TRUST

“It’s easy to make decisions when your choices are between a good thing and  a bad thing. Obviously, you do the good thing. But it’s much harder when your only choices are between a bunch of potentially ambiguous outcomes. It’s best if you have built enough trust that you can say ‘this is what we’re doing’ and everyone trusts you enough to be all in. You can’t wait until you have a crisis to create a relationship with your team. The relationship has to already be there.” 

LEADERSHIP AND TREES

“You can’t operate as a leader in the senior living space from an ivory tower. You won’t achieve true person-centered care if your leaders are sitting in an office or conference room all day. The team members closest to the customer have the most power in your organization and you better listen to them. That said, you can’t be involved in every detail and be a good leader. Know your business and know when you look after the forest, and when to be sure others are focused on the trees.” 

EXCELLENCE

“Mediocrity crushes excellence. You must cultivate excellence, acknowledge it, reward it and live it. It’s difficult to maintain excellence in a tight labor market, but it’s necessary. Either you define and maintain your culture or others will.” 

SUCCESSES

“Talk to people who don’t buy your product. They will tell you how to expand your market and grow. When you only talk to your successes, you only hear about what you’re already good at, but that’s not how you grow.” 

AI, ROBOTS AND INNOVATION

“Using AI and robots to help caregivers functionally will be powerful. Technology and innovation will improve care as the demands on human workers increase.” 

 - From an interview in Authority Magazine. Click here for full interview.

Differentiators, entrepreneurs and dinosaurs

DIFFERENTIATORS

“Great care can’t be a differentiator. Although it’s certainly an experience enhancer and, absolutely, great care is a base requirement. But differentiators in senior living are about personal choice  and treating the individual as an individual and going where residents lead versus a prescribed offering of services.” 

ENTREPRENEURS

“I think that entrepreneurs can be hard to work with. We can be demanding and unforgiving and impatient and if we don’t understand that about ourselves we burn people out.  Entrepreneurs have to be careful to be appreciative and not to change course maybe as quickly as you’d like.” 

DINOSAURS

“I agree with General Stanley McCrystal that leaders are Tyrannosaurus Rexes, with big mouths, short arms and huge tails. With their big mouth, they have the loudest voice in the room and it carries more weight than anybody else . . . they can’t do everything on their own because of their short arms and must rely on managers and employees . . . and if they aren’t good at collaboration and communication, their huge tails will sweep away everything behind them when they change direction.” 

 - From NIC Chats with Beth Mace. Click here for the full transcript.