Today we sat down with Konica Butler, one of our company’s most dynamic leaders to talk about faith, work, and property management. Konica is the property manager for one of our largest property in the portfolio. You don’t want to miss the insight she shares. Check it out!!
Raw Transcript:
it’s so funny that you ask me because i
watch cnn and
i look at some of the things on tv and
so i try to process what’s going on
and one of the things to me is empathy
so um usually when i throw a word out
there i have to really go look it up and
make sure i understand the full
meaning of what empathy means and it’s
the ability to understand and share
the feelings of another um and i know a
lot of
people say well i don’t understand but
you have the ability to understand
[Music]
so you know we we talk a lot at stone
table about faith work
the connection between the marketplace
and the mission of god in the world and
um you know how our everyday jobs are
sacred things
we consider you know our work sacred
we’ve had this
history i think in the church of
separating sacred jobs and secular jobs
but we
we don’t think that’s what scripture
teaches we think that scripture tells us
that all
all work is sacred and so um
i guess i want to know from a property
management standpoint
you’ve been doing this for a lot of
years even before you were at
cloverleaf how do you see what you do
and what your team
does through that lens um
you know how does your faith i know
you’re you’re a woman of faith
how does your faith impact your everyday
work managing
424 units of apartments
well um the funny thing about it is you
actually have to have faith to bring the
love of god to a community
you have to lead with your faith to even
to bring the love of god so
i have my team we try everything to
leave with love
we try to leave with dignity and uh
we try to lead with respect and um i
took the moment
over the years i’ve looked at the word
faith and one of the things that stood
out to me in one of the words
because we pledge our life to god and
um when i decided to get into this
business i decided to pledge my life to
this business because
um somebody believed in me they took the
time out to have the faith in me
and i understand these residents um i
was a single mom
i had two kids by the time i was 22. i
was on section 8.
um so somebody had to have enough faith
in me
to say hey it won’t always be like this
it will turn around so that’s how we
lead this team and i always tell people
that’s on our section 8 because out of
my portfolio i have 200 some
section 8 in one area so i always tell
people this
is not a death sentence you’re not made
to live off of the government
you’re here as a stepping stone so i use
my faith and my hope and my prayers
we’re constantly pushing the residents
forward and it’s hard to say that
because you don’t want to have a great
turnaround
so but at the same token you want to let
them know hey i have a tax credit side i
have a market side
um there’s homes out there that they’re
building there’s more to this life
instead of just generation from
generation looking forward to getting on
section 8
so that’s how we run this community
that’s how i use my faith
my hope and my love that they want to do
something better for themselves
and that’s how we do it i mean i think
that’s beautiful you know we talk a lot
here about
um you know that that people’s homes
that’s a sacred space right and so we’re
actually
our work is to interact with people in
one of the most sacred
spaces uh in their lives you know and uh
we we talk a lot about washing feet
right
and and being high quality providers of
affordable housing
and none of that happens unless we have
the kind of heartbeat that you just you
know described there
so i think that’s beautiful can you tell
us i i
i know you you have story after story
i’ve heard some of them but i i tease
you guys a lot that
one day you’ll be able to write books
probably on some of the stories that
you’ve unpacked after
you know decades of property management
but i don’t tell us the story of how
your team has been able to
positively impact a resident’s life
through
through the work that you do um i’ll
just throw that out there
i’d love to hear a story one of the ones
that stand out
to me the most is um i hired
a young lady that was on section 8 and
lived on this property for 10 years
so when i became the manager here i
watched her come in and she used to go
through the paperwork she would even
correct this they let me know she was
reading
what we were giving her so she was just
not living on section 8
but she was really trying to make it out
she just needed an opportunity
so one day um one of my workers was
moving
to the corporate office and um i asked
her i said i would like to interview you
her name is
marina and um she said you want to
interview me
she said i’m on section 8 i said but i
see more than
your current situation i see that you
can be
i believe in surrounding myself with the
team that
want to do what i want to do i said so i
see a little more you just need an
opportunity
so um i hired her i
made her she went from making 11 bucks
an hour to
you know making some more and um and i
kept pushing her to be the best
in that area to even to the point for
now she works with quad
l and she’s probably on tripled her
income so
i feel like when you work in this
position you have the opportunity
to give back so that’s me giving back to
somebody else
i’m deciding to reach back and pull
somebody forward
and so we do that all the time in this
you know
amongst my team we’re constantly
reaching back and i hired my parents to
do the cleaning
but i also asked them to reach into the
community they’ve hired some people
on um out here in the community to
clean the office to help with the
hallway so to me
that’s showing the love of christ yeah
that’s using my faith that they’re gonna
do their best
and that’s also reaching back to pull
them forward so that’s to me how we pour
love into these residents i love that
uh marina yeah she’s with quadel now
yeah she did an
incredible job for us uh for yeah that’s
that’s a great story
um well i i know one one of the
conversations i love that you and i have
been able to have and you’ve
you’ve really helped me over these last
four or five months
um it’s been a difficult season for our
country
um you know we’ve had a lot of
conversations a lot of
i feel honest conversations i hope you
feel the same way about
the racial tensions in our country and
um
and how really i i hope we can use these
moments to to understand and move
towards one another
right rather than to separate and and
run away from one another
so i i guess i would love some of your
perspective
maybe for other faith-based
organizations or just for organizations
in general
um on how we can better come alongside
our african-american leaders right now
in this season
and i know you and i have had some some
fun conversations about this some deep
conversations about this and
um and you have really helped me
through uh just processing some of these
things
so i just wondered what you might have
to share with other leaders or other
organizations
you know in in this season it’s so funny
that you asked me that because i watch
cnn and
i look at some of the things on tv and
so i try to process what’s going on
and one of the things to me is empathy
so um usually when i throw a word out
there i have to really go look it up
and make sure i understand the full
meaning of what empathy means
and it’s the ability to understand and
share
the feelings of another um and i know a
lot of
people say well i don’t understand but
you have the ability to understand
if you really search your heart you have
the ability to understand what i go
through
and i’m reminded and i’ll probably get a
little spiritual um about
um there’s a scripture in the bible i
want to say it’s romans 12 and 15
you rejoice when other people rejoice
and you weep when they weep
um and i’m also reminded about something
else
um when jesus in the bible when mary her
brother lazarus died
um i love that story he um and she came
to god weeping
and mighty who he is he could have stood
there in almightiness and say hey don’t
worry about that i’m going to raise him
from the dead
don’t fret stop crying but what he did
he showed some empathy and he began to
weep he became the weak and understand
her concerns
and that was his fellow brother so
that touched me so mightily so when
somebody of the opposite race
asked me can you weep with me can you
understand do you
actually have the ability do you have
the potential to understand what i’m
going through
you may not want to march because i’m
not marching i haven’t gotten into all
that yet
but can we have a conversation can we
have a conversation
and the first step into understanding
something
it’s funny to me it says it’s really
impossible i wrote something down so let
me read it
it’s really impossible to tread into the
lives of hurting people without getting
our hands dirty
yeah and i’m not mean physically getting
your hands dirty but
conversation there’s no right or wrong
answer for us to have a conversation
i may not speak about other
companies but i can speak about this one
and you have started the conversation
with me
you begin to have empathy you actually
have the ability to
understand what i’m what my people are
going through
you know you can weep with me you can
watch tv
and feel a sadness in your heart
that that shouldn’t be not judgmental
not looking back on their history but
you can actually
sit there and have some empathy
no that person didn’t need to die like
that right
so that’s what i could say
um community companies can do have some
empathy
really show and one more thing um i
think sometimes
i said why white white counter uh
co-workers
um you don’t know what to say and we as
black people i’m just gonna be real with
you we know the difference
we know the difference if somebody is
really trying to show their heart
or somebody is trying to pacify the
situation
really trying to pacify the situation
and um
as i begin to think about this i’m
reminded of another
scripture oh another parable another
story in the bible
when jesus was walking through the crowd
and
the woman with the issue of blood she
touched him well his disciples says what
do you mean father what do you what do
you mean there’s a lot of people that’s
touching you
but the difference between her touch she
drew strength he knew
was different so the difference between
you having a conversation with me
you’re drawing strength for me and i’m
drawing strength from you
i know there’s a difference you’re just
not somebody in the crowd
trying to make me feel good you’re not
just somebody in the crowd touching me
but you actually are letting me know
hey i’m here i’m here i
i just want to listen i want to talk i
want to learn
and that’s what it’s going to take for
all of us
to move forward in this country
that that’s beautiful in so many ways
you know i think what i’ve experienced
from you
is uh a return of that empathy
you know and i and i think the the hard
part
i think for some white folks like me too
is is you either don’t engage because
you don’t know how to engage or you’re
afraid to engage right
or you you turn what should be
a human interaction into some kind of
issue with checklists and checkpoints
and i think what i have enjoyed with you
and with some of the members of your
team over the last few months
is um is what i ho what i feel is
is some mutual humility and i think
that’s what moves us towards one another
when we can realize
gosh i i don’t think i have
racial bias in my heart but i know i’m a
sinner
and without god’s grace who knows what’s
hiding down in there right that i need
to
that i need to deal with and so i i’ve
just appreciated
our conversations and i hope we have
many more on how we can move
closer to one another even when we don’t
maybe see eye to eye or understand
things exactly
when we can humble ourselves and have
that empathy that you talked about i
think
uh it gives god and the gospel a chance
to
to renew and regenerate and do something
beautiful that we can never do
on our own so i i want to thank you um
just for for sharing with us a little
bit here today uh
you’re an inspiring leader kenika and i
i’m not just saying that i mean you
do a great job you do great work and
we’re grateful for you here and thank
you for
um honoring god and loving people
through the work of your hands
i know some days it’s easier than others
some days we probably feel like we’re
doing it better than others
um but that’s uh that’s the beauty of
god’s grace at work in our lives so i
just want to thank you
publicly uh for the beautiful asset
that you are to our company what we do
here
thank you so much i appreciate it i
appreciate the opportunity
i really do and um and this is something
that helps move
the community forward i mean i do have
several african-americans that are here
and that are women they get to see
there’s somebody in this role
that can love the lord they can sit
there and tell you the truth
and be honest with you so sometimes we
as
in the black community we need to see
more examples and we need to be our own
voice
and if god keeps giving me the strength
i plan to be that voice
for that you are that thank you
appreciate it so much
thank you so much you
