photo by Lara Herscovitch
One of the exercises in CLP is about identifying and clarifying our own personal values. We each identify our top 5 values, writing one each on 5 index cards. Then we have to drop one… and another… until we are forced to choose our number 1, top value. What is your current One right now and why?
My relationship with God. It’s always been true in some capacity; as I grow older, it has become more intentionally true. I’ve always believed in God and subscribed to formal religion. I’ve learned that there’s a difference between subscribing to a specific religion, whatever it is, and having a relationship with a higher power.
Can you say more about that?
It’s great to choose to subscribe to a formal religion, and say ‘I’m a Baptist, I’m Catholic, I subscribe to the Jewish faith,’ or Buddhism, whatever the case is. So you’re a part of the group. But then there is a certain kind of walk, a certain type of connection, that one tries to have with whomever you deem as the highest, most powerful source of wisdom, comfort, or guidance. The connection happens for me through prayer, meditation, and through conscious, intentional living according to the principles in the teachings within my religion. I’m not perfect; I’m a work in progress, continually striving to have a stronger relationship with God.
What is one big, burning leadership question you are wrestling with these days?
How to be an effective leader who consistently helps the communities I work and live in to be kinder, more engaging, and economically progressive environments. Kindness, social enterprise, and economic development can successfully co-exist and help to positively transform communities that are suffering from poverty and crime into vibrant hubs.
What inspires you, gives you hope these days?
The fact that there is something that I can do that can impact and change somebody’s life. I’m grateful to be in a position to provide safe, affordable housing in New Haven communities that are sometimes dismissed as lower-income, or transitional, or high-crime. I appreciate and understand what it means to a family to be able to comfortably afford home ownership and how it impacts the overall progression of children. And, I understand the economic development homeownership brings to a community.
I’ve worked in the real estate industry for over 20 years in many different capacities, including real estate development, real estate finance, construction, property management, and supportive services. To dissect the work I do – and that my agency was doing long before I got there – we walk into a community and buy a house that’s been blighted, is an eyesore, and sometimes is a vessel for unsavory activity. We completely renovate it into safe, livable space and then sell it to a family. The benefits go so much further beyond just providing home ownership.
The house that used to represent deterioration now becomes a positive addition to the neighborhood. The neighbors like it because of the benefit brought to street and neighborhood. Their property values increase. The tax base of the city increases. The positive impact runs deep in terms of overall community development.
That’s why I do what I do. At the end of the day, I can do something, which is create safe, energy-efficient living space that a family will move into and be able to afford, enjoy for a lifetime, and have a valuable asset that can be passed down from generation to generation.
This work of transformational change is hard. Stepping in, stepping up, over time, can be draining – physically, intellectually, emotionally, psychically, spiritually. How do you recharge, restore, take care of yourself, rekindle your fire?
Sometimes I’m more successful than others, but again, I try to lean into my relationship with God. Meditation, prayer, reflection – over the years it has become more of a daily ritual. I find a peaceful place to sit and pray every morning after the gym and before I leave, for 10 to 15 minutes. A lot of times I’ll put headphones on, listen to a gospel song I enjoy, or a biblical word, or instrumentals. I then give space for it to take me where it takes me, for the things that are on my mind and on my heart. Then it morphs into prayer; I ask God to protect me and my family, govern and temper my actions, help me deal with people in an ethical way, and help me respond appropriately to people who are not dealing with me in an ethical way.
At the end of the day, when I make it home, I listen again to something, and reflect about what’s on my mind or on my heart, giving thanks that I made it through the day. I wasn’t profiled, shot or killed by a policeman or someone in a community while I’m working on a house, who thought I looked like somebody else. Bullets don’t have names. So, every time I make it home, there’s a prayer of thanks and reflection. ‘Whatever I did wrong, help me work on those areas.’ I go into the next day asking God to protect me again, and help me fix what needs fixing.
Is there a difference for you between prayer and meditation?
I tend to combine them. A true meditator might say, ‘no, you’re just praying, not meditating!’ There’s a portion of the ritual that allows me to give thanks, or make requests, then there’s a part that involves just sitting in peace and confidence. I actually started that when I was an undergrad. It became a very effective way to deal with life, any worry or stress. It’s powerful.
Introduce us to someone you are/were close with personally (e.g., family, teacher, friend, mentor), who shaped (or shapes) you and how you view leadership and possibility for a better community/world?
There are several, but I’ll pick one – my uncle Gilbert, my father’s brother. He grew up in Norfolk, Virginia, got married and had a child when he was in high school, at 16 years old. He decided to go into the military, and from there he went to college and graduate school, became a physicist and worked for NASA. This was during a time when black men – and black people in general – weren’t able to easily make those moves. It wasn’t easy, but he somehow did it.
Growing up, I spent many summers in Norfolk, which meant time with him and my father’s other siblings and their families. He was the only one in my father’s generation who went to college. So once I got to college, we had that in common, bringing a deep mutual respect. We talk a lot; to this day, every time I go to Virginia, he and I meet at the Golden Corral and discuss everything from politics to education to business to community development.
He is a really ethical, mild-mannered, even-keeled person, who tries to think before he acts. He’s very intentional about what he does and says. He’s very active in the church he goes to. He has such a gift, a style of leadership I’ve always admired. He is kind, warm, gentle, but also potent with a lot of charisma. If there’s a storm going on around him, he’s always been able to lead the ship to shore with minimal casualties. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve seen how his overall way of thinking has led to his success – as a husband, father, employer, and entrepreneur.
What do you recommend to us, in each of these categories:
- Reading – If you had asked me this question prior to Donald Trump getting into office, I would have had a whole different list. But this is where my mind has been lately. Urban Trauma, by one of my fellow Cohort members, Dr. Maysa Akbar. An excellent, amazing book, what it’s like to walk in the shoes of a minority. I’ve actually purchased it for a few people I know who are not familiar with the minority experience. Second, Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum. Excellent book. I went to Notre Dame High School, and yes, all us black kids sat together at the ‘black table.’ So it’s great to see it broken down in a scientific and psychological way. Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City, by Brad Feld. About micro- and macro-economics, great book especially if you’re an enthusiast about community development and economic development.
- Listening – I highly recommend listening to any and all of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ work, a fellow Howard University graduate! And Jane Elliot, a white school teacher who has done lots of research about how people become racist. A lot of Trump supporters included, if they listened, would change the way they think.
- Eating – Lately I’ve started eating a lot of Mediterranean food, am really enjoying Rawa on Whalley Avenue.
- Watching – When They See Us, about the Central Park Five, on Netflix. I remember when that happened, and I vividly remember Donald Trump’s comments about them. And two shows that show how we live, how we think about ourselves. Comical but not silly or goofy, Parks and Recreation and Frasier. Psychology has always interested me; why we do what we do, and how can we change it.
- Laughing – Michael Che and Sebastian Maniscalco – they both have a great way of telling a story about the way life is now.
- Wildcard – Drive cross-country once. It will help explain how different, and how very similar, we all are.
Interview with The Circle’s Creative Director & Editor, Lara Herscovitch (Cohort 10). To reach Lara directly: thecircle@clpnewhaven.org or Lara@LaraHerscovitch.com
Learn more about Michael’s work at Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven
To get in touch with Michael directly: mhaynes1@gmail.com