BusinessManagementNon-Profit

IDD Leader

Nate Beers

For IDD Providers: Tired of the revolving door of staff? Join host Nate Beers as he and other industry leaders share loads of actionable advice on how you can retain and grow your DSP workforce. Just because there's a nationwide DSP workforce crisis doesn't mean that your organization has to churn through staff. Listen to innovative solutions to increase your staff retention and give your organization a competitive advantage so that at the end of the day you provide the best quality care for those you support.

More effective supervisors. Stronger workforce. Lower turnover.

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Monday · 33 min
Ep. 104 - Why Employee Appreciation Isn't Enough w/ Melanie Bazile
You thank your team constantly. You write the cards, send the texts, say the words out loud. Then someone above you calls and says morale on that team seems low. That's the exact moment Melanie Bazile describes in this conversation. She leads innovation and expansion at Compass, a provider with more than 1,000 employees. Her own appreciation was sincere, frequent, and not landing, because it was the kind she likes to receive rather than the kind her team did. You'll hear how Compass figured out what her team actually wanted, and why they now expect every supervisor to know each direct report's primary language of appreciation. You'll also hear the difference between having a person-centered plan and thinking in a person-centered way (including a budget decision where the executive team's pay was cut before any service was touched), and the growth mistake Melanie sees most often in smaller providers: waiting to hire until you're already in pain. If your recognition efforts are sincere and morale still isn't moving, this one is for you. LEARN MORE Melanie Bazile on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanie-bazile-bb3073163/ Compass: https://www.compasscares.com/ Compass on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/compass-llc/posts/?feedView=all Melanie's podcast, A Side of Hope: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-side-of-hope/id1763108245 FREE RESOURCE 7 Warning Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Staff: https://iddleader.com/burnout TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – "I'm telling them thank you all the time. It's not possible." 01:23 – Why Compass tracks turnover but leans into retention 04:00 – The interim manager job where the thank-yous weren't landing 05:02 – What her team actually wanted instead 07:08 – Could your supervisors name each person's language? 08:30 – The four languages of workplace appreciation 12:31 – Person-centered paperwork vs. person-centered thinking 14:20 – The first cuts came from the executive team 17:50 – The growth mistake that starts in pain 19:09 – When "the way we've always done it" quietly stops working 23:37 – The spreadsheet that took twenty minutes instead of weeks 24:59 – Two organizations that shared one recruiter 26:29 – Why leaders avoid discomfort 28:45 – What's giving her hope right now Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: VWGDUO1RBUYZEQ6K Send us Fan Mail Quick Question: Do your frontline supervisors sometimes unintentionally contribute to staff turnover? It happens so easily because... Most supervisors were never trained to lead. Get The 7 Quiet Danger Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Teams and learn how high-retention agencies spot — and fix — these issues fast. https://iddleader.com/burnout
September 21 · 35 min
Ep. 103 - This Company Asks: “What’s Your Dream?” w/ Melanie Bazile
Somewhere on your team right now, there's someone with real potential and no real path — and no one's ever asked them what they actually want out of their career, let alone their life. Melanie Bazile is Director of Innovation and Expansion at Compass, a 1,000+ employee organization that's built an entire culture around a simple, almost uncomfortable question: what are you dreaming about? Not your five-year plan. Your actual dreams — the ones that have nothing to do with your job title. In this conversation, you'll hear why Compass hires slowly but fires fast, and the very real cost of tolerating the wrong fit for too long. You'll hear a genuinely unplanned succession story — one where investing in someone else's growth mattered in a way Melanie never could have predicted until she needed it most. And you'll get a look inside "Dream Culture," from its origins in a book about a struggling janitorial company to a CFO who went skydiving to keep a promise, to an employee writers' group that's now produced six published books. If you've ever wondered what it would look like to build a team that's actually thriving instead of just surviving, this one's for you. Learn more about Melanie — www.linkedin.com/in/melanie-bazile-bb3073163 Learn more about Compass — https://www.compasscares.com/ Free resource — 7 Warning Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Staff: https://iddleader.com/burnout TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – A "dream culture"? 01:49 – Why Compass hires slowly but fires fast 04:15 – Still curious after 34 years in the field 06:49 – A provider, a software company, and a consulting arm 08:36 – The real challenge of growing an organization 09:33 – The "behemoth" comment, and 30 years mapped in sticky notes 13:53 – What got you here won't get you there 14:52 – Inside Leadership U, their year-long leadership investment 19:23 – The succession story that changed everything 22:01 – "That's gutsy" — the conversation nobody wants to have 23:31 – Taking the lids off people 25:18 – Where "Dream Culture" actually came from 29:42 – The CFO who went skydiving to keep his word 30:49 – The writers' group that's produced six published books Music licensed through Soundstripe. Codes: UCXDYEKK7YHL1SHC, YEERLHIOB8JS8PVA Send us Fan Mail Quick Question: Do your frontline supervisors sometimes unintentionally contribute to staff turnover? It happens so easily because... Most supervisors were never trained to lead. Get The 7 Quiet Danger Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Teams and learn how high-retention agencies spot — and fix — these issues fast. https://iddleader.com/burnout
September 14 · 18 min
Ep. 102 - 5 Mistakes Leaders Make When Solving Turnover
You're short-staffed. Which means your team gets burned out. Which means people leave. Which means you're even more short-staffed than before. If that loop sounds familiar, here's the uncomfortable part: the way most leaders respond to it usually keeps it running rather than breaking it. In this episode, you'll walk through five of the most common responses to that cycle — hiring harder, adding perks, just trying to survive the week, chasing efficiency, sending out another survey — and why each one, well-intentioned as it is, can quietly make things worse instead of better. For each one, you'll get the reframe: what to look at instead, and what it actually takes to interrupt the cycle rather than just outworking it. If you've ever felt like you're doing everything right and the turnover numbers still won't move, this one's for you. Free resource — 7 Warning Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Staff: https://iddleader.com/burnout TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – The turnover trap that keeps repeating itself 00:36 – Five mistakes, and the opposite direction to move in 00:59 – Mistake #1: "We just need to hire more people" 04:16 – Mistake #2: "Let's add more benefits and bonuses" 06:36 – Mistake #3: "Let's just make it through this weekend" 10:07 – Mistake #4: "Let's get really efficient" 13:06 – Mistake #5: "Fill out our survey" 15:11 – The bear metaphor (and what it says about listening under pressure) 16:51 – This week's action move Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: LFMLKJE1CAKMAIL3 Send us Fan Mail Quick Question: Do your frontline supervisors sometimes unintentionally contribute to staff turnover? It happens so easily because... Most supervisors were never trained to lead. Get The 7 Quiet Danger Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Teams and learn how high-retention agencies spot — and fix — these issues fast. https://iddleader.com/burnout
September 7 · 27 min
Ep. 101 - What Does “Good Leadership” Even Look Like?
You've probably had a version of this moment yourself: someone on your team says all the right things about wanting to grow as a leader, and when you ask what "getting better" would actually look like, day to day, the answer gets vague fast. That gap — between the lofty language and the actual, nameable behaviors — is the entire subject of this episode. Every organization has a scorecard for compliance, for finance, for scheduling. But ask yourself how you'd actually know whether one of your supervisors is genuinely good at managing people, and odds are the answer gets fuzzy just as fast. In this episode, you'll get a look at why that gap exists, what Chick-fil-A's "my pleasure" can teach you about turning a vague value into something coachable, and four concrete, observable behaviors worth considering for your own team — not as the definitive list, but as proof of what's possible once you stop treating leadership development as something fuzzy your supervisors are just supposed to figure out on their own. If you've ever tried to coach someone on "being a better leader" and watched the conversation go nowhere, this one's for you. Free resource — 7 Warning Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Staff: iddleader.com/burnout TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – The confession that changed how Nate sees leadership development 01:50 – Welcome to IDD Leader 02:29 – Why there's a scorecard for everything except this 04:32 – The core problem: you can't develop what you haven't defined 06:51 – Why this gap hides in plain sight 09:46 – The Happy Days Agency example 12:25 – "Are you familiar with Chick-fil-A?" 18:34 – What "my pleasure" actually teaches about leadership 19:43 – Skill one: lead with good questions 23:17 – Skill two: listen intentionally 25:06 – Skill three: celebrate specifically 26:43 – Skill four: coach immediately 29:51 – Why common sense doesn't equal common practice 30:41 – This week's action move Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: LFMLKJE1CAKMAIL3 Send us Fan Mail Quick Question: Do your frontline supervisors sometimes unintentionally contribute to staff turnover? It happens so easily because... Most supervisors were never trained to lead. Get The 7 Quiet Danger Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Teams and learn how high-retention agencies spot — and fix — these issues fast. https://iddleader.com/burnout
August 31 · 55 min
Ep. 100 - Before Staff Decide to Leave w/ Kris Foss
Somewhere on your team right now, a staff member hired last month is quietly deciding whether they'll make it to ninety days. Not because of one bad shift — because of a growing handful of small things nobody's asked them about yet. If you've ever sat across from someone who just gave notice and thought, "how did I not see this coming," this one's for you. Kris Foss and Nate walk through why the usual approach — waiting for the exit interview to learn what went wrong — almost always arrives too late to help anyone. You'll hear how to use your own turnover data to know exactly when to check in before you lose someone, the real difference between a response that sounds caring and one that actually builds trust, and what happens in the space between hearing a concern and doing something about it — the gap where trust is either built or quietly lost. You'll walk away with a clearer sense of what to ask, when to ask it, and how to respond in a way your staff will actually remember. Learn more from Kris Foss — foss0395@umn.edu Learn more from Nate — nate@iddleader.com Free resource — 7 Warning Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Staff: iddleader.com/burnout TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – Why this episode looks a little different 02:50 – Meet Kris Foss 05:50 – The big idea: stay interview or pre-exit interview 07:21 – The one-in-ten marriage question nobody would actually ask 09:42 – The tech issue that almost became a resignation 11:03 – What are your conversations really about? 14:50 – What a stay interview is (and isn't) 20:10 – Checkup, not autopsy 23:47 – Building your own framework from your own data 25:39 – The stat that changes your timing entirely 29:38 – The response that builds trust vs. the one that doesn't 36:58 – What this data reveals beyond individual fixes 39:59 – Why listening alone isn't enough 41:29 – The listen-to-change gap 49:53 – Turning friction into a genuine opportunity Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: LFMLKJE1CAKMAIL3 Send us Fan Mail Quick Question: Do your frontline supervisors sometimes unintentionally contribute to staff turnover? It happens so easily because... Most supervisors were never trained to lead. Get The 7 Quiet Danger Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Teams and learn how high-retention agencies spot — and fix — these issues fast. https://iddleader.com/burnout
August 24 · 32 min
Ep. 99 - The One-Line Definition of Culture That Sticks - (w/ Dr. Manny Rodriguez)
If some version of this story sounds familiar, you're not alone: There's a rebranding effort — new logo, new shirts, new colors, the whole thing — that lasted about a month before nobody could find the shirts anymore and half the company forgot it ever happened. Most change efforts in most organizations follow the exact same arc: a lot of energy at the launch, and then silence six months later. Dr. Manny Rodriguez has spent his career studying exactly why that happens — and more usefully, what separates the initiatives that actually stick from the ones that quietly die. In this half of the conversation, you'll hear a one-line definition of culture blunt enough that you'll probably start using it yourself, a story about a workplace ritual that started almost by accident and ended up cutting turnover by half, and a simple reframe on retention that reveals why "they didn't leave" is a much lower bar than most leaders realize. If you've ever watched a good idea fizzle out in your own organization and wondered why, this one's for you. Learn More --Dr. Manny Rodriguez — https://www.linkedin.com/in/mannyarodriguez -- Free resource — 7 Quiet Warning Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Staff: iddleader.com/burnout TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – The culture definition that says it all in one line 01:06 – Meet Dr. Manny Rodriguez, back for part two 02:28 – Why does change fail to stick? 05:55 – The book that changed how he thinks about "sticking" 07:39 – Big antecedents in your face 10:09 – The welcome ritual that started almost by accident 11:12 – The turnover drop nobody planned for 12:03 – The blunt definition of culture, straight from the source 13:26 – What a problem-centered culture actually sounds like 15:24 – Why "they didn't leave" is too low a bar 16:54 – The leadership habit called reciprocity 18:41 – The billboard sentence for every human services exec 21:45 – Two upcoming books, and the compass that inspired one of them 🎵 Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: LFMLKJE1CAKMAIL3 Send us Fan Mail Quick Question: Do your frontline supervisors sometimes unintentionally contribute to staff turnover? It happens so easily because... Most supervisors were never trained to lead. Get The 7 Quiet Danger Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Teams and learn how high-retention agencies spot — and fix — these issues fast. https://iddleader.com/burnout
August 17 · 39 min
Ep. 98 - How One Org Cut Turnover From 60% to 20% w/ Dr. Manny Rodriguez
Turnover was sitting at 60% year after year, and Dr. Manny Rodriguez says the first question nobody was asking wasn’t “how do we fix this,” it was “why do we assume we already know why people are leaving?” You’ve probably felt this tension yourself: exit interviews that never quite tell you the truth, and a gut sense that pay alone can’t be the whole story. Manny is a behavior scientist and organizational performance consultant who’s spent decades working inside organizations to figure out exactly that. In this conversation, he walks through what actually turned a 60% turnover rate into 20% — without a single change to pay or bonus structure. He also shares something heavier: a story from outside human services about what happens when an organization’s stated priorities and its actual attention quietly drift apart, and why that gap matters just as much in a group home as it does on a factory floor. If you’ve ever suspected there’s a real answer buried under your own turnover numbers, this one’s for you. 🔗 Dr. Manny Rodriguez — https://www.linkedin.com/in/mannyarodriguez 📥 Free resource — 7 Warning Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Staff: https://iddleader.com/burnout TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – The alarm nobody wants to hear 01:04 – The retention myth this episode debunks 02:37 – What pattern are most leaders missing? 05:24 – The accidental start to a 26-year career 10:00 – Meet the godfather of organizational behavior management 14:32 – A story that makes it all tangible 15:01 – The retention problem everyone thought they understood 16:16 – Why exit interviews rarely tell you the truth 19:19 – The stay interviews that revealed what was really happening 21:21 – The turnaround: from 60% to 20% 24:54 – What a chemical company taught him about priorities 30:30 – The alarm that changed everything 32:40 – What this means for rapidly growing organizations 35:36 – This week's action move Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: LFMLKJE1CAKMAIL3 Send us Fan Mail Quick Question: Do your frontline supervisors sometimes unintentionally contribute to staff turnover? It happens so easily because... Most supervisors were never trained to lead. Get The 7 Quiet Danger Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Teams and learn how high-retention agencies spot — and fix — these issues fast. https://iddleader.com/burnout
August 10 · 37 min
Ep. 97 - The Leadership Bench Every IDD Org Needs w/ Wes & Kristy Mast
Take a full two weeks off — no email, no check-ins, phone off — and watch what happens to your organization. If that thought makes you a little uneasy, you're not alone, and Wes and Kristy Mast built their entire leadership system around exactly that discomfort. They lead a multi-state home inspection company, a world away from human services, but the problem they solved is one you'll recognize immediately: how do you build something that doesn't quietly depend on you holding it all together? In this half of the conversation, they get specific about how that actually works. You'll hear the test they run to find hidden bottlenecks before those bottlenecks find them, why they treat "replaceable" as a compliment instead of a threat, and a three-part framework for difficult conversations that keeps them from turning into either avoidance or a blowup. There's also a moment where a leader on their team was convinced her staff had stopped caring — until the data told a completely different story. If you've ever wondered whether your organization could actually thrive during a season without you, this one's for you. 🔗 Learn more about Wes and Kristy — https://www.levelup2lead.com/ 📥 Free resource — 7 Warning Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Staff: https://iddleader.com/burnout TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – The line that reframes what leadership ROI really means 00:55 – Would your organization survive if you got hit by a bus? 02:54 – How do you turn a good leader into a leader-maker? 03:59 – The highest ROI move any leader can make 07:02 – The two-week test that reveals your real bottlenecks 10:08 – The silly bottleneck almost nobody thinks to fix 11:02 – Why "replaceable" is actually a compliment 12:30 – What tolerating incompetence really costs your culture 16:01 – The art of a difficult conversation 18:31 – The scheduling story that changed how she read her own team 22:08 – When Nate's own assumption turned out to be wrong 23:24 – The trick for making sure people actually understood you 26:14 – Why performance issues are almost never really about performance 29:10 – The legacy lesson Wes & Kristy hope their team remembers 🎵 Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: LFMLKJE1CAKMAIL3 Send us Fan Mail Quick Question: Do your frontline supervisors sometimes unintentionally contribute to staff turnover? It happens so easily because... Most supervisors were never trained to lead. Get The 7 Quiet Danger Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Teams and learn how high-retention agencies spot — and fix — these issues fast. https://iddleader.com/burnout
August 3 · 43 min
Ep. 96 - Why Great Leaders Stop Solving Everyone’s Problems w/ Wes & Kristy Mast
Wes Mast used to call himself the "chief everything officer." Answering phones, doing inspections, handling marketing, driving to job sites, and eating lunch in the car — all at the same time. Somewhere in there, he was also picking up dead chickens at chicken houses just to keep the lights on. That's not where the company is now. It's a multi-state business, and the difference wasn't hiring more people — it was building an actual system for growing leaders, instead of just promoting whoever happened to be best at the job. Wes and Kristy Mast aren't leaders within human services--but they are experts at developing people and businesses that don't just run from one crisis to the next. In this conversation, they walk through the mindset shift that gets a leader out of the bottleneck, a surprisingly cheap benefit that outperforms their 401k match in staff loyalty, and the specific test they run before anyone gets promoted into leadership — because they learned the hard way that wanting the job and being ready for it aren't the same thing. If you've ever felt like every decision in your organization somehow finds its way back to your desk, this one's for you. 🔗 Learn more about Wes and Kristy — https://www.levelup2lead.com/ 📥 Free resource — 7 Quiet Danger Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Staff: https://iddleader.com/burnout Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: LFMLKJE1CAKMAIL3 TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – From chicken houses to "chief everything officer" 01:17 – Meet two leaders who never planned to teach leadership 03:08 – The mindset shift that gets you out of the bottleneck 03:47 – Why most leaders assume everyone can problem-solve like they do 05:33 – Slow down to speed up 09:14 – The moment they realized handwritten notes weren't going to cut it 13:30 – The bold bet they made when COVID nearly killed the business 16:12 – Why they're not actually passionate about home inspections 19:59 – The $50 bet nobody could win 22:09 – The benefit that beats their 401k match 25:18 – Becoming the "Chief Repeating Officer" 26:30 – Why raising your hand isn't enough to get promoted 27:06 – Inside the leadership academy anyone can take 30:41 – The Peter Principle, and the promotion that backfires Send us Fan Mail Quick Question: Do your frontline supervisors sometimes unintentionally contribute to staff turnover? It happens so easily because... Most supervisors were never trained to lead. Get The 7 Quiet Danger Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Teams and learn how high-retention agencies spot — and fix — these issues fast. https://iddleader.com/burnout
July 27 · 34 min
Ep. 95 - What No Executive Director Is Allowed To Say (w/ FCS & AADD)
There’s a sentence Amanda Elder says almost every executive director is thinking, but nobody actually says out loud. Amanda leads Frontier Community Services in rural Alaska. Kim Champney leads the state’s disability provider association. In this half of their conversation, they get honest about something most leadership content skips past entirely: what it actually feels like to run an organization when you don’t have all the answers, and what you say to your own team when the numbers stop adding up. You’ll hear how a housing crisis and an aging population are colliding into a math problem no provider association can out-strategize its way through. You’ll hear why one of these leaders finally stopped pretending she wasn’t overwhelmed, and the one sentence that changed how she carries it. And partway through, host Nate Beers steps out from behind the mic to share something he wasn’t planning to say either. If you’ve ever felt like you’re supposed to have it all together and don’t, this one’s for you. 🔗 Frontier Community Services — https://www.fcsonline.org/ 🔗 Alaska Association on Developmental Disabilities (AADD) — https://aaddalaska.org/ 📥 Free resource — 7 Warning Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Staff: iddleader.com/burnout TIMESTAMPS 00:16 – What Amanda says every executive director is thinking 01:35 – The workforce problem no provider can out-strategize 02:27 – Why the numbers in Alaska "just don't add up" 04:08 – Rethinking what independence actually looks like 06:36 – Inside the scheduling model built for burned-out DSPs 09:19 – When 24/7 care isn't actually what someone needs 10:42 – The pilot project that let leaders "dream ten big dreams" 14:38 – Giving yourself permission to not have all the answers 16:34 – The moment one leader realized she'd become the problem 18:59 – The quote that changed how Amanda carries being overwhelmed 19:35 – Nate shares something he wasn't planning to say 24:49 – The sentence no executive director is allowed to say 26:19 – An old cartoon's lesson about failure and success 28:35 – What both leaders refuse to give up on Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: LFMLKJE1CAKMAIL3 Send us Fan Mail Quick Question: Do your frontline supervisors sometimes unintentionally contribute to staff turnover? It happens so easily because... Most supervisors were never trained to lead. Get The 7 Quiet Danger Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Teams and learn how high-retention agencies spot — and fix — these issues fast. https://iddleader.com/burnout
July 20 · 38 min
Ep. 94 - When Innovation Isn't Optional in Rural IDD Care (w/ AADD & FCS)
If you're leading in this field, chances are you already know: there's no real playbook. No one handed you a map for the exact situation you're in right now. Amanda Elder and Kim Champney lead in rural Alaska, where that's not a metaphor — parts of their state aren't even on a road system. But the bigger truth is one you'll probably recognize: they've had to build the way forward themselves, one hard decision at a time. You'll hear what happened when Amanda got kicked, hard, by someone she supports — and why she says it's the best thing that ever happened to her leadership. You'll hear how a promotion gone wrong became the blueprint for a completely different kind of job, and the $250 benefit that came out of it. And you'll hear how direct support professionals in Alaska got something almost no one in this field has: an actual seat at the table when policy gets made. No map. No excuses. If you're figuring it out as you go, this one's for you. 🔗 Frontier Community Services — https://www.fcsonline.org/ 🔗 Alaska Association on Developmental Disabilities (AADD) — https://aaddalaska.org/ 📥 Free resource — 7 Warning Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Staff: iddleader.com/burnout Timestamps 00:00 – Why the standard workforce playbook doesn't work here 01:13 – Meet two leaders working without a map 02:26 – What made them choose a different path 03:15 – "There's not even a road system" 03:55 – The conference that changed how Kim saw her career 08:55 – Why Amanda never wanted this job in the first place 11:11 – Giving yourself permission to innovate when the house is on fire 14:23 – The moment that changed everything about how Amanda leads 19:42 – Meet Kyle — hired for the hot dogs, not the job 22:07 – The promotion that didn't work, and the job that did 23:40 – "I think that's a cop out" 25:17 – The $250 benefit that came from one hard conversation 28:21 – How Alaska gave DSPs a real seat at the policy table 🎵 Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: LFMLKJE1CAKMAIL3 Send us Fan Mail Quick Question: Do your frontline supervisors sometimes unintentionally contribute to staff turnover? It happens so easily because... Most supervisors were never trained to lead. Get The 7 Quiet Danger Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Teams and learn how high-retention agencies spot — and fix — these issues fast. https://iddleader.com/burnout
July 13 · 35 min
Ep. 93 - How One Provider Cut Reports From 2 Weeks to 1 Hour w/ Daniel Caridi
One organization used to spend three staff members and two full weeks writing their quarterly reports. Now it takes one person about an hour. That's the kind of number Daniel Caridi, co-founder of Kibu, mentions almost casually — and it's just one of several moments in this conversation that reframe what's actually possible inside a disability services organization. Daniel talks candidly about building trust as a VC-backed outsider in an industry that has every reason to be skeptical of tech companies, a mistake he's made more than once by growing faster than his product could support, and a leadership habit he's had to unlearn as his company scaled past thirty employees. He also lays out, in plain language, where AI is actually headed inside compliance work — and shares two statistics about the health outcomes of people with IDD that he believes deserve far more attention than they're getting. If you've ever felt like you personally have to touch every decision for things to go right, or if your team is buried in reporting that doesn't need to exist, this one's worth the time. 🔗 Kibu — https://kibu.com/ 📥 Free resource — 7 Warning Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Staff: iddleader.com/burnout Timestamps 00:00 – The line Daniel wants every executive in America to hear 02:27 – How do you earn trust as an outsider in this industry? 03:16 – Why staying profitable mattered more than raising another round 04:59 – The mistake Daniel admits Kibu made more than once 06:35 – The lesson in choosing to "grow better, not bigger" 09:08 – The three types of organizations that adopt Kibu 12:06 – The report that used to take two weeks, now takes one hour 13:51 – What it means to give your team real permission to speak up 21:43 – What Daniel's had to unlearn as a leader 22:28 – The moment he realized he'd become the bottleneck 24:20 – What's coming next for Kibu 26:19 – A plain-language walkthrough of agentic AI 30:55 – Two statistics about IDD health outcomes most people haven't heard --------- 🎵 Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: LFMLKJE1CAKMAIL3 Send us Fan Mail Quick Question: Do your frontline supervisors sometimes unintentionally contribute to staff turnover? It happens so easily because... Most supervisors were never trained to lead. Get The 7 Quiet Danger Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Teams and learn how high-retention agencies spot — and fix — these issues fast. https://iddleader.com/burnout
July 6 · 25 min
Ep. 92 - How Dodgeball Launched an IDD Tech Startup w/ Daniel Caridi
A volunteer dodgeball class for five people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. That's where Daniel Caridi's company started — and somehow it turned into an EHR platform now used by over 400 disability service providers across the country. Daniel isn't a DSP. He doesn't have a family member with IDD. He stumbled into this world by accident, and that outsider's perspective is exactly what let him see something the rest of the industry had missed: if you design software around making things easier for the person actually entering the data — not the administrator pulling the report — everything downstream gets better. In this conversation, Daniel walks through how a Zoom dance class during COVID turned into a full compliance and content platform, why he thinks compliance culture has quietly pulled the sector's focus away from the people it serves, and the surprisingly simple feedback mechanics — including a running joke about confetti — that helped staff satisfaction with their own documentation jump from 18% to 81%. If you've ever wondered whether there's a better way to get your team to actually want to do their paperwork, this one's for you. 🔗 Daniel Caridi & Kibu — https://kibu.com/ 📥 Free resource — 7 Warning Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Staff: iddleader.com/burnout Timestamps 00:00 – The stat that made Daniel rethink everything about EHR design 01:00 – Meet Daniel Caridi, the founder who never planned to work in this sector 02:39 – How a volunteer dodgeball class turned into a tech company 04:07 – The first provider partnership that changed everything 05:48 – The real estate major with zero software background 07:11 – The insight most of the industry never saw 08:56 – Why Daniel says the whole platform is built on listening 09:46 – "Nobody gets into this job to make Uncle Sam happy" 12:15 – Turning 30 minutes of paperwork into a few minutes of talking 16:53 – Why generic AI tools miss the mark in this sector 18:23 – Inside the dashboard that shows exactly who's behind 20:06 – The police car analogy that explains why visibility works 21:18 – The gift card habit most providers never hear about 22:48 – The stat: satisfaction jumps from 18% to 81% Send us Fan Mail Quick Question: Do your frontline supervisors sometimes unintentionally contribute to staff turnover? It happens so easily because... Most supervisors were never trained to lead. Get The 7 Quiet Danger Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Teams and learn how high-retention agencies spot — and fix — these issues fast. https://iddleader.com/burnout
June 29 · 33 min
Ep. 91 - Why the Best IDD Organizations Ask Questions Nobody Else Thinks To (w/ CQL)
There was a woman in her 80s. Her one goal was to get her driver's license. When someone finally asked where she'd go first, she said the grocery store. Then: "I'd go see my sister." They didn't know she had a sister. They'd been supporting her for years. That's what happens when someone asks the right question. Most leaders in IDD services are asking plenty of questions. Satisfaction surveys. Engagement pulse checks. Annual reviews. But there's a category of question that almost never makes it onto the form — and it turns out to be the one that changes everything: what do you actually want? Not what the checklist covers. Not what the role requires. What do the people you support envision when they dream of a good life? What do your frontline staff want out of their career, their growth, maybe even their life? That gap — between what organizations assume and what staff would say if someone genuinely asked — is one of the most underestimated drivers of turnover in the field. And this episode is about how to close it. Mary Kay Rizzolo, Katherine Dunbar, and Courtney Kelly Chapman from the Council on Quality and Leadership share what the research shows about the link between how you treat your staff and what happens to the people they support, what genuinely high-retention organizations do on the ground that others don't, and how a tool called Personal Outcome Measures has been uncovering things organizations never knew — about people they'd been supporting for years. If you're a leader who's been asking questions but not quite hearing the answers, this one is worth your full attention. 🔗 Learn more about CQL: c-q-l.org 📥 Free resource — 7 Warning Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Staff: iddleader.com/burnout ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 – "No dream snuffing" — and the woman in her 80s who wanted a driver's license 00:55 – Do you know what your DSPs actually want? 02:27 – The connection between quality and workforce stability 02:57 – When you treat staff with dignity, here's what the data shows 04:34 – Why CQL's focus groups with DSPs are the favorite part of accreditation 05:54 – What DSPs say they want most — and the research outcomes behind it 08:59 – Who absorbs the most when an organization struggles with quality 11:22 – What high-retention organizations actually do differently 11:59 – Why closing the feedback loop matters more than running the survey 15:28 – "No dream snuffing" — the philosophy behind personal outcome measures 17:48 – The performance punishment trap nobody talks about 20:08 – What surprises organizations when CQL holds up the mirror 21:07 – The woman with two daughters nobody knew about 21:38 – The woman in her 80s who wanted a driver's license (full story) 24:32 – Person-centered planning applied to staff — the most innovative thing in the episode 29:03 – "People don't want a good plan. They want a good life." Send us Fan Mail Quick Question: Do your frontline supervisors sometimes unintentionally contribute to staff turnover? It happens so easily because... Most supervisors were never trained to lead. Get The 7 Quiet Danger Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Teams and learn how high-retention agencies spot — and fix — these issues fast. https://iddleader.com/burnout
June 22 · 28 min
Ep. 90 - How a Compliance Process Became a Culture Shift w/ CQL
What if the thing you've been dreading is actually the thing that could transform your organization? For the past year, Nate kept noticing a pattern: a disproportionate number of the highest-performing organizations he interviewed were CQL accredited. When he asked them about it — off the record, almost as an aside — they didn't talk about compliance. They used words like transformational. So in Part 1 of this two-part conversation, Nate sits down with three leaders from the Council on Quality and Leadership — President & CEO Mary Kay Rizzolo, VP of Services and Systems Excellence Katherine Dunbar, and VP of Training and Special Projects Courtney Kelly Chapman — to find out why. This isn't an audit. It's not a checklist exercise, and it's definitely not the DMV. What gets uncovered here is a model built on appreciative inquiry, real partnership, and a relentless focus on the why behind every policy and procedure — and the story of one organization whose frontline staff went from dreading accreditation to wearing buttons that said "ask me about outcomes." If you've ever associated accreditation with dread, this conversation might just change your mind. 🔗 Learn more about CQL: c-q-l.org 📥 Free resource — 7 Warning Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Staff: iddleader.com/burnout ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 – "When's the last time a compliance process energized you?" 02:26 – Why CQL kept showing up in Nate's interviews 03:19 – The real culture shift accreditation creates 05:10 – Why "the why" matters more than the checklist 07:28 – Meet Mary Kay Rizzolo — and the buttons that said "ask me about outcomes" 09:26 – Meet Katherine Dunbar — from DSP to accreditation lead 11:10 – Meet Courtney Chapman — drafted into CQL on a Tuesday 13:26 – Why this "feels nothing like an audit" 15:19 – What true partnership looks like on the ground 18:26 – Can you actually fail accreditation? 21:20 – The different levels of CQL accreditation, explained 23:49 – What "basic assurances" and "personal outcome measures" actually mean 25:24 – How most organizations find their way to CQL Send us Fan Mail Quick Question: Do your frontline supervisors sometimes unintentionally contribute to staff turnover? It happens so easily because... Most supervisors were never trained to lead. Get The 7 Quiet Danger Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Teams and learn how high-retention agencies spot — and fix — these issues fast. https://iddleader.com/burnout
June 15 · 53 min
Ep. 89 - Beyond DSP Appreciation Week - From Recognition to Retention w/ UMN's Kris Foss
Most IDD organizations genuinely care about their staff. You celebrate DSP Appreciation Week, recognize milestones, and try to say “thank you” in meaningful ways—and yet, people still leave. Not because recognition doesn’t matter, but because much of it isn’t tied to what actually drives retention. Well-intentioned efforts can feel good in the moment without building long-term commitment, and supervisors often miss the everyday moments that matter most. This episode is the REPLAY of a live, interactive session between Kris Foss (UMN’s Institute on Community Integration) and Nate Beers (IDD Leader). It explores: --Why recognition efforts fall flat—and how to make them stick. --What staff actually experience as recognition --Where gaps may exist in current approaches --Simple, practical ways to embed meaningful recognition into everyday leadership If you’ve ever thought, “We’re doing a lot… so why isn’t it making a bigger difference?”—this conversation will likely hit close to home. Join us LIVE for the next session on August 6 at 4:00 ET: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/6KIXpayWTkisPlhVau0qnQ RESOURCES: Contact Kris Foss: foss0395@umn.edu "Building a Culture of Recognition" training - https://z.umn.edu/bcvu The Seven Danger Signs assessment - https://tally.so/r/ZjZ4aV Send us Fan Mail Quick Question: Do your frontline supervisors sometimes unintentionally contribute to staff turnover? It happens so easily because... Most supervisors were never trained to lead. Get The 7 Quiet Danger Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Teams and learn how high-retention agencies spot — and fix — these issues fast. https://iddleader.com/burnout
June 8 · 40 min
Ep. 88 - Every Disability Nonprofit Said No. He Built It Anyway. (w/ Steve Gonyea)
Most leaders already know they should be listening more. This episode is about what actually happens when someone does. Steve Gonyea is a parent, foster parent to 178 kids, and one of the most relentlessly solution-oriented advocates in the IDD space. In Part 2 of this conversation, he shares how he went from barely getting five minutes with politicians to one assemblyman clearing his entire afternoon — because Steve was the only person who walked in with solutions instead of complaints. He also shares how he built a fully operational complex care center in Utica, New York — six days a week, free to the community, built without a single waiver dollar — after every disability nonprofit in the region turned him down. And how he convinced New York State's OPWDD Commissioner to drive across the state at night and sit in a library, listening to eight families she'd never met, until she cried. The through-line in every story is the same: get out of your office, bring solutions, and listen to the people nobody else is asking. It sounds simple. Steve is proof that it works. 📬 Connect with Steve: steve_gonyea@yahoo.com 🔗 Finding Common Ground Podcast & Projects: fcgadvocacy.org 🔗 Special Needs Resource Directory: specialneeds.help 📥 Free resource — 7 Warning Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Staff: iddleader.com/burnout TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – "You came in with solutions. I want to hear them." 02:20 – How Steve changed his approach to advocacy 05:33 – One-on-one meetings vs. bus trips to Albany 07:40 – Inside the 4-hour meeting with an assemblyman 08:20 – Building the complex care center (when everyone said no) 11:26 – The veterans said yes the next day 14:32 – If you have 70% turnover, the problem isn't the DSPs 18:40 – What Steve would say to a CEO with 5 minutes 22:43 – The OPWDD listening tour — and the commissioner who showed up 29:39 – Get out of your office. Here's what you'll find. 35:09 – Introducing specialneeds.help — a free national directory Send us Fan Mail Quick Question: Do your frontline supervisors sometimes unintentionally contribute to staff turnover? It happens so easily because... Most supervisors were never trained to lead. Get The 7 Quiet Danger Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Teams and learn how high-retention agencies spot — and fix — these issues fast. https://iddleader.com/burnout
June 1 · 39 min
Ep. 87 - What DSPs Know That Most Leaders Don't (w/ Steve Gonyea)
What if the people most likely to solve your retention problem are already on your payroll — and nobody's asking them? Steve Gonyea has been inside more human services systems than almost anyone: IDD, foster care, juvenile justice, mental health. He's a parent, a foster parent to 178 kids, and a former DSP who went on to become one of the most tenacious advocates in New York State. He's not an executive. He doesn't run a provider organization. And that's exactly what makes this conversation so valuable. In this episode, Steve breaks down what actually happens to a family when a DSP walks out the door, why DSPs stop speaking up even when they have exactly the answers you need, and the story of how he turned a failing Xerox manufacturing line around — not with a new system or a new strategy, but by asking every single person on the floor one question: how can we do your job better? The answer that came back almost every time? Nobody had ever asked them before. 📬 Connect with Steve: steve_gonyea@yahoo.com 🔗 Special Needs Resource Directory: specialneeds.help TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – What happens when a DSP leaves a family's life 02:24 – Steve's intro: 178 foster kids and counting 05:08 – From aerospace to advocacy — how Steve got here 09:06 – Why Steve became a DSP (and what he learned) 10:54 – What IDD leaders miss when they only see one corner 13:34 – What "a seat at the table" actually has to look like 15:32 – Taking wheelchair users sledding (and what happened next) 17:00 – The Christmas dinner no one planned — and the report that followed 20:43 – "It's telling that I was unsure if I was making the right call" 22:09 – Why your 98% satisfaction survey might mean nothing 25:57 – The Xerox plant story: from 67% to 107% efficiency 36:43 – DSPs leaving not for money — but because nobody listened Send us Fan Mail Quick Question: Do your frontline supervisors sometimes unintentionally contribute to staff turnover? It happens so easily because... Most supervisors were never trained to lead. Get The 7 Quiet Danger Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Teams and learn how high-retention agencies spot — and fix — these issues fast. https://iddleader.com/burnout
May 25 · 28 min
Ep. 86 - The AI System One IDD CEO Is Already Using w/ G.N. Janes
Most conversations about AI in human services stop at "it's coming." This one is about what's already here. G.N. Janes, CEO of Valley Community Services, has spent a decade building a data-driven retention system for frontline supervisors and DSPs. We go deep on what happens when artificial intelligence enters that system — how agentic AI works, what it actually looks like when a model flags a struggling supervisor, and critically, what a human does next. G.N. also gets honest about what he'd do differently: starting with data governance, eliminating data silos, and making sure the right people have access to the right information before you build anything else. And he closes with something worth writing down — the difference between managing by vibes and managing by data, and why the IDD sector can't afford to keep doing the former. Whether you're AI-curious or AI-skeptical, this episode will change how you think about what's possible at the frontline supervisor level. 🔗 Learn more about Valley Community Services: valleycommunityservices.org TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – When the machine says you're going to struggle 01:17 – What Part 2 is about (and why you can start here) 02:45 – How AI is plugging into the existing dashboard 04:33 – Agentic AI vs. ChatGPT: what's the difference? 08:35 – What actually happens when the AI flags a supervisor 11:22 – Could other IDD orgs access this system someday? 12:47 – Why the IDD sector is still collaborative (and what could end that) 15:02 – The honest first conversation: start with data governance 17:13 – The data siloing problem nobody talks about 19:37 – Billboard question: "But did it help a DSP?" 22:18 – What G.N. would tell his younger self Send us Fan Mail Quick Question: Do your frontline supervisors sometimes unintentionally contribute to staff turnover? It happens so easily because... Most supervisors were never trained to lead. Get The 7 Quiet Danger Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Teams and learn how high-retention agencies spot — and fix — these issues fast. https://iddleader.com/burnout
May 18 · 35 min
Ep. 85 - The Retention Strategy Most CEOs Haven't Tried w/ G.N. Janes
Most organizations find out a frontline supervisor is struggling the same way they find out an employee is leaving — too late. G.N. Janes, CEO of Valley Community Services, spent the last decade trying to change that. What started as a wild guess about where the real problem lived — the frontline supervisor level — became a full data infrastructure with weighted dashboards, engagement surveys, and predictive analytics built to catch problems before they become crises. In Part 1 of this conversation, G.N. breaks down exactly how the system works: what they track, why scheduling and onboarding turned out to be the two biggest hidden drivers of turnover, and what any organization can do tomorrow with just a spreadsheet and tenure data. If your organization is still managing turnover reactively, this episode is your playbook for what comes next. 🔗 Learn more about Valley Community Services: valleycommunityservices.org ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 – When promoting your best DSP backfires 01:06 – What if you could predict your staffing future? 02:22 – The early warning system for frontline supervisors 04:20 – From Navy translator to IDD CEO 07:29 – Why frontline supervisors became the focus 08:56 – Inside the FLS dashboard: what they actually measure 11:38 – The two biggest hidden drivers of DSP turnover 16:33 – Did it actually work? Real results before COVID 18:47 – The Gallup engagement survey (and why follow-through is everything) 24:53 – The 2.5-year disengagement dip nobody talks about 29:16 – The one metric every org should baseline tomorrow Send us Fan Mail Quick Question: Do your frontline supervisors sometimes unintentionally contribute to staff turnover? It happens so easily because... Most supervisors were never trained to lead. Get The 7 Quiet Danger Signs Your Supervisors Are Burning Out Their Teams and learn how high-retention agencies spot — and fix — these issues fast. https://iddleader.com/burnout

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