Transcript: Transforming Lives: How Organizational Health Shapes the Christian Higher Ed Experience // Dr. Steve Mason, LeTourneau University

Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast

“Transforming Lives: How Organizational Health Shapes the Christian Higher Ed Experience“

March 25, 2024

Dr. Steve Mason

Intro: Is organizational health one of your top mission-critical objectives? Well, how do you navigate challenging cultural pressures and stay true to your mission? Today on the Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast, we'll focus on how to keep improving workplace health in a Christian-university setting. Listen in to learn practical steps to improve trust in leadership and work toward a healthy workplace with engaged employees, with my guest, Dr. Steve Mason, the president of LeTourneau University.

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, I'm Al Lopus, the co-founder of the Best Christian Workplaces and author of the book Road to Flourishing. You know, I'm passionate about helping Christian leaders like you create engaged, flourishing workplaces.

I’m delighted to welcome Dr. Steve Mason to the podcast today. Steve’s the president of LeTourneau University, which is a Christian polytechnic university.

Throughout our conversation, you'll hear Steve Mason talk about the importance of having organizational health as a mission-critical objective, steps to build trust as a key to inspirational leadership, keys to build trust with faculty at the university, and being true to the Christian foundation of the university.

I think you're going to love this interview with Steve Mason. But before we dive in, this episode is brought to you by Best Christian Workplaces’ Employee Engagement Survey. I urge you to take a proactive step towards enhancing your organization's effectiveness. Sign up today to gain valuable insights into your employees’ energy, enthusiasm, commitment, and passion. Prioritize your team's engagement and well-being, ensuring that they are better equipped to meet the needs of those you serve and fulfill your mission. So, learn more by going to workplaces.org. Check it out today.

Now let me tell you a little bit more about Dr. Steve Mason. Dr. Mason is the president of LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas. He's been the president of the university since 2021, and he came up through the ranks of faculty with a Ph.D. in Old Testament Studies. He was appointed provost in 2016. He's been recognized for his excellence in both teaching and research, along with his leadership and strategy and administration for the university. Dr. Mason is committed not only to Christian education and scholarship, but also to church life and discipleship. He's a licensed minister and an ordained elder at the One Hope Presbyterian Church in Longview, Texas. LeTourneau University is known as the Christian polytechnic university. LeTourneau is a comprehensive institution of Christian higher education where educators engaged learners to nurture Christian virtue, develop competency and integrity in their professional fields, integrating faith and work, and serving the local and global community.

So, here's my conversation with Steve Mason.

Steve, it’s great to have you back on the podcast, and I'm looking forward to our conversation today.

Dr. Steve Mason: Thank you, Al. I’m honored to be on the podcast. It’s always great to connect with you. And I’m so grateful for LeTourneau’s relationship with BCW and the ways that you and your team have invested in our mission to help us become a better, healthier organization. So, thank you. I’m glad to be here.

Al: Yeah. Well, so, first of all, Steve, you know, I want to congratulate you and the LeTourneau University faculty and staff for being a certified best Christian workplace. Congratulations.

Steve: Thank you. That is a great achievement. We’re really proud of that. It's a great moment for our institution. It has been entirely a team effort by the campus. It’s faculty and staff and leadership and others. We’ve all worked together to become a healthier workplace. And it's sort of amazing to think about the strides we've made in the way that this reflects, you know, our values as an institution, the passion of our faculty and staff to bring about their best to the workplace. And so, it's a designation that we're very proud of, we’re humbled by. And thanks for, yeah, thanks for being part of it.

Al: Well, thanks for all of your efforts to bring this about. I’m looking forward, as we get into this conversation, just to see your view. What are the benefits?

But, you know, you and your leaders at LeTourneau have been using the Best Christian Workplace Employee Engagement Survey now for a number of years. And it's been a process over time. And you and your leadership team have moved the organization to a place of health. And I know that, a few years ago, you identified organizational health as one of your four mission-critical objectives. And as you look back over the past few years, you know, there are some practical changes that you've made and your leadership team has implemented to move towards a healthy workplace. So, give us a couple ideas. You know, what are a few of those areas that you've really focused on to improve your employee engagement?

Steve: I think what's been really foundational and important for us as an institution is that we made organizational health one of our, what we call, mission-critical objectives, one of the four main pillars of our strategic plan. I think in doing that, it's sort of named that “This is really important. This is a critical piece to the entire mission of the organization.” I think, so, first and foremost, having it as part of the strategic plan has been a way to signal to everyone that we want to be as healthy as we can. We can only go as far as we are healthy, if you will. And so that, I think, was important for us as we established the most recent strategic plan.

And then, you know, very practically what that's done is we've got teams that are connected to every part of our strategic plan. And so the team that's been a part of that particular objective has been working for months, now several years, toward goals that really move us forward, that are measurable. They’re smart goals in relationship to organizational health. So just by naming that, that's been important. By making that a priority, it's been a way that the leadership has said to the entire campus, “This is really important to us.”

And then, we've done some other things. So, for example, we've got a standing university committee that essentially is about campus health and wellness, that it meets on a regular basis, that works with our strategic-planning team, always staying aware of ways that we can improve as an institution in various ways.

We've also created a cabinet-level position, Al. When I thought it was important enough to keep these conversations—of course, we're always talking about it as a cabinet leadership. But I've got a vice president for campus and community engagement. And that, in part, has to do specifically with someone that can always help us think through what it means to maintain, improve, advance our organizational health. And I think that's been important for us as an institution.

So, we've got the strategic planning. It's an objective in our strategic plan. We've got the strategic-planning team. We've got a standing committee at the university. I created this position a few years ago on our cabinet leadership. And then, we’ve done some things through that, on a real practical level, that I think is born out of an atmosphere where we're trying, to our best ability, to keep employee health strong.

So, for example, we've created some extra paid time-off days, PTO days, that we felt, you know, at universities, you've got your faculty and you have your staff. Faculty are typically but not always on nine-month contracts, and they've got spring breaks and fall breaks and those kinds of things. Our staff, which actually makes up a greater segment of our employee population, don't get those kinds of natural academic calendar days off, and so that creates a little bit of a disparity. And so we wanted to see what we could do to improve that.

So, we experimented. One year, we gave certain days, five days off, in the summer, special days off. And then the next year, we did it a little bit differently. We gave a few days of fall break to all employees. We gave a few days at spring break to all employees. And then, we surveyed them, and we said, “It's important to us that there's some time to recharge.”

And we really believe, Al, that the kind of people that work at LeTourneau University, they're only going to be more productive, if you will, if they're replenished, if they're recharged, because they all feel so strongly about the mission of this place. And so in that, we decided on a certain set of extra paid time, paid days off, which has been helpful.

We've also created a policy, if you will, by which people are recognized. They’re paid for a certain amount of community-service hours. One of the things that's really important to us, which I think is part of organizational health, is being highly connected to our Longview and East Texas community. We have so many people that are giving of them their time. Sometimes they're in leadership roles or they're highly involved in other organizations, ministries, and others around the community, and they're having to do that. They either have to take time off, which isn’t ideal, or they've got to do it outside of working hours. And so we've created a system by which they can register those hours. And so that's, you know, part of being a whole person. We all work at LeTourneau, but we've got lives outside of this.

And we've been able to act upon some things. The Survey's been particularly helpful in this way, because I'll give one example. Our healthcare benefits scored low on the Survey for consecutive years, and that really spoke to us and said, “Okay. What we're offering is not working well enough for our employee body.” And so because of the Survey, we were able to say, “This is not just a one-year thing; this is a consecutive-year concern.” And so with BCW’s help, we created a healthcare-specific survey to then get a better feel for what exactly the points of concern were. And in light of that, after about a year of working on this, we were able to transition to a different healthcare plan.

And, you know, I'm just so grateful that a survey doesn't tell you everything. But when you do it in consecutive years, it becomes a benchmark in many ways of places that not only are growth areas, but also things that are going well. And that’s been helpful. “Okay. It looks like we’re doing a number of things well. Let's make sure that we don't take our eye off the ball on those things. Let's continue to do those things and maybe even more.” And so that's been a part of the journey for us, and it's been a great part of it.

Al: Well, those are just great examples, Steve. Thanks. You named it as a mission-critical objective. You created a standing committee of faculty and staff. You've created a cabinet-level position where somebody has responsibility for it. You're keeping your employee health strong and allowing them to recharge. Yeah. Great. Community-service hours. And, you know, and I've been to Longview, there on your campus, and yeah, you are. I love it that you're such a part of the community and how that community is an important part of LeTourneau’s life and existence. And, yeah, how you use the Survey to identify opportunities for improvement, particularly in health care.

So, several of your top areas, Steve, in the results of the Survey show that inspirational leadership is something that has really improved. Your faculty and staff feel like they can trust leadership. And, you know, for those of you listening in Christian higher ed, yes, faculty and staff say they can trust leadership and that LeTourneau is well managed and leaders exhibit humility. So, employees also feel that they're involved in decisions that affect them. Why is this sense of inclusion and trust important to you, Steve? I know that it is. And can you point to some specific areas where changes have helped your team improve, specifically in these areas of leadership and decision making?

Steve: Good question. It is important to me. I think probably any CEO, to some level, feels some sort of personal responsibility for the well-being of our employees. Certainly, it goes beyond a single person. There's a leadership team. There's layers of leadership. But there is something about the idea that we have faculty and staff that will in some cases, rare cases, but in some cases will invest 50 years of their life here. We just had a party for an employee who's beginning their fiftieth year of full-time service. My assistant for many years has retired, but she worked here 55 straight years. That is phenomenal.

So, the idea that I think about a lot is we certainly are educating and forming students to go out into workplaces and nations and to be a light, salt and light. But for many of us, this is where God has called us. And to have a place that we not only enjoy working, but find it meaningful, find it purposeful, find camaraderie, and a place where our gifts are being maximized, that's something that, in my leadership role, I feel quite a burden for, be honest. And yet it certainly is everybody's responsibility collectively. It doesn't come down to any single individual, but it is a high value for me. There's the idea that when people come to LeTourneau, we have over 500 employees, that they find that they're experiencing God's pleasure, to use the Eric Liddell quote, that they are living according to God's call upon their life.

So, it is important to me, and I know that it's important to everyone else. We've got such dedicated faculty and staff here. And so retaining—not just attracting, but also retaining—top-notch faculty and staff is very important. And I think what's been helpful, in some ways I've had probably an advantage that some maybe college presidents perhaps haven't had; that is, this is my eighteenth year at LeTourneau. So I'm just finishing my third year, beginning year four February 1, in this role. I've got a lot of relationships on campus and a lot of connections on campus. And I think it's been an advantage I've had, to know people personally and authentically and started at a place of trust years ago. And so when moving into leadership, I think that's been helpful to me.

But it definitely, you know, part of that trust, I think, is that we're going somewhere as an institution, that we're going the right places, that we are honoring God and following His lead in our mission. So I think the, you know, clarity of vision, clarity of identity, who are we as an institution, I think has been helpful in building trust and enthusiasm and momentum. That has certainly filtered into decision making, because we, I think, today we have a better sense than even yesterday or the day before about who we are at LeTourneau, what God is calling us to. And so that calls together a whole community of people. So communicating that, overcommunicating that, if you will, what is our mission? I always try to begin essentially every meeting of any size on campus with some comment to remind me and everyone else about, what are we here for? And so I think that's been important. I think those relationships.

You know, we've done some things to try to keep communication as strong or stronger, to grow. I've pulled in a group of leaders, about 35 leaders on our campus, that enter into, if you will, my cabinet meeting about once every four or five weeks, sort of metaphorically. We set our agenda as a leadership team, and then we invite them in to keep them aware and a little bit more in tune with the kind of things we're talking about and we’re mulling over. And then it’s a great point of conversation and communication exchange there. And I think in that way, people feel like they can speak into things even at the top levels. So, there are a few things that come to mind.

Al: Yeah, I like that idea, Steve. And for our listeners, so you've got a regular cabinet meeting weekly basis. And then monthly, you bring in the next level, you know, the next, what, probably 27 or so leaders that join your cabinet, just to make sure there's good communication and that everybody knows and that they can communicate to the rest of the faculty and staff.

Well, you know, Steve, higher education is a tough sector for leaders. I've had some leaders say that a president of a Christian university’s the hardest job in Christendom, and pastors, that's another hard job. So, there are many constituencies that need to be working together to create a healthy workplace culture. And the healthy engagement scores of your faculty are unusual in Christian higher ed. So again, another congratulations. So, what are steps that you've taken to engage your faculty and the overall success of the university? You know, what would you say to your peer college presidents or senior leaders in colleges to encourage them to keep working toward healthy work environments, especially when you're working with faculty?

Steve: Yes. Well, I think the faculty body is such a unique entity in organizations across the world that, you know, you've got a group of people highly intelligent and passionate about their areas, and in a place like LeTourneau, passionate about students and about the student experience, many of which have served many years at LeTourneau. And so, they're a group that you really want to tap into. And I probably had some advantage that I entered into this role as president from the provost position and over about a 10-year period did a lot of the faculty hiring. And so having personal relationships with a lot of these folks probably has been helpful for me.

There are some formal things that I think are important. I've always tried to be present at faculty meetings—those happen once a month—just to be there, hopefully, and not in any way to change the atmosphere of those conversations. And then, we have a monthly meeting I have with the faculty. It's almost like a Senate, the representatives from all the schools and colleges. And I think keeping that conversation. But I also think there needs to be some margin, which is hard to come by, but margin to have spontaneous and sidewalk kinds of conversations. It's amazing what you glean in that way.

Yesterday I was in the cafeteria and just joined a table with faculty from different areas of campus, and as people had to leave to go to their class or what have you, it left a faculty member and I, one of our engineering faculty who's been here about 22 years, and I've been here, you know, almost 18, and we just talked about our families. He's going to be a grandpa soon. And I learned things about his life just by having a meal. And we hadn't planned that. That wasn't anything that we had scheduled. And it's those moments that I thank God for because He orchestrates those. And I think finding time to be present is really important because you just have no idea, you know, you don't know. Where is that conversation going to go?

I also, just yesterday, this is all fresh in my mind, so it's easy for me to draw from, but I had another faculty member who once a semester makes an appointment with me to pray for me, which is amazing that I've got people that I know are praying, but to say, “Can I come pray with you?” and we do this on a semester basis. And we spend an hour catching up about family, about LeTourneau, about all sorts of things. And then we pray for one another.

And, you know, one thing that's been really important in my own journey as a leader is to realize that it's not just living in community with faculty and staff, but in mutuality. And I'm borrowing this, I'm stealing this, if you will, from Henri Nouwen in his book called In the Name of Jesus. It's a short, very good book on leadership. And he talks about the difference between just living in community, and he uses pastors, or priests in his case, it can feel very one sided. And you think you're living in community, and maybe we are, but it's the mutuality that I've got needs. I've got prayer requests. I've got things that I need to be, in appropriate ways, vulnerable enough to share, and the right audiences, and so on. And so that's been important. I've just really been grateful for the authenticity of these relationships.

And so, I think maybe the encouragement to other leaders and college presidents or CEOs of other organizations is not to be afraid of getting close to people. I remember when I entered into this role, I had people literally say things like, “You really don’t want a church with the folks that you lead, because that can get awkward, or you never get any time off,” or “Don't go to the workout facility. Don't go work out where they do.” And honestly, I just couldn't disagree more, because it's out of the growth of authentic relationship that you can sometimes have the hard conversations. I get the point. The point is if you have to have a conversation with one of your friends, no fun. And no one likes to have those, but I like to think of it as the better I know someone, maybe the more skill and wisdom I'll have in being able to have a hard conversation. And so, I think that maybe the way just to bring that together is just to say not to be afraid to build trust in ways that can be personal with the people that you lead. And I think that, then, becomes contagious. We can be real. You know, with my leadership team, my cabinet team, I'm so grateful for the individuals on the team, that I don't have to always act like I've got every answer and have every solution to every problem. We all have weaknesses and blind spots. So, I think just going forth with that posture, at the same time assuring people that God is behind us and with us and before us, and He's got great plans for our institution, ups and downs alike.

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

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Al: Now, welcome back to my conversation with Dr. Steve Mason.

Yeah. It's interesting you mentioned a Henri Nowwen book. That is a great book on leadership, for sure. But yeah, let's not be afraid to enter into relationships, because that is the true sense of humanity that we have. And, you know, of course, maybe we're just following Jesus in that as well, because that was clearly His approach.

But, you know, Steve, as you know, you work with Cary Humphries, and he is really a dear, you know, consulting director here with Best Christian Workplaces. And as he's talked with you about your scores, and he's mentioned how, well, Christian higher eds tend to be a little lower than some of our other sectors that we work with at Best Christian Workplaces. And even when you see scores for specific FLOURISH factors that puts you in the 90th percentile compared with your peers, you know, he's encouraged you to, “Well, let's aim higher,” and, yeah, good for him.

Now that you've achieved this healthy workplace level with engaged employees, you know, what are some of the areas that you want to keep working on and growing to even make your workplace healthier? And are there some areas, maybe even in your leadership team, that you've discussed to focus on for the next year, or even in your strategic plan for upcoming action plans?

Steve: Yeah. That’s great. First, I love to just share that Cary Humphries has been an amazing friend and colleague, is really how I think of him, for many years now. He has invested so much time and effort and wisdom in me personally, in our institution, our leadership team. We've had retreats where I've invited him to come and help us to become a healthier leadership team. He's come and made presentations on our campus to help process our engagement score and action plans. And he has helped work with our leadership on building trust. He's done so much, and I just am so grateful that God saw fit to assign him to LeTourneau University several years ago.

But there are always areas to improve. And one thing that Cary’s always said is it's not just the obvious areas of growth that you want to raise in scoring and performance and engagement, but we want everything to raise. And we don't have a perfect score on anything, as far as I know. So there's a lot of growth to be had, and that's exciting. We’re very grateful and thankful for where we are today, but it is something, too, that you have to keep rowing. I mean, you start to get complacent or what have you, and, you know, things can change because life's dynamic and every year’s different.

But there are things that I think that we'd like to continue to see improvement upon. Just by way of example, it's important to us to help people develop when they come to LeTourneau. When they come to work, they feel called to LeTourneau University. What does it mean for us to continue to help them grow in their craft, in their expertise, in their skills? And that may mean, what does upward mobility look like for a high performer? How do we give them an ability to stay at LeTourneau over many, many years and grow into new positions? But also, might just be how to help them continue to grow in what they do every day.

I think we can continue to think about, how do we do that? How do we make that an effort that every single employee, faculty, or staff can plug into in some way, where they can imagine themselves here many years? And like I said, we have folks that have been here for decades. But I wouldn't want someone to feel like they had reached a certain, you know, level in their ability or in their contribution to the institution and couldn't keep growing. So, I think that's one area that we'd like to continue to help our employees.

Another one, which is easier said than done, but is, how do we prioritize our work? In other words, there's so many things that each of us can be doing with our time, and very good things. It does become difficult to know what is sometimes most important. What are the most crucial? What are the things that we must get done even though there's a host of things that we could get done, even good things? And I think that's part of leadership development that we want to continue to think deeply about. How do we help managers and leaders help their people prioritize? Because just as soon as you said it, a slate of, let's just say, 10 goals for the year, these are the projects, boy, tomorrow something confronts you, “Wow, that's a great idea, but we need to get on that. This is something we can't pass up,” and that may be the case. So then, what's going to drop off? Or, you know, how does that shift priorities? And that's a very difficult thing to know how to do. So, I'd like for us to be able to do that.

I mean, there's so many areas. As strong as our score and as good as we're feeling about the organizational health that you've helped us with, there's so many areas that we need to continue moving in the right direction to even greater heights. And as I mentioned before, what are the things that are going well that we want to keep doing? I mean, that's just as important. “Oh, wow, I didn't realize that this was such a strength of ours. And let's make sure that we keep investing in that, because that's effective for people's well-being.”

And then, of course, collaboration and communication. You can never, I think, is satisfied there. We’ve tried a number of things. I'm grateful that, you know, our communication score’s high. And yet there are still ways to help people become more aware of things happening on campus and more involved. And that's important. And so, we want to continue to think about that, even with different types of methods of technology and so on.

Al: Yeah. Communication, it's never enough, is it, Steve?

Well, you know, one area in your organization that showed strong employee engagement is the athletics department. And I know LeTourneau participates in athletics at the Division III level. And you're also a college athlete, as I recall. So, what's the role of athletics as part of a Christian-college experience? And are there some specific practices that have helped the athletic department achieve a healthy work environment?

Steve: Yeah. Thank you. First of all, you've been very generous about being a college athlete. I had some offers on the Division III level to play football and baseball coming out of high school, and decided to walk on as a preferred walk on in football, but then thought twice about that and said, “Well, I'll just walk on the baseball team,” and then only got cut shortly thereafter. So it was a very short stint. But I do love sports, and what I have come to know, and most anyone would recognize this when you're on a college campus, is athletics is important to the entire college experience. What I love about Division III, the Division where LeTourneau is, it's non-scholarship athletics. It's not like Division II or Division I. It is the pure student athlete. And for a place that is academically rigorous, LeTourneau University, it really hits a sweet spot for us because it's the whole person, the whole scholar athlete, that we have at LeTourneau, and almost 25% of our students on campus compete in one of our 17 NCAA Division III sports. So on that level alone, athletics and their relationship with their coaches and their teammates is really important to their experience and their well-being at the university. And of course, then you connect all their friends who may not be on a team, and all the social and extra-curricular and co-curricular opportunities that sports brings to campus, intramurals and those things, we are, you know, fully embodied people, and our physical well-being and fitness and the art of competition is really important to formation as people.

So, what was important to me when I became president was to try to bring athletics a little bit more into the center of our mission and our work at LeTourneau. It’s always been important but a little bit auxiliary to the enterprise as a whole, if you will. And the way I wanted to do that structurally was create a cabinet-level position is bring that A.D., which I elevated to a vice-president position, because of how important collegiate athletics is at LeTourneau and other places, so that our vice president for athletics would be a part of all of the discussions about the mission and vision and strategy of the institution, and hired a wonderful man, Dr. Tim Sceggel, who has a very robust understanding and vision for Christian higher education. And he’s been very clear from the get-go—again, that sort of clarity of vision is important—and cultivating excellence and making disciples is a sort of two-part mantra that has become contagious among the athletic department, among the student athletes, and on campus. And he's brought that sense of mission and calling. Often, sports teams on a college campus can feel a little bit isolated. They do their own thing. And there's some practicalities about that, which is true. I mean, they practice out on the field, and they’re with their teammates and coaches most of the time. But that continuity of vision and the integration of faith and athletics has taken a step up.

And I think that's reflecting well on the Engagement Survey where, just for example, we had 100% participation of all of our coaches. We have a high participation rate or a good, solid participation rate, over 80-something percent at the university as a whole, which we're delighted about, because that's obviously important. I think that tells us as leaders that folks believe this Survey makes a difference as we address needs and make changes, according to the Survey. And so I think they were the only unit of that size—I think there were 24 coaches—that 100% participation. So that is an indication that he's got everybody rowing the same direction. Everyone believes in what we're doing. And organizational health is important to the Department of Athletics. And so, it's been fun to watch those improvements to such an important part of our campus.

Al: So, I love that combination of cultivating excellence and making disciples. And yes, that does happen in athletics, there's no question. The discipline oftentimes is required. And putting yourself in competition, you know, and knowing how to come out of that, win or lose.

Well, leaders in higher education, Christian higher education, particularly, are navigating complex cultural issues that we're living through, some of which have divided campus communities across the country and around the world. And I'm sure you've worked with your board and connected with your peers and other institutions about the pressures of staying true to your Christian foundation. How is LeTourneau navigating social and cultural issues that are present in today's reality? How do you keep your biblical foundation as you navigate these challenges, Steve?

Steve: Good question. It's a complicated world out there. And it is absolutely staying mission true, mission centric, and on mission among all the noise and the real important issues out in the world is certainly priority number one. But like everything else, hoping to stay on mission and making the right strides toward staying on mission are two different things. And I would begin, I suppose, Al, in saying that we are a campus of prayer, and that begins with our trustees. Our board of trustees are men and women that are devoted to prayer. For example, we pray as a board of trustees on a monthly basis. I submit prayer requests of all sorts, of campus requests and things that we might be confronted as an institution to my board chair. Then, he distributes that to all of our 25 board members. And then, we actually get together—this is one of the great things about technology—in small groups now on a monthly basis to pray over these things. And that, I believe, is where it starts. Our prayers are always, “God, would You just keep us from the evil one? Would You help us to remain true and clear and unified as a campus and as a board of trustees?”

And so, the other part of that, of course, is bringing on and onboarding the kind of trustees that are 100% devoted to our mission, staying Christ centered and biblical in all that we do. And as I’ve observed other institutions around the country that may be floundering or may have gone maybe a direction that they didn't intend, often there is disunity or discord on the board level. So let me start there and say that that's extremely important.

I was on a committee meeting, virtual meeting just this week with our governance committee of our board. That's the committee that brings on, nominates, and vets and interviews potential board members to bring before the entire board. And what I found interesting was not one time did anybody ask—we have several nominees and people that we want to get to know—and it had nothing to do with their financial capability, nothing to do with what can they—that’s just not a question that is at the front and center for us. We want board members that love this institution, that believe in the mission of LeTourneau University, in particular, within the landscape of Christian higher education, and that will bring their own set of wisdom and their heart, their faith, their expertise to bear upon what we do.

And then, of course, it goes down from there. We take faculty hiring very seriously. A mentor said to me many years ago, you know, “Steve, you lose the faith of your institution one faculty member at a time.” And we, therefore, do quite a rigorous vetting process for every faculty member that will come and will stand before our students and share not only their academic expertise, but their life as well. And so those things don't guarantee anything. Things can happen, but we certainly think that's a good starting point for negotiating the really complicated world out there and staying mission true.

Ultimately, we're an institution of people, Al, just like BCWI is. And as much as I love our beautiful campus and the buildings and the technology and the equipment and all that, ultimately, our prayer is that “God, would You continue to bring the kind of people that are going to honor You in thought, word, and deed?” And, you know, the fact that they're going to be credentialed and competent and experts, that's a given. We know that there are a lot of people out there, but when you whittle it down, the funnel gets really narrow when you say, “What kind of a person feels called to an academic ministry like LeTourneau University?” So that’s one way we go about it.

Al: I love it. Yeah.

Well, Steve, here's one of the bottom-line questions I like to ask. You know, you've had many roles at the university, as we've talked about, 18 years. And you’ve had a chance to see the impact of Christian higher education for now a couple of decades. When you think about the health of the workplace culture, how does having a healthy culture impact the student experience and maybe even a donor's experience? Is there a connection in your mind between a workplace culture and the university sustainability from a student, as well as a donor's perspective?

Steve: Yeah. Good question. Absolutely. Though it may be a little difficult to measure precisely, I absolutely believe there is a direct correlation between organizational health and the kind of experience a student or a donor or an alum or community member that's engaging with our institution. That kind of experience is very much directly affected by the health of our organization, because it's really about the health of our people and about our teams. And so, in terms of sustainability, it's a little bit like our personal health. You know, of course, we use the language organizational health. And if you think about our own health as people, are we getting enough exercise, are we eating well, are we sleeping enough, are we getting enough time to engage in leisure, activity, etc., etc.? You know, you can go for a while, not getting enough sleep and not eating the best and maybe not exercising, but it will hurt sustainability. And so, when it comes to organizational health and the sustaining of our institution, that is another reason why it really becomes foundational for everything else that we do. And that will impact the student experience. The healthier we are as people, the healthier we’ll be as mentors, the more engaged we’ll be in our field, the more enthusiastic we’ll be about staying current in our scholarship and in our teaching and in thinking about opportunities for students to get involved with our research and in our labs and on the field, in the classroom, and just walking across campus. The more clear we are about our vision, our mission as an institution, the more sure we are that what we're doing is meaningful, and the more apt we are to want to invest all that we have into our students and into our teaching callings.

So, I absolutely believe there's a really important connection between our organizational health and the sustainability of our institution and the future of our institution. It’s a very competitive environment. There are a lot of places, a lot of institutions, a lot of good ones for students to choose. But I believe that there are probably only a handful that are the types of places that are going to be healthy enough to make it over the next, you know, 20, 30, 40 years.

And not to say that I think—you know, I think higher education is going to be fine overall, but we do want to be a kind of place that has a very strong, solid future. And in that sense, you mentioned donors. Donors want to believe that institution’s going to be around and be healthy. No one wants to give a dollar to an institution that is barely getting by or doesn't have a real clear vision of who we are and what gifts do we have, what role do we meet and do we play in the world? So it's important.

Al: You know, Steve, we learned so much from our conversation today. I really appreciate the conversation, starting off with organizational health and the things that you've done at LeTourneau to build organizational health and making it one of your four mission-critical goals and objectives for the institution. So you've run through a number of things that have really helped to improve the LeTourneau health. You've talked about inspirational leadership and trust, and how that level of trust is so important between any leader and the team that they're working with, and the ways you've done that. How faculty's a unique entity, to use your phrase, and how important it is to have faculty and to develop relationships with faculty. And I just love the authenticity that exudes from you as you talked about your brothers and sisters in the faculty. And how it's important, no matter what level we're at, to aim higher, and how our friend Cary has encouraged you to aim higher, to focus on continued growth of the health of LeTourneau and how you've helped to prioritize. And that's one of those areas is to prioritize the work, to help people develop and grow, and building into things that are doing well and to continue collaboration and communication, and the role of athletics. The staying true, the Christian foundation of the organization, and the impact that culture has on students, on donors, on the alum, on community, how that’s a chain of events, that a strong, healthy workplace culture impacts.

Well, Steve, is there anything you'd like to add that we've talked about?

Steve: Well, thank you for having me, for one. This has been a joy. It's always exciting and interesting to chat with you, Al, and so grateful for what you imagined with Best Christian Workplaces so many years ago.

And I think the only thing I might add is to encourage other people in my position, other leaders, to not be afraid to get healthier. That may sound a little bit counterintuitive, of course. Who doesn't want to get healthier? But it can be a painful process. It's hard to open yourself up to a survey or other ways of identifying areas that are weak, that need improvement, that aren't healthy. But if you can stick with it and let the process work, I really believe it will pay off. And it has at LeTourneau. And again, we've got still, you know, we've got areas in which we can grow and we'll continue to, but we're just so grateful that today we stand in a place in a better spot than we've been in years past. Let me just say that it will take courage to do it, and open yourself up to looking at yourself as a leader in the mirror, looking at the organization in a mirror. But it will pay off in great ways into the future. And I think everyone in the organization will see the benefits that are to be had by getting healthier as an organization.

Al: Well, Steve, thanks so much for your contributions today. And most of all, I appreciate your commitment to raising the next generation of Christian professionals to impact the world for Christ. So, thanks for taking time out of your day and speaking in the lives of so many listeners. Thanks, Steve.

Steve: Thank you, Al. It's been a pleasure to have a conversation with you today. Appreciate it.

Al: Thank you so much for listening to my conversation with Steve Mason. 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.

And 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 leaders, if you want to improve your leadership, expand your organization's impact for good, and see greater faithfulness in our broader culture, help us achieve our goal to see more flourishing Christian-led workplaces. To help, please share this podcast with another leader or launch a project in your own organization to discover and improve the health of your workplace culture. If you're interested in learning more, go to workplaces.org and request a sample report.

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.

Al: Join us next week with a conversation with Peter Greer about his new book, Lead with Prayer. I know that you're going to get a lot from it.