Grow the Leader, Save the Community with Blair Quasnitschka

In this episode of Aspire for More with Erin, we dive deep into one of the most urgent challenges facing the senior living industry: the retention crisis among Executive Directors and administrators. Erin is joined by Blair Quasnitschka, a seasoned senior living leader and board member of the American College of Health Care Administrators (ACHCA), for a real and refreshing conversation about how we can stop burning out our brightest leaders before they have a chance to shine.

Together, they unpack:

✅ Why “sink or swim” doesn’t work in today’s complex leadership roles
 ✅ What mentorship actually looks like when done right
✅ How to create growth environments with grace for new leaders
✅ The power of emotional intelligence in retaining talent
✅ How operators and companies can rethink onboarding, support, and development

If you’ve ever asked:
 🔹 “Why do we keep losing great leaders?”
 🔹 “How do I support a struggling ED without taking over?”
 🔹 “Where do mentorship and margin intersect?”

Then this episode is for you.

Whether you’re a senior living operator, mentor, aspiring leader, or passionate advocate for this field — this conversation will challenge your assumptions and inspire change.

Connect with me on LinkedIn


Follow me on Facebook where I educate, equip and empower family members how to proactively care for their elderly loved ones.

Follow me on Instagram where I educate, equip and empower family members how to proactively care for their elderly loved ones.

Join my email list where I will lift you up, and send tactile advice weekly to support you to grow your experience in your senior living career.

Transcript

0:35

Thank you for being here. Today's episode is for every leader, operator, or future administrator who's ever felt alone on an island, carrying the weight of a community on your shoulders while trying to grow yourself at the same time. My guest is Blair Kka. Vice President of operations at the Maxwell Group and Chair elect for the American College of Healthcare Administrators. Blair is not only one of the most authentic leaders I know. He's also living proof that mentorship changes lives across the generations. In this conversation, you'll hear the candid truth about why so many administrators are burning out and turning over, and what we as an industry must do differently to keep great leaders growing and staying. You'll walk away with real insights on what new leaders actually face behind the job title stories that remind you why investing in people is the only sustainable strategy. And practical inspiration for how to create a growth environment for your team and for yourself. If you've ever wondered whether mentorship really matters or how to build a culture where people thrive instead of just surviving, this is your episode. Let's dive in with Blair now.

Erin: 1:49

Welcome back to another episode of the Aspire for More with Aaron podcast, where we have the one and only the Billy Joel of Senior Living. Oh, oh. And here I gotta say we were together and I asked you how to say your last name. So I call him Blair Q, but he is Blair. Ishka something. I'm glad you, I'm glad you didn't hurt

Blair: 2:13

yourself, but that was No, that's not Quas Nitka

Erin: 2:19

Quas Nitka.

Blair: 2:20

You're only like eight consonants off and that's okay.

Erin: 2:24

I know. See folks, we don't have to be perfect. We just have to to connect. But he is the Vice President of Operations at the Maxwell Group, but he's also the chair elect at the American College of Healthcare Administrators where I know him from. And I'm very thankful that I got the opportunity to speak at the American College of Healthcare Administrators. Two years in a row. So that came from you and I appreciate that opportunity.

Blair: 2:52

Yeah, well, I think you cultivated it, you know, when we're able to see, people that really drive leadership and are trying to grow leaders and, you know, LinkedIn's a great platform for that, and that's where I picked up on what you were bringing to the industry. So, we want to put those kind of people in front of the folks that we represent, at A-C-H-C-A. Your presentations were highly regarded, so it was great to have you back for another year. So thank you for coming. Thank you.

Erin: 3:18

Before we get into the main topic of today, which is about mentorship, what American College of Healthcare Administrators offers and the value of mentorship in your, in your life and your career. What possessed you to start playing the piano on LinkedIn, which is like the coolest thing ever. And I'm sure your wife is very happy that the background is really decorating and pretty,

Blair: 3:44

if anything, it might frustrate the family sometimes because I have to tell them, Hey, I'm gonna try to record this. Could you guys keep it down? So it usually becomes a battle of who could turn it up louder. The kids watching television. I have two boys or me playing the piano. And then you sometimes get that, cameo of the dog scurrying into the picture. Or Jagger, my youngest son will wander through. But what started it? I think there's just so much synergy between, what professionals are going through. Day to day in terms of, looking for motivation and resilience and, relationships and building on that. And then how music speaks to those things pretty universally. You know, the artist probably wrote it for their reason, and that's the beauty of music is we can interpret it to our own. But that was really, I guess the motivation behind it. It's good therapy for me. I started playing when I was seven. And my father, became ill, when I was around 10 or 11. I took lessons from the same guy for 10 years. He came to my house one night a week for 10 years until I graduated high school. My dad passed when I was 15, but there were times he would come to the house and we wouldn't hit a note. We would just, talk about life and, how can music help me with what I was going through? And that's always stuck with me. I feel like, if I can use my therapy and it delivers to other people, some degree of knowledge or motivation or, something to lean into, then, win-win.

Erin: 5:10

Yeah. It's truly very authentic and organic and you're the only one. Still who does it?

Blair: 5:17

Yeah. That's funny that I, you see a lot of like posts or, people with the same angle. I guess that's one thing that's sort of flattering about it, is I can't sit here and say I see another, person in our space that is out there, hammering away at the Keys. So I guess, that'll keep me in a unique company.

Erin: 5:36

I know the Billy Joel of the senior living industry.

Blair: 5:40

Yeah, I've been cal worse, so I'll, I'll take it.

Erin: 5:44

All right. So I think it's important for us, one of your passion projects really is the American College of Healthcare administrators or administrators, because I have seen you post several times about how you wanna support people who support the college. Right, right. And I've been there to the annual convocations now twice, and I have to say. That it is a great group of people. You know, the first time that I was there, I was honestly very scared to death. I knew nobody, like nobody, I was hoping I was gonna get to meet you and there was nobody else there that I knew, and it was like being just wrapped up in people's arms and being able to travel across the country with the different chapters. It was really, really exciting. So what is the college? Mm-hmm. How do people get involved and what is the main takeaway from the college? Because I would have loved being a part of that when I was inside a community.

Blair: 6:46

Yeah. And it's that degree of kinship that I think most of us are looking for when we try to sell membership to the college. You know, a lot of times we'll talk about. That it provides, a lot of CEU opportunities and that's some of the feedback we get. Especially the groups that I bring that also go to state association events and, no, no, knock on those, but they compare obviously. Okay. The educational sessions and the education that we get through the college is second to none, because it focuses not just on the regulatory piece that we need to stay. Up on, but has a lot of leadership development. So I, I think that's a huge benefit for college members. But the most organic reason that I've always found is if there is an organization that's gonna represent my chosen profession. I've always had a natural inclination to wanna be affiliated with that organization. It never took any convincing for me. Mm-hmm. That I just wanted to be aligned with my peers in the industry for networking, for idea sharing. you bounce regulatory questions off of. It's always just been, an amazing resource for me, to this day. There's people that I met when I started in 2009, and I'm still tight with, there's opportunities at the chapter level. So people can get involved. There's, a number of chapters that exist besides ach, C'S National Board that I'm on. I got involved first at the chapter level, doing things locally, with your, your peer group in your state, eventually. It was maybe 2016 or so, I got asked to run for a national board seat. Actually lost the first time I ran, but was not deterred. And now I've won for two consecutive terms. So, it's a great way for leaders to get back, and to be aligned with what's going on in the industry your peer group. And there's a cost associated to it, I think. Oftentimes companies will pick that up. I think it's an investment in the person that's leading your organization every day and, you know, for$340, a year, I don't think is a tall ask, for what it could deliver to that leader. I mean, it's the person that you've invested the most responsibility into. So why not use A-C-H-C-A as a platform to build them up? And so that's what it's, it's been for me. It's a amazing organization. I'm proud of.

Erin: 9:11

it really is and it's like this little secret that's not a secret

Blair: 9:16

yeah.

Erin: 9:16

You know?

Blair: 9:16

Yeah. We want to have a bigger footprint, but it's really about getting our mission and our brand out there, and then also getting companies to buy into, that we help create a better leader. We help foster better leadership. So why wouldn't you want your leader to be associated with that?

Erin: 9:39

Yeah, it's true. I noticed the younger generation, there's a lot of young people coming into the industry and for me, I saw it, like I just didn't hear about it. I saw them and I just wanted to like hug them and be like, oh, we need to be really prepared. You need to really have an understanding of what you're getting into. But due to your involvement, such in depth involvement, I mean, you get to see. What these young leaders struggle with. And you need to be a part in how they're assigned a mentor and I even got to see a very, very seasoned leader with a very new leader and the closeness that was there And the help that was given. Yeah.

Blair: 10:28

Yeah. Yeah. I couldn't imagine being a newly licensed administrator. In the environment that skilled nursing and assisted living is operating today, compared to when I got into it in 2007, 2008, I couldn't imagine just being out there on your own and not having some type of resource to lean on. When you have a question, a leadership situation, regulatory question. So the fact that we are connecting with, students, that's the student expo that goes on there and, their posters that they do a project and present on the findings every year. Really great topics, very pertinent to what we deal with, some of it more clinically based, some of it more leadership based, which I think is great. And it gives them a chance to be exposed to industry veterans. And in order to be, actually participating in the mentor program, you need to be a fellow in the college. So that distinguishes you based on your levels of service in the industry. There's criteria involved, but you get points for public speaking. You get points for being published. So you have to have a certain degree of investment. This industry over a certain amount of time that shows you have performed and that you have been committed to being more than just, I show up at the desk every day type of administrator. So that qualifies you. There's point system that qualifies you to be a fellow and then fellows are then eligible to be mentors. And it's a big credit to the mentors and the proteges because we could all say how busy we are. We're all busy, and it's gonna take time. If you're gonna invest in that relationship, where as the mentor you are, connecting with that protege and answering their questions and building a curriculum of, hey, these are some of the experiences I've had, and it takes time and it takes effort and we could all say we're too busy. So I really do credit those that that choose to get involved in that program. As a mentor, you are acknowledging the future needs to be better, the future leader needs to be better. And as the protege you're saying, I wanna be better. I want to grow myself. And I acknowledge, I don't know everything. I wanna lean on this person for some advice. Uh, and to make that time commitment and that that mental commitment about, okay, where am I and where do I want to go? Uh, I think that should speak to an organization that's the kind of person that's doing above and beyond that I'd want to be partnered with.

Erin: 13:07

Absolutely. And I think when it comes to mentorship, it is growth. One thing that I have learned in my experience in doing this for the last few years is the more that I talk about it with people, the more that I grow and the more that people I'm talking about it with are learning from what I am growing and it is just a very reciprocal of relationship. Mm-hmm.

Blair: 13:31

Yep.

Erin: 13:32

I didn't realize how important taking the time to grow. Is and was, because we all focus on n oi growth and occupancy growth, which are very important. But that doesn't guarantee your growth. And unless you plug in somewhere and you do hear a lot of the time, I don't have time. But if you never make the time, you will never have the time.

Blair: 13:59

I hear that. I actually had a protege quit on me. They said, I just, don't have the time for this. I don't know if I should say that,'cause it doesn't make me look like the best mentor, but it's real. That's some of the struggles, you know, I was so bad I couldn't convince this person that this was worth it. But yeah, that's some of the shortsightedness that we have to get over or if your company's not gonna pay for it. I'm trying to put myself out there and get my first job 340 hours is not worth.

Erin: 14:27

Yeah. Putting

Blair: 14:27

yourself in a networking position to get in front of people that can help you in your career. I struggle with that.'cause I do hear that from people and I, I really do struggle with that. If you're trying to make a career out of this, it's an investment in yourself. A-C-H-C-A, the mentor program. It's an investment in yourself. And you know, you talk about the tangibles that we can measure the NOIs and the occupancies. Anyone can pull a good quarter out of their whatever, but for me to be a sustainable leader are the people that, that really lean into how am I growing myself as a leader for the long term.

Erin: 15:06

Mm-hmm.

Blair: 15:06

I'm a firm believer that that type of longstanding performance, comes when you are invested in your operation. When the operation's invested in you, when you have tenure, the longer you're there, the more commitment, the more invested you are staff see that you're gonna be here. They're gonna be more invested. They drive the outcomes. At the end of the day, staff drive the outcomes. How many times have I, I've been the new person a few places, and the biggest challenge is a lot of line staff will say, well, I was here before you. I'll be here after you. Nine times outta 10. They're right. They're right. So it comes down to, you know, if you want that leader to be invested, as an operator, invest in them. Show them that you care, show them that you care about their growth. And for the leader, it's, you gotta show me that, that you do want to grow.

Erin: 15:58

Yeah. I think that companies, the value of A-C-H-C-A, the value of, of coaching and for leaders like me to understand the importance of it. Growth will cost you time, money, or failure. maybe not failure, but maybe not fulfillment. For sure. it will cost you fulfillment if you plan on just staying the same for the rest of your life, because we all want to grow. And if you want your business to grow, you have to grow your people. If we. Expect people to grow themselves outside of work hours. Well then we're gonna have to define what work hours are. Do you work a normal job?

Blair: 16:39

Idea of, the work life balance thing, right?

Erin: 16:42

Yeah.

Blair: 16:43

I'm a firm believer, especially in an industry. That, I don't know, a single healthcare setting that operates nine to five. Right. So you can't expect your work life to be nine to five. I call it work life integration. I've heard people use that, and I think that's a pretty accurate, summation of what it needs to be. I tell my wife and my kids all the time, work one today. Work. Work got me work one.

Erin: 17:11

Mm-hmm.

Blair: 17:11

And that's gonna happen more often than not. But it's about finding the moments of fulfillment and as long as that continues to outweigh the days that beat you down. But if you're doing this for the right reason, then you will find fulfillment in what we do. It's not for everybody. And I think it's a great thing. When people realize it's not for them, because that means you're gonna pursue something that's gonna make you happier, and it's gonna make the teams and the residents and everyone, if you weren't happy doing what you were doing, it was gonna show through to them too. So it's okay to acknowledge that this isn't for you, but if you're gonna say this is for you, then you need to be about it and understand it's not gonna exist in nine to five.

Erin: 17:59

Yeah. Yeah. And that you're going to have to, sometimes you just have to take an hour to grow yourself. And you're going to find that you're gonna get that hour back some way, shape, or form, which is,

Blair: 18:11

If it helps make you a more efficient and effective leader, then that hour that maybe you have that seven P to eight P mentor call, if that's gonna pay itself forward to you in other ways. I can't see how that's not worth it.

Erin: 18:25

Yeah. So since you have your work life, with Maxwell Group and then you have your a CH mentorship as well, have you noticed a pattern of what new administrators feel when they come on? Like what did, what, what are those fresh-faced, baby-faced, new students? What do they say whenever they enter it and they're just like, oh my God, is this, was I prepared for this?

Blair: 18:51

Yeah. A lot of times I'll ask, you know, what's been the positive surprise and what's been something that you didn't expect would be so hard? A lot of times that I didn't expect to be so hard is that feeling of, I'm on an island, you know, maybe I thought there would be more resources to help me. I thought my regional would be more involved. I thought my onboarding would be longer and would be more helpful. So I think it's about creating resources and availability. To really, bring on new leadership in the best way. We have here a sort of a shared. Forum where we put best practices, where we put a roadmap to success that sort of can define the critical meetings and maybe some sample agendas. We have, books that people have recommended, have helped them in their leadership. So you provide resources to that. And then it's about availability when someone uses those resources and has questions. Do they have someone to go to? You know, I have a weekly, one-on-one check-in with all my executive directors, and then I expect the executive directors to have a check-in with their department heads every week. That's something I do when I do a site visit is I'll have a one-on-one with those department heads and I'll say, Hey, how's the one-on-ones going with your ed? It's sort of a way to pulse. How's that relationship going? The best ability is availability. Someone needs to be available to that leader. You can't expect someone who's newly licensed, especially in the environment we're operating in today, to just hit the ground and be successful from day one. And then it takes the leader being vulnerable enough to say, okay, when I have questions, am I comfortable enough asking? I don't want to appear inept. But sometimes that reluctance to ask leads you into more trouble. So it's also about an organization promoting It's okay to ask there's been a couple executive directors of the year that we've acknowledged, and one of the most common characteristics our company has said about those people is they utilize the resources that are available to them and they ask questions.

Erin: 21:00

Yeah. You know, too many people. Fear asking the questions. Fear utilizing the resources. Right? Because it is that, you know, that I don't have all the answers. Right. Even now, I say to myself, you should know this, or, it should come easier to you or whatever. And I'm just like, people who write a thousand books, their best book wasn't probably till the 10th book. Or they read a lot of books to get to the point where they are today. You know, I think that we all have, like this, not everyone, but a lot of people have this default to, we should know more than we know. Right. We compare ourselves to people further down the journey. And unless we know like, oh, those people read 25 books.

Blair: 21:49

It's inevitable.

Erin: 21:50

Yes.

Blair: 21:50

social environment that we live in. Yes. But you know, it's funny when you look across the spectrum of what's successful, baseball player gets a hit one out of three times for their career. They're gonna be in the hall of fame. So not saying that we can get it right a third of the time, but it's not about perfection. It's about, okay, what did I learn this time and not perhaps repeat again as an operator, that's what I would get frustrated with is, are we. I hope, not to offend any animal activist, but I'd rather beat a new horse than a dead horse and you know, save the horses. But that's the truth. If someone's coming to me with some new ideas, new questions, great. If it's something that I know we've gone over a few times and that it's really, I. Because sometimes, you know, it's something that you don't really run into as much and you gotta revisit it. But if it's something that's sort of routine in their day to day, yeah, that would raise a flag for me. But I want the person that challenges me and that says, Hey, you know, it's, we've been doing it this way. That doesn't mean it's the best way. You know, times change, people change, the operation evolves. So feel free to question that and do it diplomatically. But it's okay to question it.

Erin: 23:02

Yeah. I think what you were, when like the Maxwell group who honored the executive directors of the year, what you were saying is they have awareness, right? The awareness of, I don't know what I don't know, the awareness of here's what's available to me to find it, and. Then the awareness of how to implement it. Yep. The awareness of knowing I've made this mistake three times.

Blair: 23:28

Time to own it. Right.

Erin: 23:29

Blair's gonna be really upset with me.

Blair: 23:32

Yep. Yeah. and that's, I remember getting into the business and one of my chief concerns was, I don't know, healthcare, I don't know, senior care. Mm-hmm. I came from, an organization where I was charged with managing people, managing situations. But it wasn't in senior living. It wasn't in senior care. and my mentor said, you need to be humble enough to hire the most dynamic social director and the most astute clinician. To be a director of nursing, and someone who is handy enough to save you money in house to be your facility director, right? Surround yourself with the right team. You know when to ask questions, you go to the meetings to broaden your scope, and it makes you a better leader. But you build the team and it builds you up.

Erin: 24:27

Being aware enough to know that you do not have to be

Blair: 24:31

Right. I was aware enough to know that was my reluctance, but I asked the question and got reassurance that you don't need to be the expert in every department. our operations are very department centric and nursing's not successful without recreation. Recreation, not successful without dining. So it's about building that right team. That trust one another and that there's a degree of cohesion and harmony. And some days you're playing a referee and some days you're playing cheerleader. And being able to manage that and having that awareness of where is my team right now? And, you know, shifting your focus based on that. That's the art of being an administrator.

Erin: 25:10

Yes, it really is. That's the art of it. I mean, that's the beauty of it. So I want to give you time. You have an amazing story, a very amazing personal mentoring story. Your dad, if you don't know this, glare is the second generation senior living operator. And you were telling me a story about how you were mentored under the same man that mentored your dad. When we talk about mentoring. There is no greater story than this, so in the value of it. So go in, tell this, honor, this part of your legacy, which is really cool. Sure,

Blair: 25:51

I'll try to not get the water works going here.

Erin: 25:55

I know it's,

Blair: 25:56

My dad holds a special place in my heart and it's just after Father's Day. I wouldn't be where I'm at. Without some of the groundwork he laid, there were people that were professionally indebted to him because of what he did. I think that helped pave some way for me. I was having the what do you wanna do with your life speech with my mother and. I just sort of blurted out and my dad had been passed away for some time, but I said, oh, maybe I should get into what dad used to do. I'm sure she swore at me in Italian and said something sarcastic because the spouse or the significant other of an administrator is not an enviable position. I think her reflection of my comment. Had to do with her perspective of years in the seat next to the administrator.

Erin: 26:44

There's, there was a lot of trauma in that response.

Blair: 26:47

Lot, yeah. Yeah, I'm sure. she put me in touch with some people who were still in the business that from when my dad was in the business and they all kept saying, well, have you talked to Jim Malloy? He's the guy who got your dad started. So Jim was a fraternity brother of my father's and my dad came back from, from the war. He was finishing up his studies and jib said, Hey, do this nursing home administrator thing. This a IT under me, and then you get your license and you're on your way. So 30 years later, when I was getting in the business, I hunted down Jim Malloy and I did my, my 900 a IT hours, with Jim at, a place in Groton, Connecticut. So, um, just a cool story that made it full circle my dad passed in 95. But there were people that I would see or meet at different, events in Connecticut that obviously see my unique last name and say, oh, you had to know Paul. And you know, I say Yeah. And there was always a story to tell. It's amazing how impactful we can be as administrators. I'll tell a quick story. When my dad passed, we were having the service for him and a gentleman came up that I didn't know, I didn't recognize, and he said, Hey, you don't know who I am. Your father took care of my mother for about 15 minutes in the span of time, you should feel blessed. You had him for 15 years and he walked away. I'll never know who the guy was, but it shows you the gravity of the position, you know, and the awesome responsibility and opportunity that we have, which, we can't take lightly. The more reason I go back to if you're doing it for the right reasons, there's fulfillment in this, you know, you have opportunities to touch somebody like that, which does not exist in every profession. So it's a beautiful thing, but it's not for everybody. Whenever you're dealing with people's livelihood in their lives, you know, there's a degree of pressure with that, whether, you know, it's how you're treating your staff.'cause they, this is their livelihood and how you're treating the residents and the families that are connected with that. That's, no small task and it can't be sold short on just how much responsibility it is.

Erin: 28:53

And it requires a level of support because you are in a field that's, you know, we're dealing with people's hardest times. Right. You were in your hardest time of your life at that moment, and you look and you see what One comment

Blair: 29:12

Yeah.

Erin: 29:13

From a stranger Yeah. Did for you.

Blair: 29:15

Yeah.

Erin: 29:15

One,

Blair: 29:16

yeah.

Erin: 29:16

we all have that opportunity to, as somebody who works in the community, to say to a loved one who just lost their parent or their aunt or their uncle, what the impact of. Sharing them with us had and we have the impact, can say something to an associate on a day that could change their life, and it's such a powerful example of why words matter.

Blair: 29:45

Yeah.

Erin: 29:46

And how one simple act of kindness, whether it's a bad day, a good day, the worst day, the best day, one simple act of kindness can change somebody's life. That is a powerful example of the impact,

Blair: 30:00

especially in the top position. I mean, let's face it, yes. When you're the administrator, you're the top person in the building. Everything you do is gonna be under a microscope. What time you get in, what time you get out, who you say hi to in the hallway, everything's under a microscope. So acknowledging that responsibility, is critical. And it's a high demand. It means you kind of gotta be on your game. All the time, and you mentioned it earlier, sometimes you gotta take a moment away because if you respond emotionally, without control or thought that writes your narrative to a degree, so again, it comes down to that integration of work and life. And you gotta know yourself. You gotta know, hey, if you need, 10 minutes off the floor, you need 10 minutes off the floor. But being honest with yourself about when you need to take time out, that way you can pour in the best of your operation. It comes back to awareness, what we talked about earlier, and that emotional intelligence is critical.

Erin: 31:00

Yeah. I know from a company standpoint, they need to have awareness, like a big, like high view picture of, there's a lot of people struggling. In the community, in, in the communities. So there needs to be an opportunity to grow from an executive director standpoint. You can't grow yourself unless you know yourself. Yeah. You know? And if the same emotional triggers are being pulled all the time, that's no one else's fault but your own. Yeah. So we gotta figure that out. You can't give what you don't have. You literally cannot give what you don't have. You can fake it for a little while until you're absolutely depleted.

Blair: 31:36

Yeah. People are gonna know.

Erin: 31:37

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you've got, you gotta be aware of that. So I think this episode is more about understanding what you need to get plugged in. There are opportunities to plug in. You are the only one that can move towards that opportunity and whether or not you get reimbursed for that or not, you're worth it.

Blair: 32:00

Yep. You, then, then you need to take the time to invest in yourself to know yourself. Yes. To then approach something like mentorship with, a degree of intentionality. Where do I need to grow? And whenever that relationship works best is when it's not just the mentor bringing the curriculum to the protege, it's about the protege saying, Hey, I think I'm pretty comfortable in these areas. This is where I need help. And for organizations to be aware enough to say, we probably don't have all the answers for this person. I want them to have a perspective that's bigger than this bubble. And that's okay if they're seeking that and getting that from an industry peer. And maybe that's within the organization. They've created that as a senior directors and that, I think there's value in that as well. But it's at least creating the environment where that growth is embraced. Promoted, we want you to grow. I know there's some organizations out there that don't support A-C-H-C-A because they're afraid of their administrator networking with another company.

Erin: 33:11

Yes.

Blair: 33:12

If that's your concern, look in the mirror.

Erin: 33:15

Yeah.

Blair: 33:15

instead it should be this person's trying to make themselves better. I want the person that's striving to be better. and if organizations don't get that, then probably expect the turnover to happen. And with turnover comes the domino effect of outcomes and performance and reputation.

Erin: 33:36

Yeah. An executive director turnover, according to Nick and Argen. Depending on the length of the absence, 50 to a hundred thousand dollars.

Blair: 33:45

Yeah. And a CHA, the stat that we've uncovered, it's about once a year in a building, the administrator's turning over. That is a wild number when it comes to, does someone have the ability to actually implement a strategic thought? Does someone have the ability to change the culture that needs to be changed? The culture that what we talked about earlier says new person, I was here first, I'll be here after. Yeah. That, you know, we need to invest in people so they'll invest back in and stick around in the community. I think growing through mentorship, growing through something like A-C-H-C-A is an investment in that. Organizations need to be aware enough to, embrace when someone wants to grow and they're working on themselves.

Erin: 34:38

Yeah, it's true. I have talked to a new director in a community that's had a turnover in the executive director role at least once a year, probably once every nine months, I was talking to that new director and the associates were threatening to do something, you know, like, I've been here, I'll be here and I'm gonna call the hotline or whatever. And I told the executive director, let him call. If you are going to let those words seep in, you've lost control.

Blair: 35:10

Yeah.

Erin: 35:11

But if you hand them the phone number to the hotline

Blair: 35:15

Yeah.

Erin: 35:16

Guess who's in control.

Blair: 35:17

Yeah.

Erin: 35:18

You've been here for five months unless you're doing something so completely egregious.

Blair: 35:22

right.

Erin: 35:23

Let him and let you learn from it.

Blair: 35:26

And the hardest thing, the hardest thing is developing. Those connections and trust.

Erin: 35:32

Yes.

Blair: 35:33

And, and you need an opportunity for that team to trust you and for you to trust them. People ask me all the time, what's the toughest challenge we have in, in senior living and senior care? And it's not occupancy, it's not sales. What it is is our leadership, having the tools and ability to manage and connect with people and situations. Because so often we look at the end result as the issue. But if we trace it back to the root, it has more to do with people than anything. We oftentimes promote or hire someone that has technical abilities to their job, but when we talk about the outcomes and the reputation and which drives occupancy in sales. That comes from leadership being connected at the community level, because then I'm not the person out there passing every med. I'm not the person out there that's running every program, but if I've invested in those people and I've helped create and foster that connection. They're gonna be out there doing their darnedest. They're gonna be out there doing their best. What does that do? That drives outcomes, that drives reputation. Reputation drives sales and occupancy and, all that. So when we figure out the people problem, it solves a lot of things down the line.

Erin: 37:05

Yeah. You just have to do it anyway. They're gonna be ungrateful. You're gonna have to do it anyway. They're gonna talk about you. You're gonna have to do it anyway until one day they're gonna look at you and they're gonna be like, you did it anyway. Yes, I did.

Blair: 37:21

Are you with

Erin: 37:21

me? I know. Come on. Alright, so you are a busy vice president of operations, so can you give us. Some high impact, low cost ways that you as a regional director or a new regional director or somebody that's in your current role, that they can create that sense of support, like that growth environment, before they can. Convince somebody to plug into something like A-C-H-C-A. What are some of your best practices or that you have seen really work well with some new, executive directors?

Blair: 37:55

I think you have to find a way to build a bridge. I'll tell you a story. Once I was coaching an ED and when we would walk around. The hellos and the hallway, high fives or whatever.

Erin: 38:10

We

Blair: 38:11

It was all very superficial. Okay. and when I look at my strategy, when I go into a community, I wanna be as much a part of the fabric of that community. I don't wanna be the home office person. I wanna be an extension of the team, right? So the more you can do to learn about the culture and the stories that exist,'cause no one was born in a retirement community, team members or residents, that helps build the bridge. You know, I used to jerk a Turkey every Thanksgiving. When I was in Connecticut, a lot of folks from Jamaica, right? And so I built a bridge to them through food, and I would take time on a holiday, which they would never expect, and I would bring in something that honored and acknowledged their culture, right? So I told this person I was coaching, I said, I'm not telling you to jerk a Turkey. I'm telling you to build the bridge. Find what connects you to this team. In terms of, you know, what does that look like? It means rounding without asking, work related questions. Yeah. It means saying, Hey, I knew that Barbara was on vacation last week, and when I see her, I'm not gonna talk to her about the call response time, call belt, response time. Hey, I missed you last week. How was your vacation? I think that's probably the most fundamental thing someone could do when it comes to how do I wanna build myself as a leader? It's knowing who you're leading, right? And the best way to do that is to get out there, walk around and ask'em what's going on in their life that doesn't have anything to do with work. And have lunch in the break room the first time. They're gonna ask you what you're doing in here. And you said, yeah. I'm having lunch. What are you doing in here? But it then becomes just, you're just part of the culture,

Erin: 40:09

I can only imagine how uncomfortable that first lunch in the break room was.

Blair: 40:14

Awesome. It was awesome. You walk in and there's chatter and liveliness and then all of a sudden the record stops. And you say, did anyone else watch the Chiefs game yesterday? And of course Noah, it did. But yeah. Yeah. And that's okay. God, you gotta embrace it. You embrace it.

Erin: 40:36

Oh,

Blair: 40:36

embrace it.

Erin: 40:37

Yeah.

Blair: 40:37

And that's

Erin: 40:37

The thing embrace it, embrace the awkwardness and laugh and be like, Hey, I put my pants on one leg at a time too.

Blair: 40:46

That's it. That's it. the other thing I, it's sort of a anecdotal comment, but something from my father. One of the best quotes my dad ever gave me was, if you see a spill, don't look for the port or look for the mop.

Erin: 40:57

Yeah.

Blair: 40:58

And you know, the more that you can roll your sleeves up and, and again, any company's gonna give you enough paperwork and administrative work, you could sit at your desk all day long. But I know some people that literally put it on Outlook.'cause if it's on Outlook, you're married to it round. Mm-hmm. Get out there and look for something to do. That, is hands-on to your staff.

Erin: 41:23

Yeah. I do believe that the biggest problem any leader faces is the people. I like how Craig Elle says, it's your biggest burden and your biggest joy at the same time. And it will be a burden until it turns into a joy. And that coin is there all the time, just like for us, when we give and overextend, we're a hero. And a martyr at the same time. Our people are a joy and a burden at the same time. And it's up to us to have that awareness to be like, okay, I am tipping the scale here a little bit one way or another. Yep. I need to kind of, even that back out.

Blair: 42:02

people are unpredictable, right? They're emotional, they're fluid. Uh, they're not a widget. So they're gonna bring you those moments of joy and they're gonna bring you those moments of frustration. And being emotionally intelligent enough to work through those. And that goes back to what I was saying earlier about our challenge is managing people in situations. That's the biggest challenge we have. You know, somebody who's a maintenance tech who can work on an HVAC unit, that's valuable, very valuable. But if they're gonna be a director of facilities. And now they have to manage a squabble between other, team members, or they have to make a decision that, okay, is this right for the people, but it's gonna blow my budget. there's those, components, that exist in leadership, that becomes the challenge because it's more people driven.

Erin: 42:51

What a great episode. Thank you so much for your time. And if they wanna know more about the American College of Healthcare Administrators, A-C-H-C-A, where do they go? Org.

Blair: 43:01

Org. Org, yeah. Aach hca.org. and really, I'll say it again. It's an investment in yourself. Do I think a company should support that both in practice and monetarily to a degree? Yeah. I think, it's a good investment, but at the end of the day, if they won't, if you're looking out for yourself long term, reach out, ask questions, and hopefully you're inclined enough to say, yeah, I need to be a part of that.

Erin: 43:25

Trust me, 300 and something dollars is nothing in the investment space. So it is worth it 100%. Thank you, Blair. Can't wait to hear your next song. Thank you for your time and your wisdom. We appreciate it.

Blair: 43:40

Thank you. You're helping, the industry and I sincerely appreciate that.

Erin: 43:45

Thank you and always aspire for more for you.