Transcript: How to Move Your Team from 63% to 81% Engaged in 12 Months // Brian Mosley, RightNow Media

Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast

“How to Move Your Team from 63% to 81% Engaged in 12 Months“

August 18, 2025

Brian Mosley

Intro: Hi, I’m Al Lopus, and welcome to our summer encore series. We’ve pulled together the episodes you’ve loved most over the past 10 years, conversations packed with timeless wisdom, practical tips, and the kind of encouragement every leader needs. Whether it’s your first listen or favorite worth replaying, these episodes still hit home and might just be the spark you need this summer. So, let’s jump into this encore episode and see what insights await.

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: Hello, and thanks for joining us again on the Flourishing Culture Podcast. Today we’d like to look at inspirational leadership, which is the sixth of our eight drivers that can take the health of your workplace culture to the next level.

My guest today knows a lot about inspirational leadership because his leadership and convictions are going to give you some fresh, new insights into how to improve and strengthen your workplace culture. And with that, I’d like to welcome my guest, Brian Mosley, the president of RightNow Media. Brian, I’m glad you can join us. In fact, welcome to the Flourishing Culture Podcast.

You know, I’ll never forget how you and I first connected. As I recall, you heard about us, like, on a Friday, while you were in Chicago, and, heck, the next Monday, I believe, we met in your office in Dallas. I had flown in from Seattle for another meeting, and it just seemed like it was divine providence that our schedules aligned.

Brian Mosley: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm grateful, for one, to be on the podcast, and, yeah, I can't believe how it worked for us to meet few years back. I talked to somebody in Chicago who had worked with you guys for years, and on a plane ride home, I think I emailed you and just said, “Hey, I'd love to talk some time.” And you said, “I'm going to be in Dallas in two days.” And so all of a sudden, you're sitting in my office, and I’m listening to what you guys offer. I thought, “Yeah, we've got to do this.” So it was awesome to make that connection.

Al: Yeah, great.

Brian, tell us a little bit about how you came to RightNow Media. I thought that was really a great story.

Brian: Yeah, I mean, it's kind of a multigenerational story, which I'm learning is more and more rare to see kind of the generations passed on and for things to continue to succeed. So, our ministry started 40 years ago, with my grandfather. He and my dad began traveling the world, filming documentary stories of missionaries, and their desire was to help use the screen, the power of media, to share with people, here's what God’s doing around the world, here's how you could put your faith into action, and so that was the start of the ministry 40 years ago. I grew up around that, loved hearing those stories, loved understanding, as a kid, a little bit about what your dad does. But that wasn't what I thought I was going to go do. I had nothing against it. I just figured God had some other path for me.

And I mean, long story short, it was kind of towards the end of my high school career that I got really interested in video and communications, and so I studied that in college. It was towards the end of college that I had a chance to go overseas for the first time. Loved that. Came back and went “Okay, God. I could do more of this. What could that look like?” A series of great things happened there, as I finished up college, ended up right back here in the Dallas area, working for the ministry that my dad and my granddad had been a part of for so many years. And so that was 20 years ago, and even though, growing up, I never thought I'd be here, I’ve loved it, haven't ever looked back. And our mission and our passion’s the same. We're still using media to try to help people put their faith in action and love doing that.

Al: Yeah. And as I remember hearing the story, I mean, you were working with, basically, working with CDs. Technology has certainly changed, hasn't it, over the years.

Brian: Absolutely, yeah. I mean, if you're not trying to think about the next technological advancement, then you're going to kind of get left in the dust. And so we've tried real hard to stay in advance of where things are going so that—we're content people. At the end of the day, we want to get good content in people’s hands, and so we've got to make sure we have the technological bridge to get it there.

Al: And who do you serve, Brian? I'm just curious, and I think our listeners would be interested. Who do you serve? How do you connect with them?

Brian: Yeah. So, basically, RightNow Media is an online library of content that churches and even Christian-led businesses can get access to and serve their congregation or their employees. And so we have this on-demand library that streams to apps and devices, set-top devices—Apple TV, Roku, Amazon, all that. So we have this great library of content that we want to put in people's hands. And so there are about 18,000 churches and close to 2,000 businesses that subscribe and then give all their people access. So there's about three million people through those organizations that have their own account, and they could share it with their spouse or their small group or their employees or their team or whatever the environment is. But that's our heart is getting that content into the hands of those Christians so that their faith can be lived out.

Al: Oh, that's a fantastic ministry.

You know, it's been said, when you're looking for great stories you want to hear stories that begin with an earthquake and end with a crescendo. So tell us about the beginning, the rumbling, or at least the beginnings of an earthquake being felt inside your workplace at RightNow Media. What wasn't working at the time, what caused you to really answer my email, and what motivated you to invest in our online confidential Employee Engagement Survey?

Brian: I think in hindsight there were probably some signs and things going on that I had observed or had seen or experienced and probably could have and should have taken actually earlier. The sky wasn’t falling, the wheels weren’t falling off, but there was just little things that I thought, “Okay, I'm sensing some things and some areas of our team that just aren't healthy.” We have about 150 or so—at the time, we had about 150 people on our team, so big enough to where you can almost lose sight of certain parts of the team but small enough to where you want there to be that kind of good family dynamic and culture that's really healthy and vibrant and people know each other and are doing their work. And so as I started to see some those things, again in hindsight, I probably could have or should have taken a little bit of action sooner, but we have an open-door policy here. So after a handful of folks over a number of months have come in and said, “Hey, I've experienced this, or so-and-so has experienced that,” those started kind of collecting, sort of looking at some turnover rates on a couple of our teams specifically, and that was catching my attention. And so I think those things were in the back of my mind, and finally this conversation with somebody in Chicago, and they said, “Hey, we've done this thing that kind of helps give us an insight into our team culture.” And I said, “Yeah, I got to do that.”

Al: Yeah. And after you completed the first Survey and you received our tools and the thorough debriefing, what can you share with our listeners about that step? Is it what you expected?

Brian: Yeah. I mean, truthfully, I don't know if I fully knew what I was getting myself into. I mean, I wasn't again expecting there to be this just awful report, but I knew that we were going to get some good, honest feedback. So I didn't know fully what to expect. I just knew it was something we had to do and really did want people to take it to heart and really try to emphasize the anonymity of it. And we were looking for kind of the general aggregate feedback, not trying to single anybody out or any team out. And so I was hoping that the team would respond, and they did. I was thankful for that. And they took it. I can’t remember the percentage of that first Survey, but a lot of our team really did take it, and we got great feedback. And we showed up in what you guys rank as the healthy category, which I was thankful for, but I also knew there was room to grow. So it was kind of like, okay, this is giving us a good benchmark. And our thought was, we now know kind of the baseline. How do we get from here to improve the increased culture in the years to come?

Al: Yeah. That's exactly right. You were healthy. We outlined clearly the strengths that you had, maybe a couple of opportunities to improve. And as we've worked with over 1,000 para-church mission organizations, churches, Christian-led businesses, as a result, many today have built healthy, vibrant even productive workplace cultures through an ongoing series of intentional and strategic action steps, which just fall out of the Survey. Tell us one of the first steps that you and your leadership team took or did to strengthen the workplace culture at RightNow Media.

Brian: Yeah. Since this was a new experience for us as a leadership team and for our whole team, we felt like as soon as we got those results back, we want to make sure that we sort of share what we could and should with the whole team. And so through, if I remember correctly now, there was a face-to-face meeting with the bigger part of the team as well as a followup email that just said, “Look, here's some of the early results we're getting from this. We're not trying to hide the feedback you guys gave us. We want you to know that we heard you, and we're taking it to heart, and here’s some of the great things, here’s some of the areas to improve.” So our first big step and maybe the most important step, in my opinion, was just that we’re sharing with the rest the team, “Hey, we've done this, and here's some results, and we don't have all the action steps figured out yet, but that's what we're going to work on.”

And so after sharing with the whole team, our executive team got together and said, “Okay, as a team, corporately speaking across the whole team, what were a couple of areas that we feel like we can and should tackle here in the year ahead?” And then each of the executive team members looked a little bit further into their own team and just said, “Okay.” Whether they verbalized it in that meeting of the executives or whether I did it one-on-one with them, they just said, “Here's a few things that I can sense within my own team specifically that I can work on or want to address in the year ahead.”

So kind of, I guess, maybe the best way to summarize it, the biggest step was sharing with the whole team. It’s the big circle. You get in a little bit inner circle, and you talk about the executive team sharing, and then me and the executive team member looking at those results individually with them.

Al: You know, when you look back at that meeting, when you communicated to the whole team, what were your thoughts? What were your concerns? Was there anything you could share with us about that?

Brian: Yeah. The report you guys give us is pretty comprehensive. So I wasn't going to try to share a 50-page report with everybody and try to parse through every single piece of data. So we looked at kind of the summary highlights of that report. And a concern in sharing it was just simply that they would either want so much more data, and then it's like, okay, how do your parse through all this?; or that they would look at it and say, “Well, you didn't highlight the thing that I was particularly excited about or wish was changed.” And then it's like, do they feel like they really were heard? But we felt like overall the biggest goal and biggest win was just be transparent, share what we've got, say we're working on it, and let people know, hey, we really did to take this to heart.

Al: Yeah, that’s fantastic. Communicate it, say you’re working on it, you don’t need to have all the answers, but just showing deliberateness in the process. That’s great.

Well, how about giving us another action step or an initiative that came out of that process?

Brian: Yeah. So getting real nuts and bolts-y, I mean, one of the things that really stood out from that first Survey that as an executive team, we sat around the table and looked at those results, clearly, there was a desire from our greater team to—kind of approved options in regard to, like, health care and our insurance. And so we just looked at that, and said, okay, that's real nuts and bolts-y. I mean, very practical thing, but that's something we can work on. And so the timing of when that Survey was taken versus when our insurance renewed was several months in the future, so we knew we had some time to kind of really explore the options. And that's just what we did. We really looked and said, okay, how do we make sure that we are providing the options that could be helpful? And I think what we learned more than anything was just people wanted more options. And we thought we were offering—we were putting good money towards a plan that could be helpful to them, but at the end of the day, they wanted a lot more choice on where that money was being spent or how it's being spent. So we just, frankly, we just offered them more options, including some vision and dental options. And when we took the Survey again the following year, that measured up really, really high compared to where it was the year prior, so it was kind of like, okay, that was the right level to push it.

Al: Yeah. And it's amazing how when you get some data and you actually do something about it, you see what works, and you learn from it.

You're definitely on the right track. I mean, that was one of many things I know that you did that first year, because after that first Survey, you Surveyed again, and then what happened?

Brian: I was probably more nervous going into the second Survey than the first Survey because you’re thinking, “Okay, we’ve done some things. We’ve tried to be intentional in this, and I sure hope that the team received that and that there is this true advancement in our culture.” So, I was really, really thrilled when we got the Survey back the second go-around, and we went from that kind of barely in the healthy category and had advanced up to—I’m pretty sure it’s your top category, right?—the flourishing category. And so we’re just real thrilled to have taken a pretty big jump up into that next category. We had, again, grown as a team, so we had about 165 people on our team at this point. We had 98 percent of them participated, so we’re like, okay, again, people are taking this seriously. We love that. One of the statistics you guys give us is this idea of engaged employees. And that went from about 63 percent up to about 81 percent from year one to year two. So I mean, across the board, we were just thrilled with the metrics going in the right direction.

Al: And that first year, you also did some other things. You had a couple of areas, as I recall, that you did, as you mentioned, had some turnover. You made some changes, didn’t you, in your organization?

Brian: Yeah. There was a handful of things happening at various levels in terms of new staff coming in. Our executive team grew by three people just before we had taken that Survey the first year, and so to some degree, that first-year Survey was not a reflection on those new team members’ performance or their teams. It was really kind of a nice benchmark for them, walking in the door, going, okay, they're new to the team as an executive. Here's where my teams are at. And so that gave them really clear insight into, what can I do as a new team member here in the year ahead to make sure that the team is even healthier a year from now? So that gave those newer team members a really good—I mean, it gave the older team members great insight as well, but those newer team members, it's kind of like, here's a roadmap for how to succeed as you're starting your new job.

Al: Yeah. I remember that was a great improvement.

So, how about one big culture improvement that's obvious to your people today?

Brian: I think one of the biggest things is just a more open and transparent communication loop about our culture. Again, I don't think the wheels were falling off prior to year one, but I don't know if we had probably talked about a desire as an organization for our culture here internally to be really healthy. So I think just from year one, starting with, “Hey, we're going to do this, and here's the results,” and then getting to celebrate, coming back in year two, “Hey, here's where the results have taken us,” I mean, honestly, it was a little—I mean, we wanted to celebrate. It was also a little funny. I told some folks, that day that I got up and shared with everybody, “Hey, we've moved from a healthy to a flourishing culture. Our score went up considerably, and here's—“ and I kind of gave the summary again for year two. It was awesome to celebrate, and I also felt a little funny because in some ways it’s like I'm patting myself on the back, but that's not at all what is really going on. I told folks that day, “We are all part of the culture here. So, yeah, there's some decisions that we have to make at the leadership level, but everybody here has to make this a place that you enjoy working and enjoy working with people beside you.” So it was a way to celebrate, thank them as well. So all that to say, I think just being, again, open that we wanted—that this is an important thing for all of us is probably the biggest, biggest area of improvement or area of note, I would point out.

Al: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. As we've talked about our FLOURISH Model, Inspirational Leadership is one of the eight drivers that drive a flourishing culture, and at its core, Inspirational Leadership is connected to leader behaviors. And I believe that leader behaviors are directly impacted by one's relationship with Christ. In fact, the Inspirational-Leadership driver actually includes three themes, and you've had great scores in each of these three themes, and I'd love to explore it with you a little bit.

The first is spiritual vitality. We include questions in the Survey like, leaders exhibit the fruit of the Holy Spirit and demonstrate compassion and encourage high levels of Christian fellowship, model humility, those kinds of questions. And for you guys, those are really strong scores. And I know this is intentional as you have to build this into your culture. So give us an idea of how you encourage the development of spiritual vitality as a part of Inspirational Leadership at RightNow Media.

Brian: It's really humbling and honoring when you get the Survey results back and see that’s such a high deal, because at the end of the day, you look at it and you go, “Well, if you’re talking about this idea of spiritual vitality, is that on me or you as the leader, or is it on just the fact that God's at work in us?” And I mean, certainly God’s just at work in us. And yet there has to be a degree of humility or willingness to let God work through you and not kind of get your own ego in the way. So I think for us, hiring has been a huge deal, and we try to find people in the very, very front end, who are walking in the door, thinking, “Hey, this isn't about me,” and trying to make sure that, again, that ego is not going to get in the way of them being able to serve either as a leader or just any team member. They just don't want their ego to get in the way.

But I will say, as an organization, we're kind of in a unique spot because we're a ministry that produces and distributes Bible-study material. So in some regard, our whole team every day has at least got the opportunity to be thinking about, helping to produce, or helping to put in front of other people great biblical teaching. So we have the privilege of being connected to that kind of teaching, being rooted in that, being exposed to it every day. And I realize that that's not the case for necessarily every organization out there, but that’s certainly something we don’t want to take for granted.

As a ministry, we talk a lot about serving the church, and I don't mean just, like, the building with four walls, across the street, with a steeple on it. I mean, like, the Body of Christ, and those are the Christians who are living their life outside the walls of a church every day. They're in business, they're teaching in schools, they're in the home, they're in government. We talk about, how do we help them, in mission of God's church, flourish? And so that rootedness for our team, I think also helps us go, “Okay, we're going to be connected and serving people in the church. And those that are following Jesus, we have to be there as well.”

And I will say one other thing we really wrestle with. We don't want be people's church, either. You know, it’d be easy for people to come into a ministry and say, “Oh, this is kind of my church. I get some great community here. We can pray together. This is where we're going to be around a bunch of Christians.” And we agree with all that. It is a great community. You can pray with your co-worker, and all that. But we also really tell people, again, if we're about the church and about God working through churches, then you've got to be plugged into a local church. You can't just look at this place here as your church. And so we're not trying to be involved in people's lives to a degree where we’re checking off, did you go to church on Sunday, whatever, whatever. But we are trying to say, “Make sure you are plugged into worshipping, serving, being a part of a community outside of here where God's at work in your own local community.”

Al: That’s great advice, Brian. Thanks.

The second part of Inspirational Leadership is integrity and trust, and you and your leaders are seen as operating with transparency and integrity and creating high levels of trust between leaders and employees. There’s a lot of leaders who wish that they had your level of trust in their organization. So give our listeners a couple of ideas about how you move from decent, slightly above average results to really outstanding results, even in a single year. What steps really most impacted that significant move in integrity and trust in Inspirational Leadership?

Brian: I suspect there were a few things. They're probably all rooted in the word communication, and I think for me as the president, but even also for our executive team, I think we just try to ramp up our outgoing communication to our teams on various things. And so that way, those team members just heard from all of us more about anything. I mean, it could, again, even the health care. It's like, “Hey, we walked them through. Here's kind of the steps we took to find healthcare options. Here's the options we presented to you. Here's why we did it this way.” And that way, they can kind of journey with us on that thought process. Or it could be other things more team-specific about, here's what we're trying to accomplish in the video-creation world or the sales team or whatever. So I think we were intentional that ramping up our communication, which I believe really generates and fosters more trust because people realize, okay, you're being forthright with me, you're trying to keep me in the loop. So I think that's a big part of it.

And then, I think the flipside of it was we tried to listen more. And so part of the feedback we got was, we just want to talk more about my career path and career development and where the next steps are for me as a team member. And so across the board, our leaders sat down and listened to people and said, “Where is it you are now, and where do you want to be? What are the things that are holding you back, or what are the things you need to get there?” And not that you can answer and provide anybody with any thing, but just listening opens up that dialogue for, again I think, there to be trust.

And across the board, I mean, my office as well as any of the other leaders on our team, we have a pretty-open-door policy, just to say, “Look, certainly if there's an issue, question, thing you want to do, just come find us. I mean, come sit down, or say, ‘Hey, can I come find you tomorrow for an hour, and let's just do that?’” And then I think that openness there, to both communicate or we wanted to listen, is what fosters that trust that they've led.

Al: I agree. Boy, communication, and you really did ramp up, as you say, communication, as to what and why you're doing what you're doing. And at the same time, effective communication is listening as well as talking. I love that point.

The third area of Inspirational Leadership is operational excellence. And this is really quite a strong area, not only in year one but it continued to improve in year two. Employees feel that RightNow Media has established a financially stable organization, with good job security for those that perform well. You have momentum—people believe that you've improved over the past year—and they say that you're well managed. So these are really important aspects to Inspirational Leadership. What processes have you put in place, especially those that go smoothly? What can you share with our listeners about your focus in this area?

Brian: Yeah. I think, in fact, the word you probably just used is the word I would camp on, and that's just focus. I think for our organization, we have this desire to serve these churches, these Christian-led businesses, with video content. And so with our platform to 18,000 churches and nearly 2,000 businesses, I mean, we could be offering a lot of other great services and tools and things that you kind of add to that platform. But at the end of the day, we've stayed very narrowly focused on what we're passionate about and what we believe we’re good at. I'd like to believe that just that very, very stringent focus is a big part—I remember telling our team a couple years ago, and we've grown pretty considerably over the last several years, and that’s not necessarily always been a part of our history, and so we've been kind of a slow-and-steady growth for many, many, many, many years. And then the last several years, just been much more rapid. And so I remember telling our team, “I feel like kind of a fast race car headed down the track. And it's fun to be on that ride. But you also know that the faster you go and your hands on the steering wheel, it doesn't take much of a flick of the wrist to the right or left and that car could be off the track or flipping pretty fast. And so let's stay laser-light focused on that front windshield and where we're trying to go because if we start to get distracted and we weave to the left or the right too much, then we're going to be out of luck here.”

So all that to say, I think we've tried to stay as focused as we can, which just means saying no to a lot of good things that could be great. But at the end of the day, we say, yeah, but that's not a bad thing; it just doesn't help us accomplish what we believe we're supposed to do. So when you say that enough and put into practice enough and some of these partnership opportunities have come along, we've said as an executive team and kind of listed out a series of questions that help us as we look through those to go, “Okay, all the answers to these questions could be good answers. But at the end of the day, are they good enough for us to say, ‘Yeah, this warrants moving this direction or taking on that partnership?’” And, again, you have to say no to a lot of great things, but it just has made us, I think, operate with some excellence, because people feel like, “Yeah, there is some consistency, some stability. They're not going to walk into work this week to next week and go, wait, all of a sudden we're doing this brand-new thing. And the next month, it's something else brand new.” And I think they feel like, “No, everything that we're doing falls in line with what I thought I was hired to do in line with that mission.” So, I think that's a big, big, big part of this.

Al: Yeah, focus. Speaking of focus, while our focus has been on Inspirational Leadership so far, I have to ask you about your phenomenal improvement in the driver we call Outstanding Talent. And between the first and second Survey cycle, this improved dramatically, particularly your focus on retaining and rewarding and promoting your top talent. What insight can you give to help us understand this huge improvement?

Brian: Yeah. I think we certainly emphasize our mission a lot in the hiring process and in those early interviews. As the job we're looking for gets to be more kind of a senior level, we're going to spend even more time with those people in that interviewing process. I mean, when we added those three new executive team members about two years ago, I remember—I mean, again, multiple, multiple meetings with each of them as well as other candidates in that job, and telling people, “Well, I love your passion. I love your experience, the skill. I think you could add a lot to what we're doing here.” But I also try to talk about the job and say, “But you need to know we're not corporate America. We may not have some of the perks and the benefits that you're used to there, and I just want to make sure you're clear on that,” or “The team is going to be a little bit differently oriented than maybe you were used to in this other career. And not better or worse, just different.” And so I was trying to talk them out of it because I want people that are walking through the front door for a job, you're saying, “Yeah. As best I can, I get what you're asking me to do. I get what the mission is. I get what my job will be to help accomplish that mission.” And so we've tried really hard to ramp that up.

It’d be easy just to sell all the sizzle and say, “You've got to work here. You want to work here,” and you've got to do some of that. But part of it’s also saying, “Do you really understand when you walk through that front door what it's going to be like?” Said, “I don't want you to get disenfranchised three months later.” And because of that, whether it's at the executive team level or some of the other teams who've been hiring recently, we've been able to keep a lot of great and talented people who walk through that door and come in and say, “Yeah, I like what you guys are doing. I love being a part of this mission.” And we're trying to compensate them well, but many have even said, “Yeah, I'll take less compensation just because I understand the mission and the culture that's there is really valuable.”

Al: That's great. In fact, you're not going to read this, what you've just said, in a lot of magazines about managing; that is, to talk to your best candidates out of the job. But that does breed a sense of commitment. There's no question. And the best people, probably the people that you really want, are the ones who are going to stay. That's fantastic.

Your strategic clarity and your staff's confidence in the excellence of what you deliver is also extremely strong. Are there processes that have been helpful to create this laser focus and goal clarity around what you deliver?

Brian: Yeah. Part of it is saying no to the things that you know are good, like I mentioned earlier. I would say something else. Across all teams that we really worked on here in recent years is just defining the processes that it takes within each team to be successful at what you're doing. And I especially think that's kind of counterintuitive on the creative side. We've got a big part of our team that's creative. They're the ones producing and developing content, and they're just super-super-creative people, and typically, creative people don't like processes. That's not what they always love. But we’ve kind of taken the approach of “Look, if we can develop some processes and some kind of guidelines or boundaries, then I believe that you actually have the opportunity to be more creative in your job because you won't be spinning your wheels on these other things that you're not always good at in terms of the process part of it, but now you kind of know the rules to play by, and so your creativity can run wild within that set of rules versus if I don't give you some boundaries, it just runs everywhere and now we don't know how to corral it.”

So I think part of the excellence and part of the quality that we really tried to achieve and have been able to achieve in many things is because we just developed some process. It doesn’t mean that that process once it's written or developed has to be in stone forever, but at least gives the whole team kind of an operating meaning to say, “Yeah, this is how we do this and why we do this and the approach we’re going to take. And now let's do our best to hit a homerun with that as the guidelines. And if we discover that there's a better way to do it or something changes and we need to adapt, then let's do that. But that way we're all on the same page.”

Al: That’s excellent, yeah.

Brian, when you hear the words inspirational leadership, I bet you there's somebody in your workplace culture that immediately comes to mind. Who at RightNow Media lives and breathes inspirational leadership?

Brian: I would be remiss if I didn’t say I think we’ve got a great team of inspirational leaders who have folks that are willing to work with them and for them. And on the mission side, I think we’ve got a great team. But I guess the story that comes to mind is just a couple months ago, when we were sitting in our break room, and we were gathered there to celebrate the birthday of one of our new executive team members, named Mary. And Mary’s been here for almost two years. She’s brought a lot to our team culture. She's just very thoughtful in all that she does. I mean, she's a business person. She's got her goals, and she's a driven person, but she's very thoughtful. I mean, handwritten notes to a lot of our teams, big verbal encourager to folks.

So I'm sitting there in that break room with her team as well as some of the other executive team members, so there's probably 80 to 90 people in this room. And it's her birthday, and they've invited her in there to celebrate her birthday. I mean, they are singing her silly songs and making her put on a birthday hat and just going all out to make sure that she knew that she was appreciated. And I just remember sitting there, thinking, wow, how great is this for her, relatively new to the team still, and yet, there's these people sitting around her and are kind of showering her with this praise and these gifts. They're saying, “We just love having you on the team and love working for you.” And I thought, okay, that doesn’t happen if you're not an inspirational leader who's helping people say, yeah, this is what we're trying to do, but this is why we're trying to do it, and I care for you, and we're going to get there together. So I loved being a part of that. And I didn't plan it. I was just a spectator. I was just a participant in the party, and it was just fun to see that happen.

Al: That’s great. There's a lot of people that say creating a culture where people feel like they belong is really a key, and you've just described what that feels like and what that looks like, where Mary makes people feel like they belong, but they also reciprocate by making her feel like she belongs. And that's a great story.

Well, Brian, we've really enjoyed all we've learned today. We really like what you said about listening and then acting on what comes out of an Engagement Survey or what just comes out of employee feedback, and how I love that people at RightNow Media are growing in their faith as they serve the church. That's the impression that I get. And I really believe that when it comes to Christian service, people should be growing in their faith as they're serving. And it really hurts me when I hear of people's faith being hurt because of their service in the Body of Christ. So these are just great examples of how you're using communication and how you've ramped up communication to describe what and why you're doing, how you're listening more, how your open-door policy really makes it clear that people can come find you and sit down and talk about important issues, and how by staying on the narrow focus of what you've agreed to do really helps you stay on track with the mission.

So in light of everything that you've shared with us today, is there something you'd like to add?

Brian: I think you summarize it really well. I'm a person who sometimes feels the pressure to get in that leadership role. It's like I've got to have all the answers. And so I'm thinking of going back to this first Survey we took and feeling like, okay, we're going get these results, and I feel like I need to have action plans in place from minute one in order to—I don't know exactly why I was able to kind of release that temptation to have to have all the action plans figured out right off the bat, but my biggest encouragement to those listening and thinking about their culture is just take steps toward the right direction even if you don't have it all figured out or all mapped out, because, again, I think your team will go, “Wow. They do care. They are listening.” And then invite them into the journey because you don’t have to have all the answers, they don't need all the answers; they just want to know that you’re taking steps towards making that workplace a more healthy and flourishing place. So I was glad that my own temptation didn't take over and that we were able just to come back up and say, “Hey, here's where we're at, here's some things that we think we'd like to work on, and journey with us as we try to figure out how to make this even a better place to work.”

Al: Yeah. Boy, that's great.

And I bet you've got one final thought that you'd like to leave with ministry leaders or Christian-led company owners. How about one final thought.

Brian: I don't know if I necessarily consider myself a “business guy.” I mean, certainly in our ministry model, we are business oriented in that we don't receive donations to support what we do. So we have to think about, okay, how much are we spending? Where are we spending it? Will that help generate the revenue? So in that regard, we are kind of a business mindset. Having said that, I can't help but think, focusing on your team and the culture of that team and clarifying your mission and making sure people understand that, that's the best, in my perspective, that’s the best business strategy you could have because if the team members feel like, “Yeah, I love working there. I love working for those leaders. I love working for that mission. I understand where I'm going,” there's all sorts of spreadsheets and metrics that are important in business, but without that focus on the culture and mission, I don't know how your business would ever succeed. So that's something that I think we've learned even more than we anticipated in the last year or two and really thankful that we're having the opportunity focus more and more on that culture.

Al: Yeah. Thanks, Brian.

Ladies and gentlemen, Brian Mosley, president of RightNow Media. Thank you for sharing your wisdom, insights, and stories, and thank you for extending your ministry to the leaders who have been listening and benefiting from all you've shared with us today.

Brian: Thanks, Al. I really appreciate it. Love what you guys do and grateful for the work you guys do to serve people like us. So, thank you.

Al: It’s really our pleasure.

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.