An Assisted Living Executive Director oversees the day-to-day operations of a facility, but the job requires so much more than that. Owners and operators understand that an ED can make, or break, the community. Job requirements are unique to the current needs of the property, which makes finding the perfect ED difficult. Ultimately, a good ED will help their community grow top-line revenue.
If you want to pave the path to becoming an ED, here are some things to consider.
You need to have emotional intelligence
Social awareness and relationship management are important skills for an ED to have because so much of the job requires interacting with residents. Simultaneously, the executive director of an assisted living property needs to have leadership skills.
The primary job of your ED is managing employees. That means there needs to be a balance between compassion and management. Like all leadership positions, you need to be unafraid of making unpopular decisions. That said, you don’t want to push talent out the door with your inability to be flexible. When you’re pursuing a career in senior living, you need to lead with a servant mindset.
You need a solid background
Even if you haven’t been in the senior living space for long, any related experience can be leveraged into an eventual leadership position over time. Those with experience in related industries like hospitality can use their experience to distinguish themselves from the competition
Having a resume that displays a progression of roles is an important aspect of a strong ED candidate. EDs can have backgrounds in many things, but the actual experience speaks louder than the position titles.
You need to be goal oriented
No matter how you measure it, finances are always a priority. Executive Directors need to be highly aware of occupancy, revenue, ROI and other metrics.
An executive director needs to be passionate about meeting predefined outcomes and working with the sales team to meet goals.
Even without looking at the bottom line, more than half of your time will be spent in taking care of the relationships within your community. Not only do you create your own goals, but you create goals for your staff members. There’s going to be times when management must step up and adjust based on the current situation. Flexibility is often necessary I realistically achieving goals.