Faith, Work, and Property Management – A Conversation With One of Our Company’s Most Dynamic Leaders

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