High-Trust, High-Performing Teams

Building a persistent system of trust at Echoing Hills

When I stepped into the role of President and CEO of Echoing Hills in 2019, I inherited a ministry with a rich 50-year legacy but a structurally fragmented present.

Historically, we have operated as five distinct regions, essentially functioning as five independent nonprofits under a single name. While my predecessor had initiated the vital work of rebranding us into one “Echoing Hills,” the internal architecture of our leadership hadn’t yet caught up to that unified identity. We had one mission on paper, but we didn’t yet have one centralized heartbeat.

The CEO as Orchestra Director

During my graduate work in Strategic Leadership at Roberts Wesleyan, I encountered a metaphor that fundamentally changed how I viewed my seat at the table. I began to see the CEO not as the master of every instrument, but as an orchestra director. The director doesn’t play the woodwinds or the strings, but they must understand the notes and bring the sections together into a beautiful, singular theme.

I began to see the CEO not as the master of every instrument, but as an orchestra director.

To lead Echoing Hills into its next half-century, I knew I needed world-class section leaders—strategic heads of Finance, HR, Operations, Compliance, Quality Assurance, Fundraising, and Marketing—who trusted the director and, more importantly, trusted one another.

However, as we moved into 2020, our strategic planning revealed a disconnect. We heard a recurring cry from our regional leadership: “We don’t have the tools to be good supervisors. We’ve been put in these positions and left out there.”

They were hungry for development, and we realized that for years, so we prioritized pouring resources into the regional leaders while neglecting to invest in the executive leadership team (ELT) and our senior leaders. We were asking them to follow a vision that the “orchestra” at the top wasn’t yet equipped to play in unison.

I remember the velocity of change during the pandemic; I initially thought we should put our reorganization on hold until the world stabilized. But a mentor pushed me, saying, “The organization can’t wait. You need to position the ministry to lead out of this struggle.” That was the catalyst. We realized we couldn’t just give our people a “program.” We needed to build a persistent system of leadership that would define the “Echoing Way.”

A Philosophy, Not a Product

Our partnership with WiLD Leaders began not with a product, but with a philosophy: Whole & Intentional Leader Development (WiLD). In the world of nonprofit leadership, it is easy to get caught up in “buzzwords”—trendy names for service models that feel like the newest, greatest fad. I knew that if we were to impact culture, we couldn’t look for a “flavor of the month.” We needed a roadmap rooted in research and psychological validity.

Crucially, WiLD didn’t just “honor” our Christian values; they partnered with us to let those values drive the entire developmental architecture. We mapped their frameworks to our existing culture, specifically the Fruit of the Spirit. We believe that if our leaders are demonstrating kindness, faithfulness, self-control, patience, and goodness, they aren’t just being “good managers”—they are fulfilling our ultimate purpose: for those we serve to know and experience Jesus Christ.

The WiLD Perspective

“Trust is not a soft virtue; it is a hard economic and missional reality. Many organizations treat leadership development as a series of events—a retreat here, a keynote there. We treat it as a persistent system. By measuring trust at the personal, team, and organizational levels—what we call the Circles of Trust—we move leadership from an intuition to a data-informed strategy. You cannot manage what you do not measure, and you cannot build what you haven’t baselined,” says Dr. Rob McKenna, CEO + Founder of WiLD Leaders.

“Trust is not a soft virtue; it is a hard economic and missional reality.”

We used the WiLD Trust Index to establish a baseline across the organization. We were honest about our starting point—moving from the “Jungle of Trust” of uncertainty toward the “Stronghold of Trust” and a unified mission. Beginning with the ELT, we realized that if we wanted to build a culture of learning, we had to start by being the primary learners ourselves.

The 2025 Stress Test: Where the Fabric Held

Every leadership framework sounds good in a boardroom or during a quiet retreat. The real test comes when the pressure rises and the “notes” get complicated. For Echoing Hills, that moment was 2025.

In a single year, we opened five new intermediate care facilities simultaneously. In our industry, this is almost unheard of due to the immense staffing, financial, and operational strain it places on a ministry. If we had been the siloed, decentralized team of 2019, this pressure would have been catastrophic. We would have retreated into our regional shells and looked for someone to blame.

Instead, because we had spent the previous 18 months building a “fabric of trust,” the team responded with positive intent. When staffing became a crisis in our Northeast Ohio region, the rest of the executive team didn’t look at it as “their” problem. They surrounded that region with support, strategic leadership, and resources. We had strategic, hard conversations where we didn’t always agree. However, because the trust was deep, we were able to emerge from those meetings with one voice. The trust we built at the top successfully “waterfalled” down. This allowed us to navigate our most difficult operational year in recent memory.

A Collective Mindset Shift

The most rewarding part of this journey hasn’t been the systems, but the collective shift in identity across our team. We have moved from being “functional managers” to “executive leaders” who carry the weight of the whole ministry.

We’ve seen this transformation manifest in every corner of the ELT. We saw it when our financial leadership moved from an inward-looking, protective perspective to one of vulnerability, reaching out for external expertise to help the ministry become more efficient. We saw it when our operations leaders shifted from transactional management to building strategic, trust-based partnerships with state funders—relationships that moved mountains on reimbursement issues and protected the ministry’s mission. And, we also see it in how we ramp up new talent. When new members join our executive team, they aren’t left to figure out the culture on their own. We immediately integrate them into a pre-existing “Echoing Way” of trust. This shortens their time to productivity and allows them to lead with confidence from day one.

The ROI of Trust: Data That Matters

As a Christian nonprofit, we measure success by the margin that sustains our mission. We view financial health as an act of stewardship and trust. This impact is measurable: cash on hand grew from 18 days in 2018 to 88 days by 2025; our debt-to-income ratio strengthened from 1.24 to 2.23; turnover dropped from around 49% to 27%; and our focus shifted from compliance to truly transformative, high-quality care.

Grounded for the Future

The “Echoing Way” is sustainable because it is grounded in something deeper than my own leadership or a single charismatic personality. It is rooted in research, data-informed feedback, and the timeless truth of Scripture.

I could leave Echoing Hills tomorrow, and the framework would continue.

I could leave Echoing Hills tomorrow, and the framework would continue. That is the difference between a fad and a foundation. At the end of our three-year roadmap, WiLD won’t just be a consultant we hired; their methodology will be embedded into the frameworks that support our ongoing rhythm of leadership and coaching.

If you are a CEO or a leader weary of the “flavor of the month,” I challenge you to stop looking for a quick fix. You cannot microwave trust, and you cannot build a high-performing team on buzzwords alone. You need data, a roadmap, and the courage to start at the top. When you build a persistent system of development, you aren’t just training employees—you are conducting an orchestra that will play a beautiful theme of hope for years to come.

###

Keys to Success for Organizational Transformation

Through the partnership between Echoing Hills and WiLD Leaders, five “non-negotiables” emerged for true cultural change:

• CEO Commitment: Transformation cannot be delegated to HR or an outside firm. The CEO must be the primary champion and a vulnerable participant in the process.
• Cascading Alignment: Start at the top. The Executive Team must model the trust they expect to see waterfalling through the rest of the organization.
• Data-Informed Change: Use assessments to remove the guesswork. Objective data allows teams to have hard conversations about performance and trust without them feeling like personal attacks.
• Contextualization: The framework must be “meshed” with your organization’s specific values and strategy. This ensures it becomes part of the culture rather than a side project.
• Psychological & Research Grounding: Ensure your system is rooted in psychological validity and research. This provides a level of credibility and stability that can withstand leadership transitions and organizational growth.

###

Tim Neville is President and CEO of Echoing Hills, a nonprofit serving over 900 Ohioans with developmental disabilities. Since 1991, he has led with a mission to serve and advocate for marginalized individuals. Tim holds degrees from Pensacola Christian College and Roberts Wesleyan College and serves on the OPRA Board. Daniel Hallak, PhD, is nationally recognized as a premier facilitator who specializes in growth strategy, leadership development, and organizational performance. He also helped launch WiLD Leaders Inc., a company that creates high performing organizations through high-trust teams and cultures. His work has been featured by TED and in Forbes and Psychology Today. His newest book, The Trust Circle (Wiley, July 28, 2026) equips leaders with tools to stand the test of time.