students don't have to be Christian to come to Northwestern—90% of our students self-report that they are a Christian. But we've got students who aren't quite sure where they are in their faith. We've got some international students that even come from different faith backgrounds altogether. And I can tell you story after story of students who have come to faith while they've been to Northwestern. So we think that's a really healthy thing. But we want to be hospitable to those who come to Northwestern as students, who, you know, we don't know where they are.

And of course, college is a time when students ask a lot of big questions, including sometimes sexuality. And so we're going to try to love every student. We believe every student is an image bearer of God, and regardless of where they are in their faith journey. So we're not going to shy away from sharing what the truth of the Gospel, to teach on that particular topic, but we're also going to try to love every person where they are.

And the reality is, when you're trying to be full of truth and full of grace, the reality is that things can get a little messy sometimes. So, we really work with our faculty and our staff. We work with parents. “Trust us; there's a method to our madness. We're trying to be full of truth, full of grace, and sometimes this is going to lead to some uncomfortableness. But we feel like your son or daughter would be better prepared to enter a world where they're going to be faced with—” I'm just using one example. You can pick out a lot of other examples, but this is one that we've—and we spend a lot of time on that. Of course, not every faculty and staff member at Northwestern believes exactly the same thing about human sexuality, but we've done some employee education series on campus, something we do every year now. We have an employee education series, different topic every year. One year it was about the topic of human sexuality, and we talked about where Christians fall from a continuum of, on one side, total condemnation, and on the other side, total celebration. And we talk about where we are at Northwestern and why we are where we are. And we ask that all of our employees respect where the College is and that no one does anything to undermine the College's position. And so that's been really helpful for us, to just be really upfront and open with that about with our faculty and staff, but also with prospective students and families as well, to know, “We mean what we say, and we say what we mean, and we're going to do our best, by God's grace, to live it out.”

Al: Yeah. That’s great. So, you know, as you say, be upfront and open. And yeah, there's truth and grace, and it could be a little messy in the middle. But to love is a great posture and a posture of humility. And as you're even talking about this, looking at, again, your results, and your faculty and staff believe that leaders model humility. And this is an example of great humility.

So, as I talk with leaders, Greg, who are committed to growing in their leadership and to shepherd their organization well, I'm interested in learning how they've grown through their season of leadership. How do leaders grow? is a way to ask the question. Can you share a few reflections on what's influenced your own growth as a leader? You know, Christian leadership and growth in Christian leadership is a topic that leaders are really interested in. So what are some of the catalysts that you've experienced that have helped spur on your growth as a leader?

Greg: That's a great question. I often say and about once a semester or so, I get asked to come and speak to one of our leadership classes, and I share with him a little bit about my own philosophies of leadership. One of the things I say is I think when leaders stop learning, they stop being effective. And so I try to model that. I've already mentioned it once, and I'm not here to put a commercial out there or anything, but for me, there's been a number of things.

I would say that I've been blessed to have some really good mentors, really good leaders that I've learned a lot from. And the two presidents I worked for prior to coming here have very different styles, but they were both very committed to the mission of the institution. And so it's really good for me to see how there's different ways of doing things as a leader. Not necessarily one right way or one wrong way; I think there’s some things we could probably agree on are maybe universal.

But in terms of how me growing personally, I've really tried to invest in my leadership. The Global Leadership Summit for me has been a really—I've gone to that most every year since 2000 is when I started going. And that conference in particular has been really helpful to me because it touches me kind of every part of where I am. I've been very involved in church leadership as well as a lay person, as an elder in all the churches I've been involved in over the years, different places we've lived. My wife and I love the local church. We love education, but we also love the local church, and we love missions. And so that conference kind of hits me in every spot: education, leadership, business, personally, spiritually, and in the role that I'm in. So that's one way.

I also read a lot of books on leadership. So I read a lot of books by people like Ken Blanchard and Jim Collins and Warren Bennis and others, both Christians and non-Christians. Reading a lot of books about leadership has also helped me sharpen the sword, so to speak, I guess, to learn from other leaders. I don't have all the answers to everything, that's for sure. But I think being around other leaders, learning from other leaders, if you pay attention and even seek out mentors. I've been blessed to have, like I said, mentors, leadership conferences, books on leadership. Obviously, those would be some of the keys that for me and how I've grown in my own leadership.

Al: Yeah. So, to have this continual learning attitude, and when you stop learning, you stop leading. That's true in my book. And, yeah, Global Leadership Summit. For a lot of us as Christian leaders, we would believe that's one of the, if not the best, most effective, place to go for leadership development. And then, yeah, just continually reading. You know, leaders are readers is what a lot of people have said in the past. And, yeah, Warren Bennis was very interesting and formational for me in my early years of leadership. And I've had a chance to actually—Ken Blanchard’s been on this podcast. And yeah, what a great guy.

Greg: There's so many good leaders to learn from. And we actually host the Global Leadership Summit on our campus now. We’ve done it for about seven years, as a satellite location. So it gives our opportunity for our faculty and staff to attend that as well, at a pretty reduced cost.

Al: Well, Greg, we’ve learned so much from our conversation. This has just been fantastic. I've loved learning about Northwestern College and your beginnings, your mission and vision, and how you actually have worked to improve the health of your workplace culture for your faculty and staff, and how you've prepared your leaders and prepared them for change in different seasons. And your focus on having the right people in the right spots; and the importance of interviewing, in your case, as a final interview, every leader; and how building teams, especially leadership teams, where, again, the leadership team is the first team for each leader. I know Patrick Lencioni talks a lot about that. But the importance of communicating the keeping the mission and vision of the University up front, and there's no individual missions for each area, that it's the University mission overall, and how that really has come through and resonated throughout your culture. And, yeah, how faculty and staff engagement leads to positive, even flourishing, student experience. Those are great stats, and I appreciate it. And I love the fact that you've actually defined what your graduates are going to be like. And in fact, for our leaders who are listening, 87% of your graduates are still engaged in the local church and Christian service. So, wow, these are just all great things. But how you've grown as a leader, and I think that's something for each of us, to maintain our sharpness as a leader, and our effectiveness as a leader is to keep learning.

So, Greg, this has just been a fantastic conversation. Is there anything you'd like to add to what we've talked about?

Greg: You know, I think maybe just one thing, Al. First of all, I read your book, too, actually. I was fortunate to have a copy, and I really appreciated the book that you wrote recently. It was a great reminder of many of the things that we've been trying to employ here for the last decade. So thank you for the good work you did in putting that book together. My vice president for academic affairs has actually gone through that whole book with all of our deans actually, as well. So it's been a great tool, so thank you.

But I think the thing I would end with, or that maybe one thing I would want to say is, you know, at Northwestern, we're a small Christian college. This year we'll have somewhere around 750 total students by the time of drop/add, undergraduate and graduate students. But we talk about how we are a personal place, and we're here to help people grow personally. I think for leaders, and I try to model this with my team and across our campus with prospective students, but I think one of the things we need to remember as leaders is no one really cares how much you know until they know how much you care. And so I try to live by that, and I try to model that by just one of the things I do that I found to be really effective, I write a lot of handwritten personal notes. I think Ken Blanchard talks about catching somebody doing right and telling them about it. I read that years ago in one of his books, and that's one way I try to do it verbally as well, of course, but handwritten notes are a bit of a lost art in our society, with all the electronic things we have. And so I write a lot of personal handwritten notes to faculty, to staff, to administrators, to prospective students, to current students, coaches, others. I find it's just a way. And people are a little surprised, I think, sometimes by that. But I think it goes, it's a way of kind of showing that no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care. So showing people that you care, I think, humanizes you as a leader and helps people know, “Hey, you really do care about me as a person, not just what you can do for the organization.”

Al: That’s a great way to finish. Thanks so much, Greg.

I really do thank you for your contributions today. This has been outstanding. And I really appreciate the excellence in leadership that you've brought over the long term as you equip the next generation of servant leaders for Christ. So thanks for taking out your time and speaking to the lives of so many others.

Greg: Well, thank you to you, and a special thanks to Cary, who works with you. Cary has been invaluable to us at Northwestern. And I’d be remiss if I did not sing his praises and say thanks to Cary for all the very, very valuable help he's provided us over the last decade.

Al: Shout out to Cary Humphries, for sure. Yeah.

Thank you, Greg. Okay.

Greg: Absolutely.

Al: God bless you.

Greg: Al, thank you so much. Blessings to you.

Al: Thank you so much for listening to my conversation with Greg Christy. And I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

You can find ways to connect with him and links to everything we discussed in the show notes and transcript at workplaces.org/podcast.

If you have any suggestions for me about our podcast or have any questions on flourishing workplace cultures, please email me, al@workplaces.org.

And next week keep listening to our weekly podcast as we continue to learn from leaders who are proven inspirational leaders exhibiting Christian character and excellence in their leadership. Next week we have the privilege to learn from Brian Mosley, the president of RightNow Media.

Outro: The Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast is sponsored by Best Christian Workplaces. If you need support building a flourishing workplace culture, please visit workplaces.org for more information.

We'll see you again next week for more valuable content to help you develop strong leaders and build a flourishing workplace culture.