By Rebecca Wiessmann
In this episode of Heard in the Halls, Lindsey Daugherty talks with Serina Durrah, VP of Operations at Clayborn Senior Living, about what senior living leadership looks like when it is shaped by real frontline experience. Watch the full conversation here.
One of the best lines in the conversation comes from Serina:
Senior living is very hard. But it is not overly complicated.
That should sting a little.
Because senior living has a habit of making things more complicated than they need to be. More reports. More dashboards. More initiatives. More meetings. More language that makes perfect sense at the corporate level and almost no sense to the people trying to get through dinner service with two call-offs.
Serina is not arguing that the business is simple. It is not.
She is arguing that people working in senior living are often asking for something very basic: Tell me what is going on. Tell me why it matters. Tell me how I can help. Then trust me enough to do the work.
Trust Comes Before Performance
Lindsey asks Serina how she brings a big goal back to her teams and gets them motivated.
Serina starts with trust.
That sounds obvious, but it is often the missing ingredient in senior living operations. Leaders want results, but they have not built the trust required to get those results. They want urgency, but they have not created understanding. They want teams to solve problems, but they have not invited them into the real conversation.
Serina says executive directors and frontline staff often have the answer. But they cannot help solve the problem if they do not understand the why behind the goal.
- Why does occupancy need to move now?
- Why does margin matter this month?
- Why can’t the organization take eight more months to get there?
- Why does this decision affect the broader business?
Too often, those conversations stay at the executive level. Then goals get pushed down with very little context.
That creates compliance.
It does not create ownership.
Explain The Why, Then Ask The How
Serina describes a better leadership rhythm: Explain where the organization needs to go, explain why it needs to get there, then ask the people closest to the work how they would do it.
That is radically practical.
It is also surprisingly rare.
At the executive level, leaders can over-engineer solutions. They can sit around a table and design a complicated plan for a problem that a caregiver, nurse, sales director, or executive director could solve in 10 minutes.
Not because frontline leaders are magically smarter.
Because they are closer.
They know which residents are struggling. They know which families are frustrated. They know which team members are burned out. They know which process is nonsense. They know which “simple change” will actually create chaos at 7 a.m.
When leaders explain the why and invite teams into the how, the whole organization gets smarter.
Stop Climbing Ladders
Lindsey uses a phrase that belongs at every leadership retreat: “Stop climbing ladders. Start building tables.”
The ladder mindset says leadership is about rising above everyone else. More title. More authority. More distance from the work.
The table mindset says leadership is about bringing the right people together.
That matters because senior living is too interconnected for siloed leadership. Clinical cannot succeed without operations. Operations cannot succeed without sales. Sales cannot succeed without care. Dining affects resident satisfaction. Housekeeping affects family trust. Maintenance affects safety and first impressions. The executive director is trying to conduct the entire orchestra while the building is already playing.
Serina says one of the most important leadership lessons she has learned is being willing to admit what she does not know.
That is harder than it sounds.
As leaders move up, there is pressure to act like they know everything. But great leaders do not know everything. They know how to build teams with people who are stronger than they are in specific areas.
Then they stay connected.
Then they trust them.
The Ego Problem
This is where leadership gets uncomfortable.
It takes confidence to say, “I do not know this part of the business well enough.”
It takes humility to put someone on the team who knows it better.
It takes discipline to let that person actually do the job.
A lot of senior living leaders say they want strong teams. What they really want is agreeable teams. There is a difference.
Strong teams challenge assumptions. They explain what will not work. They bring reality into the room. They tell the truth before the resident, family, or regulator does.
That kind of team is not built by title. It is built by trust.
Relationships Are The Operating System
Lindsey points out that relationships are not complicated. Senior living makes them complicated.
Most people simply want to know what is happening, why it matters, and how they can help.
That applies to caregivers.
It applies to executive directors.
It applies to regional teams.
It even applies to ownership groups.
Relationships do not replace performance. They make performance possible.
When leaders feel empowered, they will go through walls. When they feel trusted, they solve problems. When they understand the why, they make better decisions without waiting for permission on every little thing.
This is where the best senior living organizations set themselves apart.
They do not just push goals — They build belief.
They do not just demand accountability — They create clarity.
They do not just climb higher — They build bigger tables.
The Bottom Line
Senior living does not need more leaders who can sound smart in meetings.
It needs leaders who can translate the business to the frontline and translate the frontline back to the business.
That is what Serina’s story offers.
A reminder that leadership is not about knowing everything. It is about staying close enough to the work to know what matters, humble enough to admit what you do not know, and brave enough to trust the people around the table.
Senior living is hard.
But maybe it is not quite as complicated as we keep making it out to be.
