Transcript Generated by AI 00:00 Mark Parkinson back with Park Place and we're here for a Let's Talk segment. 00:04 The Let's Talk segments are sponsored by First Quality and we really appreciate 00:09 their support of the website. 00:10 It allows us to do this without folks having to pay for the website, 00:13 without having to have annoying pop up ads and all of that. 00:16 So thanks to First Quality. When we talked about the Let's Talk 00:19 segment, we thought, you know, let's see if we can get the absolute 00:23 superstars of the sector to come on the site and basically tell us how they've 00:26 done it. 00:28 Today we have one of those people I couldn't be more thrilled to have, 00:32 Steve Flatt, who is the CEO of the National HealthCare 00:36 Corporation. 00:37 Steve and NHC are amazing and we could have long conversations about each of 00:43 them. 00:44 Today we're going to talk about both of them and really celebrate the success 00:48 that they've had. 00:49 But more important than that, hopefully get from Steve some ideas on 00:53 how they have achieved this amazing success. 00:56 So let me first of all start off and tell you a little bit about NHC. 00:59 You probably know that it's one of the few publicly traded companies in our 01:03 sector. 01:04 So I'm sure Steve loves that people can find out everything they want to know 01:08 about NHC in the SEC filings. 01:11 It's a big company. 01:12 It's been around for over 50 years. 01:14 It's got 80 skilled nursing facilities, 26 assisted living buildings, 01:19 some continuing care communities, 34 hospices, 01:22 30 home health and behavioral health units become a very large company. 01:27 What's remarkable about NHC though, is not its size. 01:31 Instead, it is its results. 01:34 The clinical results for NHC are almost hard to believe. 01:38 So we've got a couple things up here on the screen and let me just highlight them. 01:43 Average 5 star score across the portfolio is 4.0 versus a national average of 3.0. 01:51 Their QMS are 4. 7 versus a national average of 3.7. 01:56 They stand out on a whole bunch of the specific measures on Five Star, 02:01 but the one that just completely blows me away is that their RN turnover rate is 02:06 30% versus a national average of 43%. 02:09 And on top of that, listen to this, their average administrator has been with 02:13 them for over 15 years. 02:15 Just let that sink in for a second. 02:16 The average administrator has been there for over 15 years. 02:20 As you might expect when you have this kind of clinical results, 02:23 their financial performance has been outstanding. 02:27 NHC was sort of an unrecognized stock for a long time because Steve does some smart 02:31 things to sort of stay under the radar. 02:33 But the the secret is now definitely out. 02:36 And if you look at the performance of the stock versus the S& 02:40 P over the last five years, NHC has completely crushed the S& 02:44 P 500. 02:44 The S&P 500 is up 73%. 02:47 And over that same period of time, NHC stock is up over 198%. 02:53 Great financial results and great clinical results. 02:56 And Steve, I couldn't be happier for you. 02:59 Welcome here to Park Place. 03:01 Well, thank you, Mark. 03:02 You're very kind. 03:03 And as always, I'm thrilled to join you for any endeavor, 03:06 but glad to be here at Park Place. 03:08 Well, that's great. 03:09 Thanks. 03:09 Thanks so much for it. 03:10 And you know, we could talk a lot about you. 03:12 We could talk a lot about NHC. 03:14 Want to spend our time today talking about both. 03:17 So you have one of the most interesting backgrounds for a leader in the sector. 03:23 I just can't think of anybody who's got an analogous background to yours. 03:27 So starting at the time that you were an undergrad at Lipscomb, 03:31 just take us through the journey that brought you to become the CEO at NHC. 03:37 Well, I'll be brief, Mark. 03:39 I've lived a long time and you don't want to hear it all. 03:41 It would take all our time. 03:43 But I did go to Lipscomb University in Nashville, 03:46 TN on a basketball scholarship and thoroughly enjoyed my experience there. 03:50 Thought I was going to go be a high school teacher and assistant basketball 03:55 coach out of college at my high school alma mater in Nashville. 03:59 But I was approached at graduation about staying at Lipscomb, 04:03 taking a job to be in training the Director of Admissions. 04:08 And at the same time, Lipscomb offered to send me to Vanderbilt, 04:11 Peabody College of Vanderbilt University to get a Master's and a doctorate in 04:15 exchange for a five year work commitment. 04:18 Well, I jumped at that. 04:19 I wanted graduate degrees anyway. 04:22 And so I went from director of admissions to vice president of financial affairs to 04:27 vice president of institutional planning in a 10 year span at Lipscomb. 04:31 And I'm still only 30 years old at the end of that and had my doctorate by the 04:36 time I was 26. 04:37 And at that point, Lipscomb changed presidents And I, 04:41 I had an offer to go and be the senior pastor at a large church in Nashville. 04:48 Chose to do that. 04:49 Felt called to do that at the time. 04:52 Also strangely was president of a private K through 12 that had 1100 students. 04:59 So actually had two jobs at the same time while I was also having three kids. 05:04 It was a hectic time in life. 05:06 In 1997, I was offered to come back to my alma 05:10 mater, Lipscomb to become its 16th president. 05:13 Did that for eight years and candidly was being recruited to go to a larger 05:19 research oriented university when one of our board members, Andy Adams, 05:24 whose father founded NHC, Dr. Carl Adams, and he was on my board. 05:28 And I'll never forget he popped in my office on Good Friday of 2005 and he said, 05:33 you got a minute? 05:34 And I said, sure, you know, he asked an awkward question. 05:37 He was one of my best donors. 05:38 He said, I hear you may be leaving Lipscomb. 05:40 That was a tough question. 05:42 And my comment was, well, Andy, I'm, you know, not decided. 05:45 And he said, well, I wouldn't recruit you away. 05:48 I'm on the board of. 05:49 But if you think you might leave anyway, would you consider coming to NHC? 05:53 And it was a most unlikely conversation. 05:57 But at three months later, sure enough, I took my name out of consideration for 06:03 the research university presidency and I ended up at at NHC. 06:07 And that has been gosh, it'll be 21 years ago on June 15th marks 06:13 longest stay of my life. 06:16 Vocationally here at NHC and I've loved it, loved it, loved it. 06:19 Well, it's an amazing it's an amazing 06:21 background and and one of the things I think unless you're close to it. 06:25 And I, I got close to it when I was the governor 06:28 of Kansas is what a big deal it is to be a president of the university. 06:31 So you, you have been very modest in this. 06:34 You weren't just a basketball player at Lipscomb. 06:35 You were like the leading all time scorer, the MVP on the team. 06:39 You didn't just run a little church, you ran a mega church. 06:42 You weren't just the president at Lipscomb. 06:43 You were the president at Lipscomb. 06:44 And I think there was chatter that you might eventually at some point in life, 06:47 become the president or the chancellor of the entire, you know, 06:50 University of Tennessee, which is a massive, massive deal. 06:53 And you've made this decision that I find to be remarkable to to walk away from all 06:58 of that and go to NHC, which was a much smaller company at the 07:02 time. 07:02 And here's what really blows my mind. 07:04 I assumed that you had had a guarantee when you left Lipscomb that you would be 07:08 the CEO. 07:09 I've since learned that you left without having that guarantee you, 07:13 you came on as like a senior VP or something. 07:16 So what, what caused you to do that? 07:20 Well, you know, that's hard to actually actually put into 07:25 words. 07:25 They were just I'm, I'm a great believer that first of all, 07:28 I think I've mentioned to you in the past, I've been blessed. 07:32 I've enjoyed every job I've ever had and I've never had to ask for a job. 07:36 Gratefully, I was approached with opportunities. 07:39 Now I've been approached with opportunities sometimes weren't that good, 07:42 but sometimes. 07:43 And I knew NHC, I'd done leadership training for them. 07:46 I went home and told my wife after that conversation with Andy Adams, I said, 07:49 you won't believe the conversation I had today. 07:52 And she said we're you're not seriously going to consider that, are you? 07:55 And I said, well, well, before you dismiss it, I said, 07:58 one thing is I wouldn't have to be raising money all the time, which, 08:01 you know, they said the exercise of the college 08:04 president is and the beggar died. 08:07 You know, there's some truth to that. 08:09 And I said, I've done some leadership training for 08:12 NHC and I said, I know which one of the top five or six 08:16 long term care senior care companies in the country. 08:19 And I said, I'm honored they would even think of me. 08:22 I'm outside of the realm of, of the of the industry. 08:26 And so anyway, it the longer I talked with Andy and his 08:30 brother Robert, and I visited with NHC board members, 08:33 the more I felt like it was the right thing to do. 08:39 I knew the the demographics. 08:41 I knew the aging of America. 08:43 It seemed like a challenge I wanted to sink my teeth into. 08:48 It's ironic. 08:49 Got early, worked out well. 08:51 I've loved it. 08:52 I loved working with young people. 08:54 I did and, and now I, I got tickled. 08:57 I said all my folks I went to, to, to college with, 09:00 they used to call me about getting a scholarship for their child. 09:03 Now they call me about getting a room for their mother. 09:06 So I'm still connected. 09:08 It's just through three generations. Steve, you really are inspiring and, 09:12 and one of the best leaders I've ever met. 09:14 And one of the things that I find so inspiring is that when you came to NHC, 09:18 you didn't just sit up in the C-Suite, you know, making decisions or whatever, 09:23 you got your hands dirty. 09:25 You, you went through AIT training, which is a remarkable thing to think 09:29 about a guy that's been a university president. 09:32 It's like a shooting star in the state. 09:34 And the next thing they, they've got scrubs on. 09:36 They're, they're serving meals and, and they're, they're rounding and, 09:39 and tell us about your decision. 09:41 You know, why did you go through AIT training and, 09:43 and, and tell us something. 09:44 I think you've had some pretty funny experiences with that. 09:48 Well, I did, I did. 09:49 And frankly, it wasn't my initial idea. 09:52 When I came on the board with NHC I was senior vice president of development and 09:57 over IT and over legal and a few other things. 10:01 But Robert Adams, who was had just become CEO, 10:04 his brother Andy had moved to chairman of the board. 10:08 Robert said, would you really like to know our 10:09 business? 10:09 And I said, well, Robert, I'm 49 years old. 10:11 I hope this is my last stop. 10:13 I do want to know the business. 10:15 Would you like to go through the AIT program for six months? 10:18 We do a two year AIT program, but to get, you know, federally and state licensed, 10:24 6 months. 10:25 So I did that 35 hours a week with each of the different rotations and pass the 10:31 exams. 10:31 And I'm Tennessee nursing home license number 3029 today. 10:36 I keep my, my license active, but I did want to know, you know, what, 10:40 what was going on. 10:42 And, and, and that's the only way you can get 10:43 street 10:44 cred with the people that you're working with, 10:46 with the administrators and the DONs. 10:49 And obviously I still don't have anywhere near the experiences that those 10:52 administrators you mentioned with 15 average years of tenure. 10:56 I didn't go through that, but I certainly got a taste of it. 10:59 I, I appreciate so much how challenging it 11:04 is. 11:04 You know, you mentioned being a college president. 11:06 It's kind of like being mayor of a small city and, and that is true, 11:11 but I also learned that being the administrator of, of a, 11:14 of a healthcare center like that, it's a bit of the same thing. 11:19 I mean, you've got everything, you've got people living there, 11:21 you've got security, you've got maintenance and house cleaning. 11:24 You've got even more you're, you're focused on direct medical care, 11:28 which was not true for the most part in my time as a college president. 11:33 But, but I, I thoroughly enjoyed that. 11:35 I will tell you one story. 11:38 And before you tell me that story, let me just correct you on one thing. 11:40 It's not like when you're university of president, 11:42 it's not like being the mayor of a little city. 11:44 It's like being the king of a country. 11:46 I mean people, people strategize to figure out how to 11:49 get in front of you. 11:50 You get treated like royalty and that's just what it's blows my mind and it's 11:54 just a great leadership lesson is that you step back from all of that took this 11:59 enormous chance, no guarantee to be the CEO, 12:01 but you believe in what the company was doing. 12:04 You humbled yourself in a in a beautiful way of going through AIT training and 12:09 that tell it. 12:09 I think you've had some you had some interesting interactions. 12:14 I I did, I did two quick stories. 12:17 One I was in housekeeping rotation was literally vacuuming the floor. 12:21 A lady who I knew her and her husband from my time at Lipscomb and she came 12:26 walking up on a walker. 12:28 Look at my name tag, look at me, look back at my name tag, look at me. 12:31 And she said, well, honey, I knew your daddy at Lipscomb. 12:35 And which tickled me. 12:36 I went home and told my wife greatest compliment I've ever been paid. 12:39 A lady told me today I look young enough to be my own son. 12:43 Because she just couldn't imagine that the president was the would be vacuuming 12:47 the floor at Richland Place. 12:49 She thought he sure the other one that I think I've mentioned this to you before. 12:54 I was in CNA rotation and two things about this. 12:59 I was literally feeding a man a retired policeman who was suffering from severe 13:03 Parkinson's and he had his radio on on the night stand beside there. 13:07 It was midday and the news came on that, well, 13:10 Lipscomb University has just announced its 17th president. 13:15 It said Doctor Randolph Lowery is succeeding. 13:17 Doctor Stephen Flatt, as you know, and I'm in my scrubs, literally, you know, 13:21 feeding this gentleman. 13:23 And I thought, Oh my God, what have I done? 13:25 You know, it was, it was the one moment where I really had 13:29 a significant second thought. 13:32 I thought, you know, I was behind that desk. 13:33 It, it was a pretty good gig, I'll admit that. 13:36 And, and, and to be doing this. 13:38 But you know, after that same day, I told my wife this and every 13:41 administrator, I mean, so many of our folks in our industry, 13:45 Mark, like to a degree you, but so many have grown up in it and 13:48 they've known it from the time they might have been in high school or working with 13:53 their mom or dad or so forth. 13:55 I didn't have that privilege. 13:57 I came to it. 13:58 I had other privileges, but not that one. 14:01 But I went home and told my wife after feeding that gentleman, I said, you know, 14:05 and all my life I've always told myself I'm doing things that make a difference. 14:10 Sitting in committees, phone calls, meetings. 14:13 I said, I feel like that we were, but it was always removed. 14:17 I said when I was feeding that man, he took my hand and shaking, 14:21 said thank you. 14:23 I said it was the first time I'd met a primal human need since I changed our 14:28 baby's diaper, which my wife would tell me 14:30 I didn't do that often, but nonetheless, and and you know what, 14:34 Mark a light went on for me. 14:36 I thought, how do these CNA's do this every day? 14:39 It's hard, hard work. 14:41 How do these nurses tend to these folk? When you get that kind of gratitude 14:46 meeting a primal human need. 14:49 It's an experience that I've never felt any other way. 14:52 And and that just kind of sold me. 14:55 This really is the last stop of my career. 14:57 I'm back behind the desk. 14:58 I'm back more removed. 14:59 I'm not giving that direct care, but every day I wake up and I think we're 15:04 serving 50, 000 people today who built this country 15:08 and, and made us the great place to live. 15:11 I'm enjoying the fruit of their laborers and now they need us and I'm going to do 15:15 whatever I can to make sure they get the best gift. 15:18 I'm doing it from afar. 15:19 I'm in a support role, but it is unbelievably important to me 15:23 and, and I love it. 15:25 I love it. 15:26 Hey, it's why I'm not like you. 15:27 I haven't retired yet. 15:28 I'm, I'm enjoying this everyday. 15:29 I enjoy coming into work. 15:31 Well, such a beautiful story. 15:33 And again, it's, it's amazing that you made the decision. 15:38 And, and Stacy and I had the same experience. 15:39 We, we had been practicing law. 15:41 I'd been in the state Senate when we started taking care of people in our 15:44 buildings. 15:45 We would go home every night knowing that we had done great things no matter what. 15:50 And you don't know that when you're practicing law or when you're in the 15:53 state senator, but you're just, it was just, yeah, I, 15:56 I totally get what you're saying. 15:59 Again, it's very beautiful. 16:00 OK, Now let's talk about NHC. 16:01 And you were right at NHC when you came was, 16:04 was one of the five or six best companies in the country. 16:07 And it is clearly one of those right now. 16:09 When when David Gifford, Rae Anne Davis and I decided to write a 16:13 book back in 2024 about the best companies in the space, you know, 16:17 that we featured NHC because the data it's it's incredible that you all done it 16:22 for 50 years. 16:23 You've done it to scale. 16:24 You've done it through multiple CEO transitions. 16:28 This is not a one shot wonder kind of thing. 16:31 And so let's talk about about NHC and how and hopefully give some folks some ideas. 16:35 So at at a very high level, when you think the 50 years of NHC in 16:40 your time there, why, why has it succeeded? 16:47 Well, Mark, these are buzzwords, but I think they're actually true. 16:51 I think culture and leadership are absolutely critical. 16:57 You know, at our leadership conference last year, 17:00 I talked about culture and I said it's a bit of a nebulous word. 17:04 It seems touchy feely. 17:06 But I said, if you go back to your high school days 17:09 in biology, you had these Petri dishes and what did 17:12 you call them? 17:13 You called them a culture. 17:14 And what was a culture? 17:16 A culture was a contained environment where you put in what you want to grow 17:21 and you protect it and you keep out everything that would contaminate that. 17:27 And I challenged our administrators. 17:30 We're a Petri dish. 17:31 We're we are. 17:32 Our culture is not really nebulous. 17:34 We just need to make sure we keep in what we want to grow and we keep out what 17:40 would destroy that. 17:42 And I think Doctor Adams, our founder, being a physician and a surgeon, 17:45 you talk about a guy that had a heart for patients. 17:49 I mean, he put in RNs as DONs 1973. 17:54 Nursing homes didn't have that then Mark he, he brought in therapist in 1974. 18:00 Before people were paying for that to try and get people better so that they could 18:04 go back home. 18:06 And we have had four CEOs, but it was Doctor Adams and two of his 18:10 sons. 18:11 So for 45 years now, I can tell you both those boys wanted to, 18:15 to keep their father's legacy alive and were committed to the same quality of 18:20 care that he was committed to with the founding of this company. 18:25 And I'm grateful they kept me around long enough for me to be totally absorbed in 18:30 that myself. 18:32 My job is, is to, to build up leaders that I work with 18:36 directly and they build up leaders that work with them and and so forth right 18:41 down the chain to where everybody buys into. 18:45 We're committed to that quality of care that you bragged on us about those, 18:50 those metrics, those customer satisfaction scores that 18:53 that's why we're here and we are big every, every one of our 16, 18:58 000 partners writes their own purpose statement and and we review it every year. 19:03 Now you may just tweak it. 19:05 I've not changed mind much over the last couple of years because I still feel the 19:09 same purpose. 19:10 But it's important to remember the why. 19:13 I know Simon Sinek did a big thing on know your why. 19:16 We, we're big on that. 19:18 We are big on that because if you know your why, 19:20 you can deal with a lot of problems and pain that comes your way. 19:25 I think that's NHC secret. 19:28 Now mechanically or process wise, we do some things to reward our people, 19:33 to recognize our people. 19:36 But at the end of the day, if, if, if you're key folks, 19:39 and I mean key all the way down to really the frontline leadership don't understand 19:43 their why, you're going to have a hard time being 19:46 successful. 19:47 So I had actually forgotten about that. 19:48 You have all 16, 000 associates partners write their 19:52 personal why and, and, and you talk and your your administrators 19:56 talk with their CNAs and, and I assume that most of them are well, 20:00 I shouldn't assume anything. 20:02 Some of them might be about their families, some might be about care. 20:06 They're all across the board, Mark and and you know, 20:09 that's part of the beauty of it. 20:11 Why are you here? 20:13 You know, no question. 20:14 Some is to care for my family that that has come through but but we want to help 20:19 them see. 20:20 Just think about it a little bit. 20:22 I'm here to fix a meal. 20:25 Well, are you or are you here to enrich the 20:27 quality of these people, these seniors, by giving them delicious and nutritious 20:32 food to allow their quality of life to be the best it can be in their twilight 20:37 years. 20:38 And we don't tell them what to write. 20:40 But when people stop and think about it, it goes deeper than the how or the what 20:44 to get to the why. 20:46 And if you get to the why, then you'll do the what that I mean, 20:50 that's what we try to stress. 20:52 Yeah, and I think you're 100% right. 20:55 The it's the culture and then the process. 20:57 And a lot of people want to chart doing the process before they have the culture. 21:01 But let's talk about some of the processes and, you know, 21:03 let's focus on a few things that folks might might give them some some pause to 21:07 think about their organization. 21:09 So when I look at the 15 year administrator length of time, 21:13 the two things that jump out at me about NHC that I actually didn't know before we 21:18 wrote the book were first, the enormous amount of control you give 21:22 the leaders in the buildings. 21:24 And then second, the opportunities that you give the 21:27 leaders, including the DONs to have a larger 21:30 income than than many people have if if certain objectives are are are met. 21:34 So can you talk a little bit about those two features that the local control and 21:38 the and the incentives that you have? 21:41 Absolutely. 21:42 Well, we're a great believer that to get 21:45 everybody on the same page and to accomplish the goals we all want to 21:49 accomplish, we need to align an incentive and and we 21:53 do that throughout our company. 21:55 By the way, we certainly have performance plans for 21:58 our administrators and for our DONs. 22:00 We have for every partner in our building something called PIE, 22:04 which stands for Partners Incentive for Excellence. 22:08 And it's got like 6 basic components, customer satisfaction, quality of care, 22:14 partner retention, training and compliance, adherence, 22:19 census and then personal longevity. 22:21 Those six. 22:23 And literally in the break room there is a PIE that tells you how you're doing 22:27 collectively. 22:28 And at the end of the year, there could be a, 22:32 well there typically is a very nice bonus that goes to every partner if they have, 22:38 but based on the pie score for that center in those six different domains. 22:44 And again, that just keeps everybody pulling on the 22:47 same end of the rope trying to accomplish those things. 22:51 Certainly for our administrators, you know, we, we list quality elements, 22:55 we list customer satisfaction elements. 22:57 We do have financial results though. 23:00 That's just a part of the overall turnover partner satisfaction scores 23:05 because if our partners aren't satisfied and if our retention's not at least 23:10 reasonably good, we're not going to get the results that 23:14 we need. 23:15 So typically over half of our administrators and and deal wins 23:21 compensation comes through the performance plan through the incentives 23:27 and not from the basics out. 23:30 Yeah, I just want to, I just want to folk just make sure that 23:33 everybody hears that because it is such a powerful thing that that a number of 23:37 organizations are doing. 23:39 You have a base for your administrators and DONs, 23:43 but I think you just said they can actually get double that or more or more 23:49 with the with the incentives and it's clearly created a loyalty as as 23:55 demonstrated by this 15 year tenure and very smart. 24:00 Another thing I want to I want to focus on is you guys have disproven one of the 24:04 things that I tell people a lot, which is you can't have more than like 24:08 three or five values because if you do that, 24:11 nobody will ever be able to remember them. 24:13 So just have a very simple mission statement at 3 to 5 values. 24:16 You've got this better way approach where you have like 20-some standards that you 24:22 all agree to. 24:23 Can you can you talk about the better way and then explain to us how it is that 24:28 you've been able to get and I think it's all 16, 24:30 000 people to understand these these 20 standards. 24:34 Well, yes, I will first let me say that our, 24:37 our actual company core values, there are four of those we would around 24:42 an acrostic from care which is commit to godly excellence, act with integrity, 24:48 respect and value people and enhance quality of life. 24:51 So, so and, and our folks, our partners know that. 24:54 But yes, the better way then takes up jumps off 24:58 those 4 core values and said there are 20 promises that we want to make to all of 25:03 our customers to make to all of our patients or residents or family members. 25:09 And we got that idea frankly from Horst Schulze 25:13 The founder of Ritz Carlton. Andy Adams, was out looking for a, 25:18 a better customer satisfaction model to to enhance just the overall sense of 25:24 hospitality and care and, and came up with, 25:27 we spent a year developing those 20 promises And what we do is everyday, 25:33 and this is a Horst Schulze / Ritz Carlton idea. 25:37 Each of our partners in each location from right here on the 14th floor of our 25:42 corporate office to every shift, maybe in a dining room or the nurses 25:47 station, they cover one of those 20 promises every 25:50 day, one through 20. 25:51 We just go through them sequentially, get to #20 start again the next day. 25:56 We're #1 and we've been doing that now for 21 years. 25:59 And now by the way, there are talking points. 26:02 We have a person full time who develops the talking points for each of those days 26:06 and they're sent out over the Internet so that everybody has a copy of them. 26:11 But obviously that keeps everybody reminded of what we're promising our our 26:16 patients and their families. 26:18 It does that, but it also has a great spree decor. 26:21 I mean, you're gathering everybody together. 26:23 It doesn't take long, 10 minutes, but you can talk about things we need to 26:28 do today. 26:29 Or is there an issue with Miss Jones down the hall? 26:32 And we better tend to that because there's there's an issue there looks like 26:36 a pressure injury developing in camp. 26:38 I mean, literally within within the confines of 26:40 HIPAA, of course. 26:41 But we, we were able to do some things that pull 26:44 the team together in that daily standup at each shift. 26:49 Yeah, and, and I witnessed it and it's, it's amazing. 26:51 So you literally have everybody in every facility across your, 26:55 all these multiple facilities I talked about, they get together, you know, they, 27:00 they chat, they talk sometimes they hold hands in 27:04 these. 27:04 I think I've heard sometimes they'll say a prayer. 27:07 And it's not just like reciting like promise #16 it's also Promise 16. 27:13 But it's with an example of some associate who has lived that out. 27:17 Yes and and it's whether you want to or not if you work with NHC for a year. 27:23 So you're going to have all twenty of these in your mind. 27:25 I mean it just like the it's going to be like the song. 27:28 It's a small world. 27:29 You're not going to be able to get it out of your mind exactly so much. 27:34 One of the things I found really fun was when I became the CEO of AHCA and got to 27:39 know every single company. 27:40 And you probably know this now, but Good Samaritan Society, 27:44 the large not-for-profit, does the same thing. 27:47 They didn't know that you were doing it. 27:48 You didn't know that they were doing it. 27:50 But organically, you had both developed this amazing thing 27:53 where everybody comes together and talks about a value or a promise and, 27:57 and obviously both organizations success speaks for speaks for itself. 28:01 It's a very simple thing, Mark, and some might consider it trite, 28:05 but as an old educator, I'm a great believer that repetition is 28:09 the key to learning. 28:11 And if it's important enough that we really want to act it out to our 28:16 customers, to our patients and families, then we need to be reminded of it in our 28:22 case, daily. 28:23 We just think it's that important and wouldn't change it now for the world. 28:27 I'm going to talk about one more process thing because we're coming up on our time. 28:30 But you clearly invest in your team. 28:34 And an example of it is your AIT program. 28:36 You made a reference. 28:37 It's two years, you have scholarship programs, 28:40 you have career ladders. 28:42 I know you have an annual get together that's got to be very expensive to put on. 28:46 So just talk about the importance of your investments in your leadership and the 28:50 role that plays. 28:51 Well, we, we do invest highly in, in leadership. 28:55 We do an annual leadership conference that is for all of our administrators. 29:01 And this year we had it in Orlando and we get a a 4 star hotel or so. 29:06 And, and it's meant to be frankly, a perk of sorts. 29:11 Now you've actually spoken, Mark, at some of our leadership conferences 29:15 before. We start in the mornings at 7:00 AM, 29:17 which these folks are used to coming to work at that time anyway or earlier. 29:22 And we go to about noon for four straight days. 29:24 We get in our CEUs to retain, you know, the administrator license, 29:28 but we work hard and then we play hard in the afternoon golf tournament, pickleball, 29:34 just all kinds of things and and pay for the spouses to come. 29:39 Very nice honors banquet to close it out and it is a highlight of the year. 29:45 Obviously these folks when you got 15 year average 10 year, 29:48 you got people that know one another and they don't see, 29:50 especially if they're in a different region, 29:52 everybody coming together and it's, it's like a big reunion. 29:56 So that's right. 29:57 So that's in the spring, in the fall, we do what we call our patient care 30:01 conference, bring in all our DONs, our directors of rehab and our home care 30:05 agency administrators. 30:07 And it's a bigger group actually, once again, 30:10 four day conference get CEUs create a spree decor and and I think it makes them 30:17 feel like we value them and we value their enhanced professionalism and and 30:23 they've been very well received. 30:25 We do not that on that scale, but regional to multi regional 30:30 conferences for our our food service supervisors. 30:34 We do the same thing for our therapist and do the same thing for our Hospice 30:38 administrators. 30:40 So there's a lot of that that that we focus in on. 30:43 My favorite thing though, and this is quasi leadership, 30:46 I think it is because I think these people lead their peers is our CNA days 30:51 for each region. 30:52 And we started that back in 1994 and that was have grown into pretty big deals 30:57 where we get everybody together and it's the CNAs and it's the best of the best. 31:03 It's like for every 8 beds, you nominate a CNA from those eight beds. 31:08 Well, that's several in a center depending upon 31:10 the size of the center. 31:11 Well, then you end up choosing a center of the 31:14 year CNA. 31:15 Well, all those that are in the center, maybe 7, 8, 31:18 10 come to this giant get together and you name a, 31:21 a CNA of the year for that region. 31:24 And we have 7 different regions. 31:26 But I mean, there's it's a banquet sometimes there's 31:29 a lot of entertainment. In South Carolina 31:31 we had Tim Scott come and speak. 31:33 Tim Scott came to CNA Day and by the way, his mother was a CNA. 31:39 You talk about a guy that resonated with our folks. 31:42 These folks, everybody dresses up to the nines. 31:44 It is a delicious meal. 31:46 It is a it's a party and it's fun. 31:48 It was so good that a few years ago and, and with CNA Day, 31:51 they pick them up in limousines, Mark, they get them in, 31:54 they don't come in your own car. 31:56 We pick them up in limousine. 31:58 The limousine driver was driving these CNAs all dressed to the nines and she 32:02 said what are who are you all and where are you going? 32:05 And they told her she quit her job, got her job as CNA with us and two years 32:11 later she was the CNA of the year. 32:14 So it's pretty cool. 32:17 And I don't know, those are just, they're not little things. 32:19 They really aren't little things. 32:22 They might appear to be from the outside, but, you know, 32:24 honoring people and respecting people is what it's all about. 32:27 I think that's how you develop the kind of culture we want and you get the 32:30 longevity that you want from your partners. 32:33 Steve, you have succeeded at everything you've 32:35 done. 32:36 And you took this massive leap of faith when you were 49 years old and went to 32:41 work for a company that, by the way, had just named a new CEO. 32:45 So it's not like, oh, I'm going to become the CEO here in the 32:47 next few years. 32:49 An amazing decision. 32:50 If you had a life coach, they would have fired you, 32:53 but but it but it worked out in such a beautiful way. 32:56 And and before that you had succeeded as a student, 32:59 you succeeded as a basketball player, you succeeded running schools, 33:02 running a big church. 33:04 You, you, you've succeeded at everything, Steve. 33:06 So why don't we wrap up? 33:08 Just tell us what is your what is your leadership philosophy? 33:11 What, what is your approach to, to all of these challenges that you've 33:14 had. 33:16 Well, I, you know, I don't have anything codified per se, 33:20 but I think of a couple of pieces of life advice that I, 33:24 I've had years ago that it stuck with me. 33:27 You mentioned I was a basketball player. 33:29 I had an excellent basketball coach who told us every day at practice when we 33:33 went through the fundamental drills. 33:36 And he, he said, gentlemen, do the right things long enough and good 33:40 things will happen to you. 33:42 And he would always explain it. 33:44 You can do the right thing. 33:44 It doesn't mean something good's going to happen immediately. 33:46 Something bad may happen, but if you do them long enough, 33:50 good things will happen to you. 33:52 And I've always believed that. 33:53 And I, I hope Gen Z 33:55 and the others that are coming after us are, 33:57 I hope they don't have such a short attention span, you know, 34:01 with the phones that they forget. 34:03 You got to do it long enough, do it long enough to allow good things to 34:07 happen to you, got to get you got to pay your dues. 34:10 And it, it takes hard work. 34:12 And then I've always been a fan of Lou Holtz, just a great coaching. 34:16 He had a noteworthy speech. 34:17 I, I saw it even when he was on Hospice 34:20 shortly before he died. 34:21 I guess that was last year where they asked him the secrets of leadership. 34:24 And he said, well, it all boils down to the three things. 34:27 These number ones do the right thing. 34:29 And he said #2 is do the best you can. 34:32 And, and then he said as a leader, doing the best you can means helping 34:36 those under your charge do the best they can. 34:39 And he said they won't all be all Americans, 34:42 but you help them to be the best they can be. 34:45 And then the final thing was show people you care. 34:48 You know, you just got to love them. 34:52 That's not rocket science, Mark. 34:54 But like so many things in life, it's not the knowledge, 34:57 it's the execution. 34:59 And you know, I, I don't do it all the time. 35:01 I fail on any one of those things. 35:03 But that is kind of my mantra. 35:05 I want to do the right thing, do the best I can, 35:08 including helping the people around me do the best they can. 35:12 And then finally, I do want to show people we care. 35:15 To me, that's what it's all about. 35:18 Steve, thank you so much for your time today. 35:21 Incredibly inspirational, not at all surprising why you've 35:25 succeeded. 35:26 Thank God you made the decision you made when you're 49. 35:29 The impact that you've had on 10s of thousands, 35:31 maybe hundreds of thousands of people at this point has been remarkable, 35:35 including the impact that you've had on me. 35:37 And I thank you for that. 35:39 Well, I'm a, I'm a big Mark Parkinson fan and I'll 35:43 tell you what, you've made my time in this industry a 35:47 lot better in a, in a myriad of ways by your wisdom, 35:51 but I'll tell you also about your friendship. 35:55 So I appreciate you very much and honor to be here with you. 35:59 Well, thank you and that's this. 36:00 This interview is what this website is all about. 36:04 Learning from the best and great ideas of Steve given us and and hopefully inspired 36:08 us, certainly inspired me to try to do better 36:11 every single day. 36:12 I want to thank First Quality again for their sponsorship of Let's Talk and 36:16 making all this possible and thank all of you for your continued support of Park 36:20 Place.
