Transcript: Do You Fight For the Highest Good of Those You Lead? // Kevin Hewitt, Christian Children’s Home of Ohio

The Flourishing Culture Podcast Series

“Do You Fight for the Highest Good of Those You Lead?“

April 5, 2021

Kevin Hewitt

Intro: Today's guest highlights the heart of a flourishing Christian leader, who fights for the highest-possible good for those he leads. He takes us on a five-year journey of actions that he and his team have taken to improve the health of their workplace for the sake of the children they serve.

Al Lopus: Welcome to another episode of the Flourishing Culture Podcast, where our goal is to equip and inspire you to build a flourishing workplace. As we all face today's leadership challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we believe having a healthy culture is more important now than ever before. We are here to help you eliminate toxicity, improve your employees’ engagement, speed up new innovation, and grow your organization's impact.

And before we meet our guest today, I urge you to subscribe to this podcast. As a result, you’ll receive our action guide. It’s our gift to help you lead your organization’s culture to the next level. To subscribe, simply go to bcwinstitute.org/podcast. Hit the Subscribe button and receive our free action guide.

If you can share this podcast with others, and rate it, it would mean a lot to me. Thank you.

And now, let's meet today's special guest.

During the next few minutes, you're going to hear an inspiring story. It's a story rooted in deep, compassionate, life-giving love of Jesus. It's a story of children experiencing His love, some for the very first time. And my guest is someone who knows this story by heart. And I want to welcome Kevin Hewitt, the president and CEO of the Christian Children's Home of Ohio. Kevin, I'm delighted to welcome you to the Flourishing Culture Podcast.

Kevin Hewitt: Well, thanks, Al. And it is my pleasure to be with you today on the Flourishing Culture Podcast and to share a little bit about what God is doing at CCHO and our family of ministries.

Al: Yeah, great. Well, I'm looking forward to it, Kevin. And, you know, there's a lot of places we can start with this conversation, and your organization's mission is really the reason that you and I are here. The mission of the Christian Children Home of Ohio is what? Tell us what it is.

Kevin: I’d love to. So our overarching purpose at Christian Children’s Home of Ohio—along with our residential program at Christian Children’s Home of Ohio, we also have Encourage Foster Care and Encompass Christian Counseling. And our overarching purpose of all those is to help more people experience their worth in Christ; for people to understand that no matter what has happened to them—kids, including kids from really, really difficult, hard places, experiencing severe trauma—that is not who they are. That's not their identity, but rather, their identity is found in Jesus's redemptive grace and who He says they are: children of the King.

Al: Yeah.

Kevin: One of the things we talk about around here is we know that we will never lock eyes with someone who wasn't worth enough for Jesus to die for. And then, each of our departments, the three I just mentioned—Christian Children’s Home of Ohio, Encourage Foster Care, and Encompass Christian Counseling—has their own mission as well. And one of the really powerful ones is our residential program’s mission. And that comes from Ezekiel 11:19, which is God's promise to the brokenhearted, which is clear and encouraging. “I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I’ll put within them. I’ll remove the heart of stone from the flesh and give them a heart of flesh.” Time and again we’ve watched God move in miraculous ways to change the bruised and battered hearts of boys and girls who have never heard that they are loved unconditionally. They come to us in crisis and in need, and they find safety, healing, and peace.

Al: Amen. That’s a wonderful thing. Yeah, such powerful words, Kevin, all the stories of children who’ve experienced such unconditional transforming love. Can you tell us about one that holds the story of Christian Children's Home of Ohio?

Kevin: Yeah. We've been blessed to minister to literally thousands of kids over our 50-year-plus history. But today I want to actually share a letter that we just received; I believe it was in January. And this letter is actually from the mom, adoptive mom, of a young girl that she placed at CCHO. And this is after Ashley—not her real name, but we’ll call her Ashley—has come home.

“Dear, CCHO staff. I'll never be able to thank you enough. You truly saved my little girl's life. When Ashley arrived in January, she was broken, suicidal, angry, confused, and miserable. Now nine months later”—so that would have been last June—"now nine months later, she is a new person, and it is thanks to all of you.

“The past year has been by far the most difficult year of my life. I actually literally turned my life upside down last year at this time. Local child psych units wouldn't take her because she was on Medicaid. Psychiatrists and social workers told me to get rid of her or just give her back. One suggested I take her to the hospital and leave her and let CSB try to file neglect charges on you. They told her she will never make it in residential treatment; she's way too messed up.

“Despite having no help from these professionals, there was no way I was going to give up on her. She is my daughter. I refuse to be yet another adult in her life who failed her. I knew I had to find her help no matter what it cost me.

“I'll never forget the day I found CCHO while searching online. I knew it is where I wanted Ashley to be. It was the perfect fit. It certainly would be a long road, but I knew that Ashley needed intensive help if she was going to survive and not kill herself.

“Fast forward nine months later. You have seen Ashley on her best and worst days. You have dried her tears. You have calmed her nerves. You have loved her and been the best surrogate parents I could ever ask for. There were days I would sit and look at pictures of Ashley, taken prior to when she fell apart, and just cry and cry, wondered if I would ever see that Ashley again, or if the sweet girl I adopted is gone forever, unable to heal from her trauma.

“You have given me that little girl back. You worked tirelessly with her to help her heal. You were cussed at, kicked, hit, punched, head-butted, screamed at, etc., but you never gave up on her or made her feel like she didn't matter or that she was not safe. Even at nine years old, Ashley knows CCHO saved her life. I am positive when she grows up, she’ll reflect back and realize the amazing impact you had on her and how you shaped the rest of her life. I'll make sure she always knows what you did for her.

“From the bottom of my heart, thank you for everything. My little girl is home where she belongs, and it's thanks to all of you. You're all angels and my personal heroes. Most sincerely, Ashley’s mom, Elizabeth.”

Al: Wow. Well, there's a story of life-giving work for your nearly 200 employees—

Kevin: Yeah.

Al: —the impact that they have. Isn’t that great, Kevin. Wow.

Kevin: Yeah. And we know— I mean, I know Elizabeth said that we saved her. We know it's through the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit and God working through us. But it is, when we see families reunited, from hopeless to hopeful, is just powerful.

Al: Hm, yeah. Wow.

Well, I can only imagine the kind of people needed to run an organization that makes such transformation possible. So how important is it that Christian Children's Home of Ohio is a healthy workplace culture?

Kevin: I don't know, Al, if the word imperative is strong enough, so let's go with very, very, very, very, very, very important. You know, when we’re dealing with children and adults working through their trauma, they’re simply not in healthy places. So it’s imperative that our staff is as healthy as possible because we know this equation doesn't work. Unhealthy children plus unhealthy staff does not equal healthy, healed children. And so we work as hard as we can to have our staff as healthy as possible so that we can help them engage, connect with kids, and help them heal.

Al: Yeah. I often tell church leaders that the health of the church today is the health of the congregation tomorrow. But in your case, the health of your staff today is the health of the children that you're working with, as shown by the example that you've just mentioned. Yeah. We like to think that flourishing Christian workplaces glorify God and attract people to Christ, but also puts them in a position to help heal others, especially in the work that you're doing. Wow.

Kevin: Amen.

Al: That’s just great, Kevin. Yeah.

So sooner or later, every leader takes note of their culture, and you notice what's going on really well and what's maybe not going on so well. And you desire the best for your people because your mission is so incarnate, so important. So what brought you to BCWI and motivated you and your team to do an Engagement Survey of your people?

Kevin: Actually, Al, it’s interesting you ask that question, because it was you. You motivated me to utilize BCWI. It was actually my first workshop and the first time I ever went to your Christian Leadership Alliance’s Outcomes Conference in Dallas. And you shared, and it was just powerful. You shared the flourishing model. And we had—so I've been here 15 years at CCHO, and we have had various employee-satisfaction surveys in the past. We had worked with local colleges. And they were good, but one of the things that we were really looking for was, How do we gauge what it means to work for a Christian organization? And the BCWI Survey does such a great job of assessing leadership, professional teamwork, the opportunity for spiritual growth for the staff, the spiritual foundation.

You know, one of the things that's difficult in our field is there are many children's homes, particularly in the eastern part of the United States, that started as Christian organizations. And for whatever reasons, they have not maintained that heritage. And one of our desires is to maintain that heritage. And so BCWI really keeps us on track in maintaining that Christian heritage.

And also, we really try to be for our staff because they daily are the hands, feet, and sometimes the mouth of Jesus to children and adults who are hurting. I have a really cool view outside my office of our whole kind of panorama of our whole campus. And there are so many times, Al, that I am amazed as I watch our staff deal with hurting kids, and the love that they display and just the compassion and the care.

And we also know, and it’s a really cool thing about our purpose of helping more people experience their worth in Christ, that purpose is for our external customers, the ones we interact with, that make referrals for kids, our clients we serve. But it's also for our internal customers as well. So we want this to be a place where they can experience their worth as well, a place that our staff feel comfortable and growing in their relationship and to be a better disciple of Christ. And we want to know the reality of where we are and how we can get better when we do BCWI.

Al: Yeah, right. Well, that's clear.

You know, you've been working with Cary Humphries now for five years, I think.

Kevin: Yeah.

Al: And as we do with every ministry partner we serve, Cary came with a thorough, detailed report of the results, and pinpointed the health of your culture. And he told me that before he debriefed your team and the Survey results, that you shared something very thoughtful—and this is probably one of the more recent years—helpful words to your staff. What was the message you had for your staff and your people? What did you want them to really know?

Kevin: Well, first, let me say that Cary has been such a pleasure to work with, and his passion for BCWI and helping organizations work is evident in all he does, and the way he unpacks the Survey is pretty amazing to me.

But one of the questions Cary always asked initially is, tell us a little bit about the last year. And it was amazing. As I began our debrief, which just occurred in February. So it was really debriefing the very unusual 2020 year.

Al: Yeah.

Kevin: It really reminded me just how grateful I was for our executive team and our entire staff as we navigated through the pandemic. Very up front, I really didn't know what to expect from this year's Survey due to so many unforeseen, unprecedented, and unusual circumstances of the past year. But in the midst of the pandemic, CCHO’s staff just continued to display tremendous courage, creativity, and compassion. Our core values of relentless commitment, selflessness, and kindness were evident in all that they did.

So as you can imagine, throughout the pandemic, we had many staff concerned about their own and their family's health and safety. I mean, we all were. Yet they continued to come in and fulfill their responsibilities to our clients and their fellow teammates to the point of coming to work even when there was a COVID-19 positive case in a cottage or if they were working in a school, at a school.

We did a couple of just really crazy-cool things, too. We did an amazing job of pivoting to telemental-health services for counseling and foster-care services in just over two weeks for nearly 75 clinical staff.

Al: Hm. Wow.

Kevin: At the same time, because of the fact our residential staff were suddenly faced with having their school-aged children home due to this, the governor closing the schools, we developed an on-campus child care for our residential staff so they would ease their mind as they knew that their staff, their kids were being cared for. And our residential team and HR department worked together to essentially do that in over just one weekend.

Al: Wow.

Kevin: And then, think about being a foster parent or even working in our residential program and hearing that, “Oh, we have a kid that needs placed. We don't really know a whole lot about their background. We don't know who they've been exposed to. Would you be willing to open up your home or have them come to CCHO?” And actually, our foster parents and residential staff said, “Bring them. We want to help. We want them to experience their worth in Christ.”

And then one of the coolest things of the whole pandemic is we also had several socially distanced baptisms in our residential program, which is, of course, the person baptizing and the person being baptized weren’t socially distanced, but the people watching were. And, Al, I love baptisms. I love all kinds of baptism. But there's something about kids that have been recipients of severe trauma, who come from hard places, when they understand who they are and accept that amazing salvation, I get goose bumps just talking about it.

Al: Yeah. Gosh. Clearly, a new life. I mean, a demarcation to a new life. What a wonderful—

Kevin: Yeah, yeah.

Al: —what a wonderful story and experience. That's fantastic, Kevin.

So, let's go back to that first Survey, I mean, now five years ago. Tell us about what that revealed in the health of your culture. And I really appreciate how much you've improved over the last five years, but tell us about that first year.

Kevin: Yeah. Actually, I forget most of it because it wasn’t real pretty. No, I’m just kidding. It actually did paint a clear picture of where we needed to improve. Our first Survey, back in 2016, clearly identified a fracture of trust between administration and the rest of our staff. There was also disappointing results in terms of pay and benefits. It just—we were able to see a couple of departments that were really—came out low. And, yeah, it was a challenge.

Al: And while—let me just say—I mean, you did have—you were in the cusp. You were considered a healthy workplace at that point, but even—above a 4.0, you’re a certified—but still, you came out with those suggestions, and you’ve worked on them, that’s for sure. And for our ministry partners who survey annually, they see the benefit in focusing on one or two areas, as you’ve described. What was one area that you and your people then went after to improve? What were some of the action steps that you took?

Kevin: Well, with Cary’s help, we actually created focus groups and asked our staff to help us understand what do we look like them to score CCHO higher in trust in leadership, utilizing Appreciative Inquiry models that Cary introduced to us. We actually asked about the trust-fracturing events. And where we could try to remedy or redeem some of those things, we did. Led to great conversations and definitely healing. As leaders, as you can imagine, we're often unaware of identified trust-fracturing events.

And then we also made a conscious effort to raise the pay of our lowest-paying positions, as well as rewarding staff who went above and beyond. I think one of the questions on the BCWI Survey has to do with employees that do a good job are rewarded appropriately.

Al: Right.

Kevin: And we scored really low on that one. And so we went after that, too.

Al: We see this as phases on the road to flourishing. We see that discovery phase. That’s the Survey and the focus groups, as you said. And then, you build a plan in order to improve. And you've built a plan around raising pay and rewarding top performers, and also to heal the gaps that cause trust to break down in the first place. What you then did is you begin to see growth and improvement. And then it's rinse and repeat. And you came back, and another phase of discovery, and there you are.

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

Female: As we come through the COVID-19 crisis, leaders everywhere are asking, how do we understand the tensions our employees are experiencing coming back to work? How do we keep our employees engaged, hold on to our best talent, and position ourselves to thrive as an organization going forward? If you're looking for a way forward, the Best Christian Workplaces Institute can guide you onto the road to a flourishing workplace.

The first step to begin the journey is our well-known Employee Engagement Survey. This proven online tool pinpoints where your organization is already strong and where you can improve your employees’ workplace experience, resulting in more productive people. That's right. You'll have more engaged, productive, and fulfilled people. Time-consuming guesswork won't get you there. Instead, let us help you with a fact-based, hope-inspiring action plan that only our Employee Engagement Survey and skillful coaching can provide. Sign up now to begin the journey to build a flourishing workplace culture and a thriving organization. Find out more at bcwinstitute.org.

Al: And now, back to today’s special guest.

Tell us about another action-step strategy that was maybe a game changer for your culture, Kevin.

Kevin: Actually, the one that I think was a game changer was—again, going back to the trust and the communication—is we actually developed a cascading messages meeting—

Al: Wow.

Kevin: —which is—because one of the things we recognized with those first couple of BCWI Surveys was maybe we thought we were doing a good job communicating and then realized not every level of our organization felt that same way.

Al: Yeah.

Kevin: So the cascading messages was really where we brought in our supervisors—anybody from a supervisor level—and before we announced to any decision to the whole staff, we wanted to get, one, make our supervisors aware of it and then, two, to get their input as well: if there's any concerns, did we need to massage the message, did we need to change the message. That was a game changer for our supervisors, and it really empowered them and gave them ownership, even greater ownership, to their departments. And that was strictly based on our BCWI results.

Al: Wow. Yeah, that's great. I love that. We'll come back to it. Yeah.

So, you really started us off with a compelling story, and I think all of our listeners appreciate that. But then, what links a healthy, even, in your case now, a flourishing culture to the life-changing outcomes that you've talked about?

Kevin: That's a great question. Our definition of love—and that's kind of weird to think about an organization, a definition of love—but it really comes from some of the work we're doing with GiANT leadership, who I can't recommend enough. And it's the concept of fighting for the highest-possible good of those you lead for those you serve. And of course, nothing embodies fighting for the highest-possible good more than Jesus and the fact that He died for us. But I really think that is what links a healthy, flourishing culture to life-changing outcomes: fighting for the highest good of others.

And as I mentioned earlier, it's not just for those we serve, our clients, but it's also fighting for the highest good of the others we serve with. So my teammates, anybody at CCHO, I really think when people know you're for them, they're willing to do the hard work of improving. And I have to think as a leader, am I willing to do the hard work to fight for someone else's highest good, where, then, might include me having to understand me and how I get in my own way at times. That is a challenge when we start unpacking even some of our own stuff.

There're so many challenges and verses in scripture, as we all know, but I think two of the most powerful are found in Philippians 2, verses 3 and 4. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. But in humility, see others better than yourselves. Look not on your own things, but look also on the things of others.” Am I willing to live out that verse, or those verses? What's it mean to see others better than myself, in humility? So that, if we can answer that. And I think of that even in the broader terms of just the Christendom. Man, imagine how different it would look keeping others better than ourselves. Imagine how much today's angst would be reduced if we could just get those. And we don't even have to talk about verses 5 through 11 of Philippians 2, with Jesus’s humility.

Al: Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah. To the point of death on the cross, yeah.

Kevin: Yeah.

Al: Yeah.

Well, I love your point, Kevin, about self-awareness, getting out of your own way, knowing yourself well enough to get out of your own way. That's important for anybody, especially leaders. And the ancients in the faith describe the importance of self-awareness in their own spiritual growth as well as their effectiveness in leading others.

You know, you and your team have worked hard and really worked well to become a certified best Christian workplace. And what's the biggest positive your culture has going for it? What's one big thing that you're currently working on to help move CCHO forward?

Kevin: The biggest positive our culture has going for it right now is the trust in that we are for each other. It doesn't take people long—actually, we do it during orientation training now, the fact that we are committed to leadership development. And we really want people to develop because we know that we can't lead others well if we can't lead ourselves well. And so we want to give them the tools and as many opportunities as they can get to become a better version of ourselves or become a better version of themselves—

Al: Yeah.

Kevin: —coming as close as possible to that fully surrendered follower of Christ, because we know that when we become better versions of ourselves, we actually become better CCHO staff members, which is important here. But here's the cool thing. We also become better spouses, better children, better parents, better church members, better community members. It can only be God that when we work on becoming closer and more like Christ, we actually help others even more than ourselves.

And I’d also argue that simply emphasizing the worth of each individual, it makes it easier to realize others are so much more than what has happened to them or even how they react to it. You know, one of the things that's big around here is I love to watch our resident kids just be kids. We have a big green space, a ball field, and I love to just hear them laughing, because you know what? They're not the sexual abuse that has happened to them. They're not the physical abuse that happened to them. They're really just kids. And when we hear laughter like that, we get excited about that.

So the one big thing we're currently working on is actually the Matthew 18 principle, or as GiANT describes it, going to the source. We don't want to create sideways energy by going to others and talk about a person without going to that person directly first. And we say care enough to go to that person directly, again, to understand their worth enough for you to go to that person directly.

Al: Yeah. Matthew 18. I love the way you described no sideways energy. You know, that is not productive. Absolutely.

Kevin: Correct.

Al: Yeah.

So at the end of the day, it all comes back to kids, to the children that you work with. I love the way you described looking out of your office window, seeing kids playing, laughing. Laughing just gives me the sense that previous hurts are being healed with laughter.

Kevin: Yeah.

Al: You know, it's all about these kids, isn't it.

Kevin: Probably a weird response to this, Al, is yes and no, because we desire with all our hearts that the children we work with understand who they are and the value placed on them by God. But at the end of the day, our kids are going to move through our program. They're either going to go home or a less-restrictive environment. They're going to be adopted. They're going to go—our foster parents are going to adopt the kids, or they’re going to go home. And while each of those kids have utmost importance, our main fighting, fighting for the highest-good of others, is really our staff because they're the ones that are going to be greeting that next child and its place at CCHO, that next child placed in Encourage Foster Care, that next client that's waiting in the lobby for Encompass Christian Counseling centers. I'm eternally grateful that Jesus fought for our highest good, and I want others to understand that as well.

One of the amazing things, Al, is to see kids and adults who have been told they are useless, worthless, and even worse, probably words I can't even describe, I can’t even share, to see them understand that they are children of the King, puts a smile on all of our faces and I'm sure on Jesus, the great redeemer of even the worst situations.

Al: Yeah. And along the way, you've had the pleasure to even reconnect, I'm sure, with former residents, maybe even meet their spouse or children. What was that like? I'm sure a life-giving experience.

Kevin: It's really interesting, Al, because what you just mentioned is one of the difficulties, not what you just mentioned one of the difficulties, but one of the difficulties in our job is the fact that we're investing. And a lot of times we don't see the results of that investment, where there's days which I just built chairs because at least I could see the chair when I was done with it. And, you know, you do that, too, because you guys invest in people as well. But God has blessed me with several God winks through the years, where He reminded me of His sovereignty in the midst of this difficult field.

So, I worked with a young man once. His name was Jerry, and he was 18. Well, he came into foster care when he was 17. And he was just a good kid. Like, we just hit it off. And I was a case manager at that time. And he was doing fantastic. He was actually in the Ohio State choir. We took him down to the state fair. He sang in that. He had all these skills. He was great.

But one of the things about kids in care in the state of Ohio is that at the age of 18, they can emancipate themselves. They can just say, “I'm done.” And you can imagine, if you've been in custody for a while and you have not had any ability to have any choices at all, you really look at that freedom as a giant reward. But you also, as a foster-care agency, we can work on folks 18 placement so that you can actually stay in placement until they graduate from high school.

Well, we thought we had this great post-18 placement agreement with Jerry. We thought things were going well, and Jerry just gets mad one day and takes off. And I am crushed because here I had invested all, what I thought, a lot of time into. I thought that we had connected. I thought that he cared, but I was crushed.

So fast forward 15 years. And at this point, my wife and I are youth leaders and along with working in this field, but at our church. And so we're taking a group to Acquire the Fire teen conferences. I don’t know if you remember those. Ron Luce and staff.

Al: Right, right.

Kevin: Acquire the Fire. So, on the way out, my wife and I take two separate vans. And of course, that's always an interesting time, who gets to sit with who, and then we're going to Cleveland State University. And I started going down a wrong way street, trying to find a parking space. I'm just flustered. They don't have assigned seating, so everybody waits outside. They opened the doors, and people just jammed in. So we had 30 kids I’m trying to corral, trying to figure out where to sit. As you can tell, my anxiety level’s increasing because my voice is increasing. So I sit down, and we finally get everybody seated, and I look across the way, and I notice a family that had left their church. And unfortunately, I was not at the point I was mature enough not to have. So I started to grumble a little bit about that, too, of saying, “Oh, they can come to,” again, just feeling woe is me. And I'm just not in a good place. And I get a tap on my shoulder. And at this point, I'm pretty sure it's the police saying that I'm going to arrest you, saw I went down the wrong way. I'm just grumbling, and would you know and would you believe it was Jerry. And he said, “You’re Kevin, right?” And I’m like, “Yeah.” And he goes, “I’m Jerry.” I’m like, “Jerry. Jerry Smith.” And he said, “Yeah.” So I give him this big hug, and he goes, “I just want to tell you that I got it, and not only did I get it, Kevin, but now I'm a youth pastor at a church in Kent and I led 40 kids to Christ last year.”

Al: Wow.

Kevin: And so I literally sat down with tears in my eyes, as you can imagine, thanking God, reminding me of His sovereignty and that I wasn’t in control. It was almost like God was telling me,” Kevin, I got this. You just love Me, and I'll take care of it. “ That's one of the God winks. I could share several more, but—

Al: I'm sure, yeah. That’s just fantastic. Thanks for sharing, Kevin. That’s great.

Well, I've really enjoyed everything we've talked about and learned. You know, I just think you want to make sure that CCHO is a Christian workplace, you know, for the sake of the staff as well as the kids. And I do believe that when you're doing work for Christ, you should be growing in your faith, and sometimes that's not always the case, so good for you. And I really appreciate that even during the pandemic that you had the courage to survey your staff and continue the discovery process and the cycle and how you really focused on courage, creativity, and compassion, and the way you pivoted. We just did a webinar on the fact that engaged employees are in a better position to pivot and innovate than if you had a toxic culture. You know, more now than ever, culture eats strategy for breakfast. And yet there you were, telemental health, on-campus child care for your employees’ kids while they were out of school, socially distanced baptisms. What an inspirational story that still kids were coming to Christ and being baptized. And, you know, you continue to, well, that first Survey, I love what you said, that well, you didn't have such strong trust between the leaders and your employees, some issues with pay and benefits, some disparities between departments, and how trust was fractured in different ways, and you went head on and worked to heal each of those areas and how you've really focused on cascading messages. And your idea, I appreciate this idea that fighting for the highest good, the highest-possible good of those that you serve and lead is really, really great. Well, I mean, lots of great things.

How about something to add that we haven't talked about.

Kevin: I don't want to end without mentioning that a clear culture catalyst for us is leadership development. It's to the point of we are so passionate about developing leaders, I knew that there would be a point that we didn't have positions for the leaders that we were developing. And while I could say that confidently that we would be excited about planting our DNA into another organization, if that person was able to move up, really trying to look out for their highest good, it really didn't occur until the last couple of months, and it happened. It was actually a great party. And the former staff member actually thanked me over and over again for investing in him as a leader and that he was going to take what he learned here into his next position. And that actually is, as tough as that sounds that time, it actually made me feel really good that what we're doing is right.

And I always, always heard the anecdotal evidence that you receive many times the return on investment when you invest in leadership development. Well, I'm here to add my voice and agree to invest in leadership development.

Al: Thanks, yeah. I appreciate you really focusing on that.

And how about to conclude our interview, I bet you there's one final thought that you'd like to share with those that are listening.

Kevin: Yeah. You know, one is utilize BCWI—I know you didn’t ask me to say that, Al, but you guys really are helpful—but discovering the reality of where you are as a ministry can be slow, painful, and scary, but it is worth it. And I think one of the things that I am learning and have learned through this whole process is don't feel that you need to have all the answers. Be willing to ask for help. Be transparent. Tackle the scary emotions, the feelings of unworthiness. One of the things I strive to be is, John describes Jesus in chapter one, verse 14 of John, full of truth and grace. And I think wouldn't that be a great saying on our tombstones? And I have a long, long way to go, but I'm grateful that we're always growing, and I'm grateful that we never walk alone.

Al: Yeah. Well, that's a great bottom line, Kevin. Yeah. So, you get some feedback, and sometimes it can be painful, maybe scary, but, you know, to have the courage to take that and tackle those scary emotions, I appreciate that thought very much. That's exactly right. And the outcome is so much more worth it.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, Kevin Hewitt, the president and CEO of the Christian Children's Home of Ohio, thanks so much for being so open, genuine, transparent with us. I really sense your integrity, your true commitment to your colleagues for those children that you serve. And I really appreciate, most of all, your devotion and your desire to keep CCHO a Christian organization and service to our loving God. So thanks for taking the time out of your day and speaking into the lives of so many listeners today. Thanks, Kevin.

Kevin: Hey, you're welcome. And thanks, Al, for all you do for the Christian world and Christian organizations and churches and businesses to flourish. We're grateful for you.

Outro: Thank you for joining us on the Flourishing Culture Podcast and for investing this time in your workplace culture. If there's a specific insight, story, or action step you've enjoyed, please share it with others so they can benefit, too. Please share this podcast with friends on social media, and show your support by rating, reviewing, and subscribing wherever you listen.

This program is copyrighted by the Best Christian Workplaces Institute. All rights reserved. Our writer is Mark Cutshall. Our social-media and marketing manager is Solape Osoba.

Remember, a healthy workplace culture drives greater impact and growth for your organization. We'll see you again soon on the Flourishing Culture Podcast.