Senior Housing Investors

How do you Show Up as a Leader?

November 24, 2021 Haven Senior Investments Season 1 Episode 12
Senior Housing Investors
How do you Show Up as a Leader?
Show Notes Transcript

Senior Housing Investors Podcast had the pleasure of sitting down with Tom Johnston, Founder of Talent Optimizer Group. Tom shares his insights on why people are an organization's greatest asset and why the disconnect between employers and employees is contributing to the Great Resignation. Tom discusses how he uses a science backed assessment to help people increase self-awareness and why vulnerability isn’t a weakness. In fact, it’s one of the greatest and most admired leadership attributes. Join in at https://lnkd.in/eyYAimW as Tom and John Gonzales talk about employee engagement, hiring, and retaining talent.


Tom Johnston:

One of the questions that I ask is a simple question is how do you want to show up as a leader? When I start to ask that question, and people start to consider themselves again, thinking about that self awareness, part of what happens is we start to have a conversation around vulnerability. And recognizing that vulnerability isn't a weakness, it's actually a strength. For me, it's one of the attributes that I think going forward that a leader can start to work on in becoming more vulnerable themselves with their people, which then creates, you know, the ability for us to connect with other people and our team and we become an increase the level of engagement with our team members, by just being able to have a conversation around asking a simple question, right? How are you doing? How's everything going and starting to understand like, where that person is in their life, so we can start to meet them at that point, and figure out what is it that we need to do as an organization to care for people again, because our people is are their greatest asset in any organization.

John Hauber:

Welcome to the senior housing investors podcast. If you are an owner, operator, investor, developer or buyer of senior housing, you've come to the right place. The best way to stay connected with us is to sign up for our weekly newsletter at Haven senior investments.com. This podcast doesn't exist without you, our community. Thank you for listening, and reach out to us anytime. Welcome back, everyone to a special episode. Today we sit down with Tom Johnston with talent optimizer. Tom helps senior housing organizations hire, retain and engage the right employees so they can better serve modern elders and increase earnings. Let's listen in.

John Gonzales:

Thanks, John. Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Tom Johnston. Tom's the founder of talent optimizer group, an organization within the wellness and senior living space to help hire, retain and engage the right employees. And I know right now, that's extremely timely, so that they can better serve modern elders and increase earnings. Two noble goals. Tom is also an executive consultant and coach with over 30 years of proven success. And in full disclosure, Tom has been my leadership coach for a while now. And I can vouch for him personally. Great stuff. And Tom, welcome to the podcast.

Tom Johnston:

Thanks, John. It's great to be here. Thanks for having me.

John Gonzales:

Absolutely. Hey, I'm really excited about the conversation today. Because I know we had a well, we've had many conversations, but we're in sync in a lot of ways as to how we approach people and management and you know, the various components and complexities of human resources. You describe your approach with talent optimizer group, as a combination of high tech and high touch, why don't you tell us a little bit about the company? And then also, what does that mean?

Unknown:

So my company is talent optimizer group. And what we're about is really helping organizations to identify the right people for the right role at the right time. And when we talk about talent optimization, it's a discipline and the discipline of talent optimization, is aligning your business strategy with your people strategy. And what what I know from my past experiences, oftentimes there's a business strategy John but there's not necessarily a people strategy. And so when we start to look at the people strategy of an organization, yes, it begins with part of the hiring process. And using the tools that I use, which are the high tech tools, which is really a it's a platform, it's a software platform that I use, that I was introduced to about a year and a half ago. It's called Predictive index. And we began with the behavior assessment, where we're able to help folks in a very, very simple way in less than six minutes, we're able to have an individual take assessment that is pretty spot on, you know, it's uncanny how much information we're able to gather about ourselves and create that self awareness. And once we begin to do that, we were able to start to then identify the right person for the right role because what we do is using the platform we create something called a Job Target. So the Job Target helps us to then identify what type of behaviors we're searching for, to bet are going to have maybe the highest likelihood of being successful in a particular role. And I always say that this becomes another data point. And by using this tool I help organizations understand is that we're hiring for an individual, we're going to hire for the head, the heart and the briefcase. And we think of the briefcase or maybe it's the backpack today, where you have your experience and your resume. And that certainly is important your credentials, and the heart is your core values. Are we aligned from a core value perspective? And then the head becomes the behavioral assessment that we're able to use. So we're really hiring the whole person.

John Gonzales:

What's interesting to me is utilizing these types of tools to create a people strategy. I mean, the dinosaur approach to businesses, you know, hey, we pay a salary, we have these benefits, you know, and let's go. And the predictive index is fascinating to me. Can you elaborate just a little bit on what that tool does? And what exactly is that measuring?

Tom Johnston:

What it's measuring, it's measuring our needs and our behaviors as a result of our needs, and what's really going to motivate us and drive us in really our natural instincts and our natural behaviors. And it really measures who we are from a behavioral perspective. And again, then when we understand that individual, and what's really important here, John, is it through the use of this tool, the individual is beginning to understand ourselves, right, we create self awareness with this tool. And we're able to identify our strengths and own those strengths, and potentially even some of our blind spots, and we're able to just have a greater sense of self awareness. And then when we start to share that information with each other. And this is maybe where that, you know, kind of going back to that high touch piece is when we start to share that information. And we begin to have that self awareness, we become a little bit more vulnerable with each other and make deeper connections on a human level.

John Gonzales:

You know, having taken the predictive index and discussed my results with you, one of the things that was illuminating to me is how I respond under stress. And even though I've taken a number of these types of assessments, this was very different. It's the same material, but it's packaged in a much more digestible way. And for me, I was able to take what I what I learned about myself and apply it not only to my business life, but also in my personal life. And I don't know if that's something that's common, but understanding myself and how I work, under different situations with coworkers, that same knowledge is extraordinarily valuable to me in my personal life. So it seems like taking an organization through this kind of assessment, is almost given them an additional benefit for the employees, isn't it?

Tom Johnston:

Yeah, absolutely. You know, because what we're talking about is with self awareness, we also begin to start to talk about personal and professional development and growth. And that's what people are looking for today in the workforce of today is looking to align themselves with an organization that's going to help them to grow as an individual. And certainly utilizing these tools, is going to do just that, if we use them effectively, and we use them properly. The higher piece is one of the elements of what we call the talent optimization. The other piece is that we we design teams, so we're able to plot the individuals into the software. And then we begin to understand not only ourselves as a leader, but then we start to understand our team. And when we start to understand our team, the effects of this begin to multiply exponentially. And I often tell leaders, when we start to use the platform, it's like Moneyball, for HR. And we start to really design our teams effectively and know then how we're interacting with each other and potentially where the strengths of that team are, where they lie, and also where the as I shared the blind spots, and then we're able to make recommendations to an organization as to changes they can make pretty quickly and steps that they can take to improve the team dynamics and start to work on the culture of the organization.

John Gonzales:

It's interesting because I hear the term people strategy and it sounds like this nebulous gas that's floating out in the ether. And you know, when you boil it down, and you gather this data, and you have kind of this map of the team. How do you go from there to developing a people strategies? It's simply making sure you have the right people on the right seats on the bus?

Tom Johnston:

Yeah, part of it. When we think about people strategy, one of the things to understand is that as I shared like less than 25% of organizations actually have a people strategy. So we have a business strategy. But when we look at our organization, and we look at our most valuable asset in any organization it is our people. And so the question then becomes what is our people strategy? And there's, there's several elements to that. And yes, it begins with getting that right person in the right seat. Absolutely is about designing the right team. And then how do we inspire those people when when they enter into the organization? And then how do we also engage folks and then we start to look at, again, from a data perspective is understanding our employees sentiments and how they're feeling about the organization through employee surveys. And things like the employee Net Promoter Score, so we can begin to benchmark our culture. And we've got data that we can look at. And then from a people strategy perspective, we're understanding where our gaps are. Oftentimes, you know, there's a disconnect between what employers are thinking and feeling and what the employees thinking and feeling. And so we really need to do an assessment of the organization through surveys is one of the most effective ways to do that, then figuring out what action steps we need to take to improve.

John Gonzales:

This is actionable intelligence you're gathering. So it's not just the illumination of how individuals work within a team or group, it's understanding and then putting a plan in place that optimizes everyone's strengths, acknowledges maybe some of the weaknesses or opportunities for growth. But when the whole team is operating with that kind of knowledge, it really does change the chemistry of the company, doesn't it?

Tom Johnston:

It does. And part of what we're talking about here, John is, you know, my experience in roles that I've had in the past is, you know, whether it be COO, vice president of sales, you know, my job, I always felt like my job was to set people up for success. And when we start to utilize these tools, we begin to set people up for success. What we want to do by setting people up with the right role is to provide them with engaging work, right, meaningful work, but also then, you know, in terms of setting them up for success, it's that they're going to enjoy the work that they do every single day. And if we're able to do that, then our engagement is going to increase. And what does that mean for our residents? What it means is that they're going to potentially be more engaged, if you will, and the whole staff and the culture is going to be about engagement and serving other people. Because we're, we're enjoying what we're doing every day.

John Gonzales:

So Tom, right now, the entire industry, Senior Living, is really dealing with the labor shortage that's affecting, you know, the entire country. But specifically for caregivers, what we're seeing are a lot of folks that worked through the pandemic, that basically burnt out, and they're really good employees that are leaving seeking other, you know, careers, because this one was just too stressful. So one of the things you do is assist companies in recruitment and retention of existing employees. How do you go about doing something like that, in the midst of this crisis, where people are prone to, you know, jump ship for an extra buck an hour?

Tom Johnston:

You know, look, this has been an extraordinary time for us and frontline caregivers have just they've done a phenomenal job. You know, in some instances, they're putting their life on the line, which is noble. There's a lot to unpack there, John. And when we think about money, right, money is important, you know, people will leave for money, but the likelihood of people leaving for money if in fact, they feel valued by the organization, they feel valued by their manager. And they have a sense of belonging within the organization and aligned with that sense of purpose, the likelihood that they're going to stay increases, when we start to talk about burnout, burnout is is very real. And as leaders of an organization, one of the things we really need to be mindful of and looking at is, is our managers. Are those folks burnt out? And understanding what can we do from a mental health perspective, from a physical well being? I mean, you know, probably a not, a different podcast, but, you know, are we really talking about things like mental health with our team, and caring for those people and providing the kind of services that they may need as caregivers? There's a lot that organizations are going to be looking at in the future as to what are we doing to identify the challenges that employees are having? And then what are we doing to improve the overall sense of well being?

John Gonzales:

I've heard it said that people don't quit jobs, they quit their managers. And if you've got a management staff or a manager that is burned out or operating in a reactionary mode all the time, you're going to wind up putting a turnstile on the front door of the company, and you're going to keep shuttling people in and out. You got to make sure that those people at the front end of touching the frontline employees, those managers are carrying the company flag or carrying the culture. Because that's really where it happens, right? And you can have a culture defined on your brochure, and you can have plaques hanging at the corporate office. But it's really defined when that frontline manager is interacting with the staff, correct?

Tom Johnston:

Absolutely. And so when I speak about the high touch approach and start to work with organizations, one of the questions that I ask is a simple question, how do you want to show up as a leader? When I start to ask that question, and people start to consider themselves again, thinking about that self awareness. Part of what happens is we start to have a conversation around vulnerability. And recognizing that vulnerability isn't a weakness, it's actually a strength. For me, it's one of the attributes that I think going forward that a leader can start to work on and becoming more vulnerable themselves with their people, which then creates, you know, the ability for us to connect with other people and our team and we become an increase the level of engagement with our team members, by just being able to have a conversation around asking a simple question, how are you doing? How's everything going and starting to understand, like where that person is in their life, so we can start to meet them at that point, and figure out what is it that we need to do as an organization to care for our people again, because our people is our greatest asset in any organization,

John Gonzales:

there was a recent study, that was Gallup and it was interesting, because they they polled employees, frontline employees, as well as managers at the regional corporate level. And it found that the perception of the bosses of the managers was that the number one most important thing to employees was pay. But when you look at the results of the employee survey, pay ranked about five down the list with the first being a sense of being included, a sense of belonging, a sense that my boss cares about me. And what's interesting to me is okay, we have this data, but how much how many CEOs, how many company presidents are willing to put themselves out there to champion something like this, because as you said, you almost have to be willing to become vulnerable in order to really demonstrate what the value of something like this.

Tom Johnston:

Absolutely. And what you're talking about is the emotional compensation that's lacking in many organizations. And so it absolutely, when we're talking about engaging with the team, and our staff, at this does begin in the C suite. So when I step into an organization, and I start talking to a CEO, the buy in, if you will, is going to happen in the organization, if the CEO is actually walking the talk. And beginning at that level too also have that greater sense of vulnerability with their team, which again, you know, we talk about self awareness, and it comes down to the idea of how are you showing up as a leader every day. And if you're showing up, you know, coming from I like to say, to have that heart centered approach, people feel that people feel your energy and the CEO at the C suite level, their job is to manage the energy in the organization. So connecting with your people, and really understanding what it is that they're looking for to have that greater sense of feeling valued by the organization, valued by their manager, and then being able to create that sense of belongingness. Again, what we're talking about is the disconnect between what the employer is thinking and what the employees are feeling, and act as part of what's causing the great resignation.

John Gonzales:

Yeah, I heard that term coined the other day. And I thought that's exactly what we're actually seeing on the front lines in this industry is the great resignation and how companies are trying to come up with different well, people strategies for how do we prevent this from occurring? It's interesting, because there's so much what we do in this business, and I'm not every business has got its complexities. But in senior living, senior housing in particular, we're dealing with emotions, we're dealing with people. You know, it's a shame when, as an industry, we don't recognize and help our employees to build those skills that make them more successful. I'm curious, though, have you run into situations where you maybe have someone at the C suite level that buys in to this concept, and they're sitting there nodding their head? Yeah, that sounds really good. But they themselves aren't really on board. If you you know what I mean that they don't want to go out there and lead the charge here. They'll say, Yeah, let's send Tom Johnston out to the buildings and let him do his thing, but that they themselves aren't willing to do the same thing for their immediate teams and lead the way.

Tom Johnston:

Yeah, and I think sometimes that that's where we start to talk about coaching. And when a leader is ready to become vulnerable, and start to look at themselves, and then they're able to, you know, begin to walk that talk. One of the things I will say to organizations and leaders, is when it comes to doing things like surveys, employee engagement surveys, I will say, Hey, don't ask the questions, if you're not prepared to take action. That's actually in some instances, that's worse than not asking at all, because now you've asked my opinion, and you're, you're valuing my opinion, but you're not taking action, which, you know, in turn means that you're not necessarily taking action. And so the answer to your question is, yeah, John, I have seen that, I have experienced it. And as a result, I also experience you know, as me stepping into that organization to support coach consult, you know, I start to hear that, that feedback, and that's where we start to create a different, you know, a greater level of disengagement for the employee. So they're either they can be disengaged with their job, meaning there's a mismatch with the job, potentially, they could be disengaged with their manager, or team or they can also be disengaged, you know, with the culture of the organization. And ultimately, when we talk about, you know, our culture, it's how we behave around here, the leader, this, the CEO of any organization, people are watching every move that they make, and every word that's being said, you're being watched closely, every single day. And so if you're walking the talk, wonderful, I applaud that. But if you're not walking the talk, and you're saying, Hey, do as I say, not as I do, that's not gonna help you to retain your team. Right?

John Gonzales:

I had the experience of being at a chief operating level, and really championing theories and strategies like this, and really saying, hey, we need to listen to our employees, we want to start working on culture. And of course, that's a that's a word for a lot of people that doesn't have a solid return, you know, what's, what's the return on my investment? We're going to spend X amount of time and hours on building culture. And I always bumped into that wall, well, how much is this gonna cost? And well, you know, what kind of return are we may get on it, and it's very, you know, fluid, right? So I have had that experience where I've been the champion, but when it got up to the CEO level, that's where it stopped. And that individual didn't want to buy in and didn't see the value in it. And as much work as we were doing at our level. Anytime that individual walked in to a building, he sent out a different vibe. It felt like it undermined the whole process to some degree.

Tom Johnston:

Yeah, well, you're the vibe, right is energy. When that person walks into the building, if again, you know that their role is to manage the energy in the organization. And if they're sucking the energy out of the people, and draining the energy of people, that's going to potentially drive people to the door. And and so, you know, when we think about culture, that becomes the DNA of your business. You're either going to attract or you're going to repel people. And when we think about our residents, and engaging our residents in the morale of our team, there's an energy there, right. And so that energy is then going to transfer and translate over to our residents and the rest of our team. So you know, not investing in your culture, if you will. And being intentional about those investments, you know, recognize that if you're not intentional about the culture, that culture is being created around you. And it may not be may not be what you want, what you desire, and that when we think about your profitability and your revenue growth, there's gonna be a direct correlation between your culture and your revenue growth. And whether your bottom line whatever metrics, you're looking to derive from a financial perspective, there's a direct correlation between your level of employee engagement and the profitability of an organization.

John Gonzales:

Yeah, and you know, what's so interesting is that's a point that I've been advocating for for years before we even met, the realization that look investing in culture. People say, Well, how do you measure it? Well, you can look at your bottom line look at your noi, you can look at your resident and family satisfaction survey scores, you can look at your employee engagement scores. You can sense that culture when you walk in a building by the language that you hear being spoken by staff to each other and residents and it's not nebulous, it's very concrete, and it does have measurable outcomes. And that way you can see The value of investing in culture. So if I'm a leader, and let's say I'm an executive director at a building, or regional or even at the VP level or whatever, and I want to affect the culture, and what can I do? I mean, what do I need, in order to improve the culture in my building,

Tom Johnston:

there's a couple of things that you can do. One is, you know, begin to survey your team, and begin to understand, as you pointed out, on start to measure your employee Net Promoter Score, I view the employee net promoter score as a measurement of your culture, and begin to benchmark that score. And then as we start to identify other areas of improvement, you know, we start to take action on on those specifics and create that action plan. And we execute and we tell our, you know, we become again vulnerable, and we start to share those results with the organization and then tell folks, what are we going to do to improve the work conditions and improve the work environment? So that's one thing that we can do. And it's pretty simple. And then, you know, the other thing is, from a leadership perspective, if you're at the VP level, and you you're not connecting with your directors and your direct reports on a regular basis, you know, I will talk about things like one on ones, and are you actually having one on one meetings on a regular basis, a consistent basis to you're providing an opportunity to have a two way conversation, right? And that conversation isn't necessarily always just about your tasks? And here's what needs to be accomplished. And, you know, how are we doing in terms of performing against OKRs? Etc. It's about making a connection with the individual and understanding on a very, very, you know, human level, if you will, how are you doing? Providing time to people is, oftentimes, something is very, very simple to do. And it's like, slow down, pause. And let's just connect, let's have a cup of coffee together, whether it's in person or virtual,

John Gonzales:

Right? Yeah. And nowadays, you have virtual is almost as good. Tom, you had mentioned something to me, just before we started the podcast about a peer advisory group that you've been putting together. I'm curious what that looks like. And who was that meant for? How does that work into what you do?

Tom Johnston:

Well, I had the good fortune of, you know, I had a mentor back when I was when I was operating health and fitness clubs. I had a mentor who, you know, as soon as I went to work for this organization, they provide an opportunity for me to be involved in an industry roundtable group, I had to be fortunate to be involved in that group for 11 years, it was a group of folks that would come together a few times a year, and we would do that in person. And it was invaluable to me in terms of the learning experience, as well as the relationships that I've made over the years. And I've maintained those relationships. And so what I'm doing is I've created peer advisory groups, that we meet once a month, and we meet virtually, and it's the opportunity for leaders. And when we think about, you know, who's it targeted for, it's really those individuals that are sitting in a suite C suite that are looking for answers, that are going to be able to come together with their peers, and share their challenges, and be able to create a community where we're going to come together and we're going to help each other we're going to learn, and we're going to grow together. And we're going to support each other in a virtual environment. So you know, from a time perspective, we meet once a month for three hours at a time, my objective is to help those leaders become the best version of themselves, where they're going to also get vulnerable with their peers, we're going to be able to provide constructive feedback for leaders that frankly, they may not hear anywhere else. And so when you start to open yourself up in that environment, what I personally experienced and what I witnessed over time was there was a tremendous amount of growth that happened there.

John Gonzales:

The concept is fantastic. And I think especially when you're with like minded individuals, sharing challenges in a judgment free setting, in nothing but good brainstorming typically comes from that and just the ability to share the challenges and listen to how other folks are dealing with him. It sounds super helpful and very timely right now with everything that's going on. So I'm gonna ask you a couple of questions just because I'm goofy and I like to do these kinds of things. But what makes you motivated, you know, you get up in the morning, and you're getting ready to go out there and tackle the day and you got X y&z Here. Do you know what gets you out of bed? What gets you motivated?

Tom Johnston:

Well, what gets me out of bed, I'm an early riser. I love to start my day with meditation prayer. So I'll spend in anywhere from half hour to an hour. Just getting quiet. I've found that followed by a yoga class is a wonderful way for me to start my day. What motivates me and what gets me excited is working with organizations that truly want to make the kind of changes that are needed to To help people come into an organization, join an organization and prosper and grow. I couldn't be any more excited about what I do every day and witnessing the changes in people as they start to adopt the tools that we're talking about. And they start to look at themselves, and they actually do the work with coaching. And we start to see the changes, that is the most rewarding part of my job every single day,

John Gonzales:

hearken back to a conversation you and I had, which is not that long ago. And I was telling you that the impact I was experiencing as a result of your coaching, and having gone through some of the analytics on myself, were profound. And they had resulted in changes in my behavior that I recognized, hey, I've got an opportunity to grow here, I can see where that would provide you with gratification and a sense of accomplishment. Because even in my life, you had a profound impact through your coaching and our, you know, my ability to share with you in a judgment free environment. And I really appreciate that. And I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for that.

Tom Johnston:

Well, you're quite welcome. And that's just makes me feel fantastic. So thank you for that. That's a great boost to my energy, John. Thank you.

John Gonzales:

Okay, okay. Let me ask your last question here. Before we kind of let people know how to get in touch with you. Give me one career experience, you weren't expecting something that came out of the blue to you? Oh,

Tom Johnston:

Oh, so back in 2008, I was involved in an attempted acquisition of a fitness club. And, of course, we had this little problem with our economy, I was fortunate enough to be able to look for a job and actually at that time, find a job and I was introduced to a guy by the name of Steve Kass, who was the founder of a company called American leisure. And I had stepped away from the fitness industry, if you will, running clubs as it was, and I started working in the real estate service business. We were designing and operating amenity spaces in residential buildings and, and we got a call one day, I was with the company maybe six months and the call came from somebody in Saudi Arabia. They expressed interest in our services to help them open up a university in Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. Wow. And I had the good fortune of being the point person on that project and was involved in opening the first coed first international university in in Saudi Arabia. And I was responsible for creating the fitness and the lifestyle programming and ultimately building the community and connecting people. That was a once in a lifetime experience that I'm so grateful that I had that opportunity.

John Gonzales:

That is amazing. Hey, how was the food in Saudi Arabia?

Tom Johnston:

The food was pretty was was great. Actually. Mediterranean food has now become my favorite food as a result of that experience. Very cool. Was pretty darn good. Fair enough.

John Gonzales:

Hey, Tom. If people want to learn more about you or talent optimizer group, or the peer advisory groups, how can they find out more?

Unknown:

It's pretty simple. It's Tom at talentoptimizergroup.com. You can also find me on my website. It's talentoptimizergroup.com and you can schedule a conversation there. So we're happy to chat with folks and share more with them about talent optimization and peer advisory groups and also, perhaps how I can help from a coaching perspective.

John Gonzales:

Perfect. Tom, thank you so much for your time today. Appreciate it.

Tom Johnston:

It was my pleasure. Thank you so much, and happy Thanksgiving.

John Gonzales:

Happy Thanksgiving. Thanks, Tom.