Although there are many pieces that make up the whole picture of Washington County Habitat, there is one job that I would say is one of the most important. In Habitat it is all about productivity. Habitat cannot find funding if they cannot see timely results from their investments. In the past, Habitat has had a difficult time finding a motivated and passionate construction manager. The construction manager is always on site, meeting locals, organizing volunteer groups, and actually repair or building homes. For the past 4 months, Jeremy Blackwell has shown what it means to innovate and lead.
I started working with Habitat thinking I had little to no idea about construction, as well did the students that volunteered regularly with me. Jeremy is the main person on site, and he is typically the only one from Habitat with any knowledge about construction. Throughout the semester, I have seen how he has exercised the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership. Getting aggravated at myself because I was out of my comfort zone a little bit was the hardest part about the job, but being around not just Jeremy, but all the people in the Habitat office, was very encouraging and rewarding. It was rewarding because I was able to learn from each of them. This was not a place where I would consider myself a leader, but I got to learn and follow really good leaders including the community members we served. Being a good leader is also what makes him a good innovator because he takes risks, empowers others, listens to people, and finds different ways to accomplish the goal even if it's a brand new way of thinking. I got to follow these innovators in Habitat as they thought outside the box and cared about the people they served. The number one thing I took away was that I do not know everything, but it is okay not to know and humble yourself to listen to others experiences and knowledge.
Encouraging the Heart:
He may get aggravated at a trap he is trying to install under a sink, but he encourages others even if he should be a little impatient. I would say everyone working for Habitat is very good about supporting volunteers and community members. The made it a place where you are always appreciated, and failure is welcome as long as you learn as they teach.
Enables Others to Act:
One thing I leaned from him, that makes me respect him, is no matter how experienced he is, he lets us [volunteers, coworkers, community members] know he needs all of us. He often uses we. By allowing volunteers to do a job he could run through in 10 minutes, he is allowing us to find where we all belong and have skills to contribute to the big puzzle. This enables others to act.
Model the Way:
Habitat's values is in giving people a decent place to live and bringing God's hope to communities. Jeremy models the way by sharing values and speaking of the values of Habitat as a whole. He does not ask anyone to do anything he would not do himself. If nobody wants to crawl on their belly under a spider infested cold house then without complaining he gladly finishes the job.
Inspire a Shared Vision:
Although he came in with a lot of work to do, he bolted in inspired and motivated by the Habitat stories. He had a vision, and the excitement of this clearly painted picture made everyone want to work harder. There is more funding, more jobs getting done, and it tickled down on the job site where even volunteers have that shared vision.
Challenge the Process:
When he first got this job, he had a lot of work ahead of him without someone first paving the way. He showed that he is a risk taker by the way he challenges the process. He is constantly trying different ways to approach a job with a small number of volunteers, and sometimes failing, but finding a way to get the job done.
Here is how I saw Jeremy and others model leadership
One of Habitat's Innovators
"In Habitat's world innovation is the idea of creating methods to help people with housing needs, repairing and building homes, while finding new people and resources to fund and volunteer. You always need new ideas for fundraising, volunteer groups, construction methods, and more, or you will become a stagnate organization in a world that is changing exponentially."
-Jeremy Blackwell
What I learned
One of the main ways he has had to be innovative on the job is learning how to transition from a high functioning construction crew to a volunteer based. He has learned to think on his feet to find ways to use the wide range of volunteer's skill level to be the most productive in a limited amount of time. He has learned how to use 15 volunteers with no prior experience to do a job in 2 hours that would take a week for two carpenters. This means taking extra time is explain and teach as much as possible to individuals in order to finish work effectively. On the construction side, new Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) are constantly changing, and keeping up with new technology and building regulations are also very important in this job.