Reflections On The Last Twelve Years — June 9, 2013
As my time at Clare Housing comes to an end, there are several things for me to do over the next few weeks. I will be handing over files, working on the transition with the staff and board and saying goodbye to folks. But, before I head out the door, I wanted to share with you a few reflections from the last twelve years.
Preparation for the job.
I came to this job just before I turned 49. By that time I’d had a number of jobs. I came with a pretty solid set of experiences as a senior manager in the nonprofit sector. I had worked in a very large nonprofit where I learned about budgeting and financial statements, human resources, creating and managing programs and working effectively in a bureaucratic environment. Lobbying for environmental organizations taught me the value of persuasion, relationships and compromise. I was a union guy for a few years, and that provided the opportunity to learn bargaining skills and keeping a “team” together. I also worked as a hospice social worker for short stretches. Through all that I lived my life: got married, came out, got divorced, lost friends to AIDS and motorcycle accidents and family members to cancer and old age. I settled into a 30 year – and still going –relationship, bought a couple of houses and a cabin and sold a couple of houses. All the usual stuff. A little more out of the mainstream: I came darn close to earning a PhD and was ordained as a Zen priest!
Even with all that: I wasn’t prepared for this new job. I had never been an executive director of a nonprofit, developed real estate or run a capital campaign. I often wondered: why the heck did they hire me? I’m not sure what they saw in me, but I’m very glad they made the choice they did. I couldn’t have imagined a more suitable and satisfactory way to earn a living.
The number of people it takes to create housing.
I was astounded at the complexity of creating affordable housing, to say nothing of permanent supportive housing for people living with HIV/AIDS. An affordable housing project often requires five to eight funders per project. Each funder has several people involved in the project. City council members and citizens get to weigh-in. Then there are architects and construction workers. The list goes on. Hundreds of people are involved in an affordable housing project.
The importance of being driven by values and manifesting them as well as one can.
In 2006, shortly after Clare Housing and AIDS Care Partners merged, I decided to convene staff leadership once a month. This group includes administrative and professional staff, lead caregivers in the community care homes and key staff at Clare Apartments and Midtown.
At one of the first meetings of this group I offered up “three values by which we operate.” I then asked: Were these values we could all accept? Were they the most important? Did I miss any? At the end of the day, we came up with “four values by which we operate.” The values are: transparency, honesty, alignment and sustainability.
Every 12 to 18 months, I haul them out and ask: Are we manifesting these values in our day-to-day work? What would your direct reports and co-workers say? It’s a great practice that brings us all together – even when it’s a challenge to live our values, we generate a shared sense of trying to manifest what is important.
Building an organization.
I was once asked by a colleague, “Lee, I know you care about the mission of Clare Housing. But what really cranks your engine is real estate development, isn’t it?” I responded, “You’re right, the mission drives me. And, real estate development is a grand jigsaw puzzle and fascinating challenge. But what really cranks my engine is building an organization that can carry the mission forward long after I’m gone.”
I have a deep sense of gratitude for having had the opportunity to work with hundreds of wonderful people in a job that has had meaning to me and contributed in a small way to the well-being of others.
I want to take this opportunity to thank the countless hundreds of people who have made Clare Housing: direct care workers, nurses and social workers, architects, contractors and attorneys, cooks, board and committee members and other volunteers, donors and foundation staff, public administrators and politicians, janitors, plumbers and electricians – the list goes on and on and on . . .
It has been an amazing 12 years – thank you! I look forward to Clare Housing’s future.