In the latest episode of the LTC Heroes podcast, we speak with Jon Riewer, President at Eventide Senior Living Communities.
Jon has been leading more than 1,400 staff members serving more than 1,300 seniors since 2003. Jon entered the industry with the help of his mum. Now, almost 30 years later, he’s experienced many different roles and opportunities, many within the same organization.
The members of the team at Eventide Senior Living Communities embrace their different roles well. For operational help, Jon leans on the company’s Chief Operating Officer or the Executive Directors who are on site every day.
In the episode, Jon describes his leadership style as extroverted. However, he’s learned a lot about working with introverts over the years.
Jon has participated in creating strategic plans at Eventide and his methodology has changed over time. He references working in a US hospital system before Eventide. He learned that there’s an art to good strategic planning.
Jon is optimistic about many things in the future. Working in the long-term care industry right now feels like starting a brand new career, which scares and excites him.
Discover how Jon Riewer, President at Eventide Senior Living Communities, develops his strategic plans, by tuning in to the latest episode of the LTC Heroes podcast.
Rapid-Fire Q/A
Do you have any uncommon hobbies?
So I love cycling when the weather’s good enough here, and we’re getting close to that in Minnesota. So I’m looking forward to that.
But otherwise, I’m sorry to tell you there’s not much interesting there.
How did you get into long-term care?
I credit and blame my mother for my entrance into this field. She was a long-time director of nursing at the community nursing home where I grew up.
So we started there. We were latchkey kids; only our latch key would be to walk from school over to the care center and wait for one of our parents to get down to work.
In her case, it was at the care center, and all I remember then is the love for the residents, especially those that had fairly generous candy jars. So that was cool and opened my eyes to what an opportunity you can get in your teenage years.
I don’t even remember filling out an application but just showing up to work. I remember thinking, this healthcare thing is interesting.
It’s almost 30 years later, I’m so glad I did it. It’s taken me into a lot of different roles and opportunities, many within the same organization and Eventide, and ones that I’ve never regretted.
Can you take me back to the first time you were in a leadership role?
Yeah, I remember well, I was in rural North Dakota. I was maybe within a year out of college and right about this time of year, I got the job.
I was sitting in the so-called big chair the Monday after Easter. And I thought, can you believe somebody would trust all of these people with me?
I remember that meeting, the first meeting with the staff, and thinking, oh my goodness, talk about imposter syndrome. At 23 years old, they will know I have absolutely none of the answers. And I’m not sure, almost 30 years later, much has changed.
How would you describe your leadership style?
I guess there’s an extroverted nature.
I’ll start there because it took me years to understand that introverts can still be extroverted at times. They can still have lots of thoughts about what’s going on. They’re just not as willing to express it as I am all the time.
I’ve come full circle and started to believe that introverts probably make the best leaders because they take the time to listen and evaluate, versus probably more of my style, which is sometimes the filter’s limited. You’re getting a very raw response, sometimes less thought out than I prefer some days. But nonetheless, I think the style has pros and cons.
Where can we find you online and best connect with you?
I’m on LinkedIn. I think I’m even on Twitter. I don’t know what you’ll see on Twitter, you’ll see a lot of the reposting of my favorite Minnesota sports things. So probably, LinkedIn would be the best place for people to connect.
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