Tag: workplace culture

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The following is a guest blog entry from Larry Carlson. Larry is an advisor, board member, and author of Avandell: Reimagining the Dementia Experience. A longtime CEO in senior living, he now writes and speaks about helping older adults finish strong — living with purpose, vitality, and impact in their third age.

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It’s early. Just after sunrise.

The household is quiet, except for the soft hum of the coffee machine in the corner and the faint sound of a television no one is really watching.

She’s kneeling beside him. He’s confused again. Agitated. Asking for his wife—who passed years ago. His voice rising, his hands restless, searching for something he can’t name.

She doesn’t correct him.
She doesn’t rush him.
She places her hand gently over his and leans in just enough for him to see her eyes.

“Tell me about her.”

He pauses.

The tension in his shoulders softens. And for a moment, the room changes. He’s no longer lost. He’s remembering. And she stays right there with him—unhurried, present, steady. Not because it’s in her job description. But because it’s in her.

She didn’t learn that in orientation. She brought it with her.

The question is… did we hire for it?
Do we recognize it?
Do we protect it?
Do we build around it?

Because mission doesn’t live on the wall. It lives—or dies—in moments like that. In my experience, there are four places where that happens.

HIRING

If you don’t hire for mission, you won’t lead with mission. Too often, we hire for experience and hope for alignment. But the deeper question is whether the person sitting across from you already carries the heart your mission requires.

TRY THIS: Add one question to your interview process tied directly to your values: “Tell me about a time you chose people over efficiency.”

You’re not just listening for the answer. You’re listening for the instinct.

RECOGNITION

What you celebrate becomes your culture. If that moment in the household goes unnoticed, it slowly becomes optional. If it’s named and honored, it becomes the standard others move toward.

TRY THIS: In your next team meeting, recognize one team member specifically for how they lived out a core value, not just what they accomplished. Make the invisible visible.

ACCOUNTABILITY

Values that aren’t reinforced aren’t values—they’re preferences. The hard part of leadership isn’t writing values. It’s protecting them when they’re inconvenient.

TRY THIS: When addressing a performance issue, name the value being missed—not just the behavior. It changes the conversation from correction to alignment. From “what you did wrong” to “who we are.”

DECISION MAKING

Your hardest decisions reveal your real values. Strategy, budgets, census pressure—these are the moments when values are most at risk of becoming negotiable.

TRY THIS: Before making a key decision, ask: “Which of our values does this support—and which might it compromise?”

You may still make the same decision. But you’ll make it consciously.

Mission is not sustained by intention. It’s sustained by repetition—what you hire for, what you recognize, what you reinforce, and how you decide.

And over time, something begins to happen.

Those quiet, early-morning moments—the ones no one sees, no one measures, no one reports on—they become the culture. Not because you declared it. But because you built it.

Culture doesn’t burn out overnight, it leaks energy through small breakdowns in communication, trust, and everyday civility. On Varsity’s podcast, Roundtable Talk, Derek sat down with Kathy Parry, a corporate energy expert who helps senior living organizations strengthen culture, recharge teams, and reignite purpose.

In their conversation, Derek and Kathy discussed the difference between morale and energy, the early warning signs of a team running out of gas and how leaders’ personal energy sets the tone for the entire culture.

The following are some fresh perspectives from the conversation. Check out the full episode here. 

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE WORK YOU DO AS A CORPORATE ENERGY EXPERT?

I chose the term energy because the work I do revolves around culture and how a culture stays energized. Energy is a great way to describe what it feels like to be on a team. You know when you’re on an energized team and you know when you’re not. Culture should feel energized.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ENERGY AND MORALE?

Morale is a little bit narrow. Energy permeates all parts of the culture. You can have a bad morale day, but energy is what gets things done. It means things are firing on all the right pistons.

WHAT ARE THE MOST COMMON SIGNS YOU SEE OF A LEADERSHIP TEAM RUNNING OUT OF ENERGY?

You see people showing up late, leaving teams, and poor communication is one of the first signs. When teams don’t feel transparency, energy breaks down quickly. Civility issues, burnout and physical exhaustion from being short staffed can all drain a team’s energy.

HOW DOES A LEADER’S PERSONAL ENERGY IMPACT THE OVERALL CULTURE?

There’s a definite trickle-down effect. You feel a leader’s energy right away. If a leader is burned out or stressed, they’re not showing up as their best self. How a leader shows up directly affects how the team shows up.

WHAT TACTICS HAVE YOU FOUND MOST EFFECTIVE IN HELPING LEADERSHIP TEAMS POWER UP?

Clear, concise communication sounds basic, but it’s critical. When people don’t get answers, they create their own information and that’s where gossip starts. Teams need to know how to get information, where it comes from, and that they can trust it.

Want to hear more from Kathy? Check out the full episode of Roundtable Talk for more fresh perspectives. Watch new episodes of Roundtable Talk on the Varsity website and on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio.

Teams don’t lose energy overnight, it drains slowly, through missed connections, unspoken tension, and a lack of recognition. In senior living, where every day depends on collaboration and care, that loss of energy doesn’t just affect morale, it impacts residents, relationships, and results. Recharging that power starts with leaders who know how to reconnect their teams to purpose.

That’s the approach shared by Kathy Parry, corporate energy expert, author, and speaker, during Varsity’s weekly Roundtable. Kathy explored how intentional leadership, acknowledgment, and everyday actions can restore balance, rebuild trust, and create workplaces that hum with positive energy. She reminded attendees that when leaders take time to “flip the switch” — to listen, celebrate, and care — engagement and retention follow naturally.

Below are a few Fresh Perspectives from her discussion.

CHECK YOUR WIRING

Just like faulty circuits, teams lose power when connections are weak or misaligned. Take time to trace where the “wiring” of your organization might be off, including communication gaps, unclear roles, or overloaded batteries (people). Real energy starts with intentional alignment.

POSITIVE CHARGES POWER CULTURE

Listening, fairness, civility, care, and celebration aren’t “soft skills” — they’re electrical currents that keep teams lit. When even one current falters, burnout and frustration follow. Protect these power sources the way you’d guard your team’s electricity.

CONFLICT ISN’T FAILURE — IT’S FEEDBACK

Tension signals that energy isn’t flowing evenly. Instead of avoiding or competing, use conflict as a chance to collaborate and compromise. The goal isn’t to win, it’s to restore balance so everyone can keep moving forward together.

CELEBRATION IS AN ENERGY STRATEGY, NOT A NICE-TO-HAVE

Acknowledgment recharges teams faster than bonuses ever could. From elephant ceremonies to AI-generated songs, creative recognition builds connection, belonging, and loyalty. People don’t burn out because they work hard, they burn out because they feel unseen.

SMALL ACTIONS FLIP BIG SWITCHES

All the “C” principles — listening, conflict resolution, contributing, civility, care, and celebration — only work if you turn them on. Two minutes of intentional action can reignite engagement. Don’t wait for the perfect plan; flip the switch and start the current.

Varsity’s Roundtable is a weekly virtual gathering of senior living marketers and leaders from across the nation. For updates about future weekly Roundtable gatherings, submit your name and email address here.