Senior Living Redefined: Cultivating Community with Steve Lindsey

Better People Podcast

Dive into an inspiring chat with Steve Lindsey, CEO of Garden Spot Village, where we explore the transformative power of purpose in senior living. Discover how purpose, engagement, and community culture redefine experiences for both staff and residents. Learn about cross-generational connections and the evolution of a thriving organization. Get ready for tales of culture shifts, purpose-filled stories, and senior living turned upside down – all in this riveting episode!

Here are a few topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• Building culture: CEO’s key role
• Creating resident-driven culture
• Empowering staff with accountability
• Intergenerational connections uplift
• Purpose in employee orientation

Resources:

• Garden Spot Village
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)
• The Brave New Work

Connect with Steve Lindsey:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

• Holly DePalma - LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich - LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 10:29 - We'd been doing some reading and learning around Maslow's hierarchy of needs and, you know, Viktor Frankl's Man Search for Meaning, and that sense of, you know, that we can weather a lot of storms in our life if we have a sense of purpose. And oftentimes that purpose comes from serving others, from reaching out and sharing what we have with others.
• 13:30 - It's really a fascinating journey because, you know, if you listen to all the voices in our culture, one of the things they tell you is that, you work hard all your life and then you retire to live the good life, right? And so if you look at the images in advertisements and things, the good life looks like five days of golf a week, right? On a great golf course. Or it looks like, you know, sitting hand in hand and watching the sun go down at the beach, you know, every day. You know, those kind of things. It tends to be a more passive approach to life. And I think what we're learning is that that's really not the good life at all. The life that brings the most joy, the life that brings the most happiness, the bright life that brings the most sense of fulfillment is a life of engagement and involvement.
• 27:16 - Creating a strong culture is something that we have to do for ourselves. You know, if we're passive, then we're going to be at the whim of others. And so by stepping into that space and being a part of the solution, it helps us to build something that we can all be proud of, that we can all belong in, and that we can all come to work every day feeling good about this place that we spend so many hours in the course of a week.
• 26:45 - I think the accountability as you describe it, you know, is tied to, at least as I think about it. So I'd love to hear your thoughts is really tied to the conversation you had earlier about we've become this consumer society, right? We buy our solutions, right? Instead of taking personal accountability for them, ourselves, whatever it might be, you know, and some things we can't, right? Some things we do need to buy, but there are other things that we can do ourselves if we were to take that personal accountability to do so.
• 36:32 - To me, autonomy is that sense that I have a voice, that my being here matters and I can help to shape the environment in which I work every day. And the way that we serve people here, and then relationships, we all want to be respected. We all want to be connected with other people. We all want a place where we can belong, where we can love others and be loved by others. And, and so, you know, that kind of all rolls together in with that sense of purpose to really try to create an environment that people are pleased to come to work. That they feel that sense of ownership and a sense of pride in what they do every day.