Voices: Sara Mcvey, President & Ceo Of Sequoia Living

This article is sponsored by Sequoia Living. In this Voices interview, Senior Housing News sits down with Sara McVey, President & CEO of Sequoia Living, to talk about the Sequoia Living Culture Initiative and the effect of strategic culture work in every facet of senior living communities. She also discusses Sequoia’s approach to job satisfaction, retention, and hiring in today’s complex staffing environment, along with the direct impact of improved staffing on resident satisfaction and experience.

Senior Housing News: What is your background, and how does it play into your role today?

Sara McVey: My first job was at Dairy Queen in Shawano, Wisconsin at 15. It was my first exposure to being in a great culture although I didn’t know it at the time. It was owned by a family and they treated us like we mattered and we had a lot of responsibility at a young age.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car was my first 9 to 5 job and I recall an impactful moment when my boss Doug introduced himself to my Mom as my coworker versus my boss–highlighting the importance of flattening hierarchies.

I entered the senior living industry with Classic Residence by Hyatt in Chicago. I took a whimsical detour and worked in Scotland at Skibo Castle for a year, then moved to Mather in Illinois where I learned a tremendous amount and had several leadership roles including being an Executive Director and opening a new community.

I then moved into a CEO role at Horizon House in Seattle and now at Sequoia Living in San Francisco.

Every career move was guided by a desire to learn and grow and do it with some of the best and brightest in our industry.

Many organizations look at company culture as something to keep the masses satisfied between annual reviews. What do you see as culture’s impact on an organization?

There are a few key impact areas. First and foremost, culture has to become a strategic priority. It has to seep into every part of what you do and how you do it.

I also don’t really believe in the idea of culture change. People say, “We’re going to change the culture,” but I don’t think that’s how it works. Culture is something you cultivate. It’s about understanding who you are as an organization—almost like a personality test. What do people say about us when we’re not in the room? How do we show up in the industry? Once you figure that out, people know how to show up, step up, and rise to the occasion. Every organization has multiple cultures within it, so rather than trying to change it, the goal should be to cultivate the best of who we already are.

That leads into the second impact area: having a mantra or crusade that people can rally around. For us, it’s “Never Stop Growing”. It’s simple, it’s memorable, and it carries a unique meaning for Sequoia Living. Sequoias are some of the most resilient trees, living up to 3,000 years. Their bark is so strong it can withstand wildfires—in fact, they need fire to grow stronger. And they never stop growing. Their roots don’t go particularly deep, but they spread wide, connecting to everything around them. That resonated with us in the way we think about our communities, our team, and our work. We didn’t just say Never Stop Growing—we became it. That doesn’t always happen, and I didn’t foresee it at the time, but now it’s something I truly love.

Never Stop Growing isn’t about getting bigger—it’s about getting better. It’s about having a healthy dissatisfaction with the status quo and constantly asking how today can be better than yesterday.

It also ties into the idea of incremental innovation. A lot of organizations talk about innovation, but few really define what it means in a practical sense. Never Stop Growing invites people to question long-standing norms. You don’t have to overhaul everything at once, but you can snack on sacred cows—make small, meaningful improvements rather than feeling like everything has to be a radical transformation. It’s about making the basics brilliant.

The third impact area is clarity around hiring, promotions, and accountability. Attitude isn’t just important—it’s mandatory. If you want to cultivate a strong culture, you have to be intentional about who you bring in, who you promote, and sometimes, who needs to move on. That doesn’t mean being harsh; it means being honest, kind, and direct about expectations. Organizations only get better when the people in them get better.

There’s something called the Bernard Dilemma, which is written about in companies like Netflix and Apple. Bernard is the guy with great technical skills, a strong performer on paper, and maybe even charming to customers—but behind the scenes, he’s negative, has an us vs. them mentality, and drags the team down. Netflix has a saying: No brilliant jerks. The cost is too high.

Senior living is full of nice people, which is a great thing. But in some cases, that niceness can get in the way of holding people accountable. Our culture survey even pointed this out—people love how nice and supportive the organization is, but sometimes that means we let things slide.

The final impact area is our board. As we leaned into Never Stop Growing, they asked, What should we be doing to be part of this? Last year, they hired a consultant to help them rethink everything—committee structures, policies, board member recruitment, orientation, officer elections. Nothing was off-limits.

It was amazing to see a long-standing, well-respected board be the first to raise their hands and say, “We want to be part of this.” I didn’t anticipate that outcome, but it’s one of the many things I’m most proud of in this process.

Sequoia Living has had a very intense focus on company culture since mid-2023. What did your culture look like when you started versus where it is today?

When I started, there were three major things happening. First, there had been an affiliation attempt with another organization that spanned two years but ultimately didn’t get across the finish line. Second, our organization had just changed its name from NCPHS to Sequoia Living. And third, there was a big leadership transition—I had just come in as the new CEO. Then, five months later, COVID hit.

There was a lot going on, but one consistent theme stood out: Sequoia Living had always been about celebrating and supporting its staff. Scholarships, awards, years of service recognition—these were already deeply embedded in the organization’s culture. It just hadn’t been formally named or framed as a key pillar. But that kind of commitment to staff has always been, and continues to be, a hallmark of why Sequoia Living is such a strong organization.

That said, I probably came on a little strong at first—pushing for a healthy dissatisfaction with the status quo and advocating change. I didn’t want us to just white-knuckle old ways of doing things. I remember our chief people officer, who is now one of my closest confidants, pulled me aside and said, “Sara, you need to take time to really honor all that came before you.” That was a game-changer for me. It’s one thing to push for improvement, but it’s just as important to respect the history of an organization—especially one that’s been around for 60 years and will be around long after me.

Team member longevity is a major factor in senior living. On one hand, it can be a challenge when trying to establish new norms. But on the other, it’s a huge asset if you know how to harness it. I’ve come to look at longevity and loyalty as two distinct things. Longevity is when someone has been in the organization for 20 years, comes to work every day, knows their job, and does it well. Loyalty is when someone has been there just as long, knows their job, but also recognizes and accepts that things change. Most organizations have both types of people, and both bring value. The key is knowing what you have so you can bring everyone along in the right way. Longevity can be a secret sauce—you just have to be intentional about how you use it. It’s similar to the idea of a fixed mindset versus a growth mindset. There are positives to both.

When I arrived, Sequoia Living was already in a strong position. And I’d say we came out of COVID even better. I think, in many ways, all of us did.

Sequoia’s culture efforts have been very grassroots with cross-functional teams for each location and service area, driving the bulk of the initiative. How has that helped drive success?

The Culture Clubs have been a game changer. These are groups of team members at each location, including our corporate office, who are calling the shots. They know what’s going to land and resonate with their team members, and coming from environments with a lot of top-down control, I had to let go of that instinct. My marketing background made me want to roll out initiatives in a structured way, but I had to step back and take on more of a cheerleader role, letting them tell me what would work. Then my job was to support them and say, “Yes, I love that. Let’s do it.”

Another big shift was making sure we weren’t just asking for input and then ignoring it. I call it being an “ask hole”—asking for ideas and then proceeding to reframe, restate, or disregard them entirely. Last year, we held over 60 listening groups, and we’re doing the same this year. We ask simple but important questions: What’s working? What’s not working? What would make this an even better place to work? What would bring you more joy? Then we take that insight back to the Culture Clubs and say, “Okay, what are the top two or three things we can act on?”

One of the biggest requests that came out of this was a budget. Culture Club members said, “We already do employee recognition at our locations—just give us some money to work with, trust us to use it well, and don’t make us ask for approval every time.” That was a big shift for us, but an important one.

Another major change was how we approached our core values. Instead of being decided at the board or leadership level, we rolled the process out to every staff member. We had 91% participation, which is unheard of. It was three simple but powerful questions: What top 10 values align with your personal values? What top 10 values best represent our current workplace culture? What top 10 values do you wish were alive and well in the organization?

We worked with Drive, who ran the responses through their system and came back with our top three values: accountability, caring, and teamwork. My first reaction was, “Okay, let’s figure out what that really means.” Because it means something different for every department, every location, and every individual. That’s where the Culture Clubs play a key role. Instead of leadership saying, “Accountability means X across the board,” the Culture Clubs help define what it looks like in different roles. At the home office, it might mean turning your camera on during a Teams call. For the housekeeping department, it might mean something entirely different.

That was a big shift for me. As CEO, you have to light the way. Some say you have to lead the way, which is true, but you also need leadership coming from every chair in the organization. My own personal values shaped how I approached this process. Initially, I was envisioning really unique words for our values, but in the end, what matters most is using the language that the people closest to our mission feel is most important. That’s something I can fully stand behind.

Values may evolve over time, but now we have something people actually remember. Before, we had five values, but no one could name them. Now, we have a three-word mantra—Never Stop Growing—and three core values—accountability, caring, teamwork. And they just happen to spell ACT. When the universe is on your side, things just start to fall into place. Now, people remember the values, the mantra, and even the mission.

Of course, none of this happened without a lot of hard work. Culture work is slow. People often try to push it into HR’s hands, and we still have to push back on that. The executive directors and department heads need to be fully engaged. This isn’t extra work—it’s how we do our work. Helping people see this as an honorable, purposeful approach rather than a burden has been key.

And does it ever end? Obviously not.

What is Sequoia’s Culture Values Assessment? How has the organization’s performance shifted based on this assessment criteria?

The Culture Values Assessment consists of three key questions. It is a survey sent to all staff, designed in partnership with Drive, an organization led by Denise Boudreau. She’s a true culture crusader—someone who wholeheartedly believes in what she teaches.

Looking back, 2024 was our best year in five years. My focus that year was completely different from previous years, and I know it’s because of the culture path we’re on. It shifted my energy toward something much broader. You always hear people say, “Culture is everything. If you get the culture right, it drives the financials.” I’ve seen that firsthand. 2024 was an incredible year from a mission perspective, from a resident and team member perspective, and from a financial perspective.

There are a few key things I’ve learned about making culture stick. First, you have to keep it simple. Three values or less. Your mantra should be short enough to fit on a T-shirt or a bumper sticker. And you have to be bold—use strong, powerful words. If you play it too safe, you lose people. You don’t have to be provocative, but whatever you create has to match the energy and soul of your organization. That takes time, but when you get it right, it clicks.

Another key piece is recognizing excellence. We have over 700 staff members, and if someone receives an ‘exceeds expectations’ rating on a performance review, I want to know who they are. I want to meet them. Nothing would make me happier than if every single person on our team genuinely earned that rating. Not because it was handed out to avoid a tough conversation, but because they truly embodied what it means to excel. The goal is to increase the number of people in that category in an authentic way—understanding what drives them, supporting them, and helping them continue to grow. You can’t have a strong organization without strong people.

We also refined our performance review process by adding a key question: What have you learned, and how do you want to grow? At Sequoia Living, we should always have an answer. If we’re truly living our culture of Never Stop Growing, it starts with us. Am I learning new things? Am I improving? Am I bringing more joy to residents and participants? Am I developing myself? Those are the questions I want everyone to be asking and answering.

I’ve said this before, but if Sequoia Living earns a reputation as a place where you have to work hard, push yourself, and reach for what’s next—I’m okay with that. I also want us to be known as a place where people feel valued, supported, and have more belly laughs than belly aches. I’m okay with being known as the organization that doesn’t settle for the status quo.

Another major shift has been owning our shortcomings while strengthening our superpowers. One way we’ve done that is through 360 reviews for 55 members of our leadership team. But instead of making it a high-stakes process, we flipped the approach. We paid for four coaching sessions for each person, and they’re the only ones who see their results. I don’t see them. Their supervisor doesn’t see them. Only they and their coach do.

We did this because 360 reviews can sometimes feel like a threat—people worry about what’s being said and who will read it. I wanted to remove that fear entirely. This process isn’t about me or their supervisor; it’s about them. If they take what they learn and use it to grow, I’ll see that. If they don’t, I’ll see that too. The choice is theirs. Just because someone says something about you doesn’t mean it’s true—but there’s always wisdom to be found in the feedback.

Right now, we’re in the middle of that process, and I think it’s already making a real impact.

Is culture work truly ever done?

Thankfully, no—it’s never done. Even when we think we’ve built something solid, the world shifts. We’ve seen that firsthand over the past few years, especially through the pandemic. The great thing about culture work is that it thrives in the unfinished. You just have to stay curious—Is this still working? Is this still resonating with people?

You don’t want to constantly change the mantra or values, but you do need to keep your ear to the ground. Does it still carry the same energy? Right now, I think we have a long runway before we need to rethink anything, but we’re going to keep running listening groups, checking in with the Culture Committees, and making sure the momentum stays strong.

So no, it’s never done. And that’s a good thing.

Finish this sentence: “In the senior living industry, 2025 will be reshaped by…”

…courageous discomfort.

Our industry has a well-defined shape—one that has served us well for decades. But it’s time to reshape it. That takes guts. It takes emotional labor.

I know so many CEOs in this industry who have exactly what it takes, and I’m excited about where we’re headed. We’re all looking to harness our collective genius to push things forward, but it also takes humility to acknowledge that while what we have is good, it can and must be better.

Last night, at a resident event, someone came up to me and said, “The future is always present. It’s just really hard to see.” That stuck with me. Because that’s exactly what we’re working toward—reshaping the future, even if we can’t fully see it yet.

Editor’s note: This article has been edited for length and clarity.

Sequoia Living is a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to promoting healthy and joyful ageing for seniors throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Between our Life Plan Communities, Affordable Senior Communities, the San Francisco Senior Center and our Community Service programs such as Empowering Children Bay Area, we focus on inspiring vitality, growth, and community. To learn more visit SequoiaLiving.org.

The Voices Series is a sponsored content program featuring leading executives discussing trends, topics and more shaping their industry in a question-and-answer format. For more information on Voices, please contact sales@wtwhmedia.com.

The post Voices: Sara McVey, President & CEO of Sequoia Living appeared first on Senior Housing News.