Transcript: Collaboration NOW: The Power of Gratefulness

Henry Nett, the Pre-Construction Executive at Southland Industries. He serves as the Pre-Construction Executive after serving as the Sheet Metal General Superintendent for 13 years and 32 years as a union sheet metal worker with Local 105. He's been very instrumental with building partnerships with organizations that have pre-apprenticeship programs in the Bay Area like City Build in San Francisco and Rising Sun Center for Opportunity in Oakland, along with several others. Henry is a strong advocate of mentoring and giving everyone a fair shot at success, regardless of their background.

He is the 2020 Chair for AGC's National Diversity and Inclusion Steering Committee. Henry's approach to the complexity of the current climate is one of calm, courage, and commitment. He is a consistent voice of reason, even in the worst of times, and is not afraid to have uncomfortable conversations that have the potential to bring positive change. As the former Sheet Metal General Superintendent, Henry was responsible for over 200 sheet metal workers during his tenure and led lean implementations on projects throughout Northern California on Southland projects. Henry's strategy of field support included a mixture of boots on the ground type of approach combined with an informal relationship building.

This has always been key to his success. So with that, we're going to bring Henry on. Hey, welcome, Henry. Good morning. How are you, Brittany?

I'm well. How are you doing? I'm doing well. Thank you. Oh, it's good to see you.

I feel like I haven't seen you in a, it's gotta be like two years now. Yeah, yeah. Something like that. Pretty close. Yeah, it's been a while.

Yeah. Besides seeing each other on the platform, as you mentioned. Exactly. Yeah. So I'm grateful.

I'm grateful for at least seeing you. Back and forth talking, talking about what's important to us. Interesting that we've interesting things that we find. But I'm super happy to just kind of talk with you today and reconnect. Yeah, that's something that's important to both of us.

Absolutely. Yeah. So, um, you know, I gave a little bit of history on your background through your bio. Um, is there anything else that you want to quickly share about like how you've been doing, like just through the holidays here? Just what's up?

How have you been doing? Yeah, yeah, no, definitely. Um, first I would have mentioned, because I'll get somebody from my union to hit me, I, uh, it should be local 104 versus 105, because there is a local 105 in Southern California and I'm at a local 104. So I've got to correct that, make sure I, you know, yeah, but, um, yeah, it's been, uh, life has been pretty crazy, you know, um, there's obviously so many things happening, uh, in everyone's life that have impacted us in ways where no one can hide from this, you know, with, with, with COVID, uh, as well as just this racial upward going around the country.

And so, um, I think that's, that's, that's, that's, that's you know, with COVID, uh, as well as just this racial upward going around the country, um, families being separated, um, unfortunately, so many people dying. Uh, it seems very dark, right? I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's tough. I don't think any of us have not been impacted some way, somehow, uh, by all the things going on, whether very intensely, uh, or maybe from afar, but either way, it has changed our lives, uh, forever, you know, and, and, and it's something that we've had to, to learn to adapt with.

So coming to work, uh, every day, and whether it's you're going in virtually or, or physically present, it's, uh, it's just different, you know, and it's something that you've had to really just kind of wrap your mind around and, and say, this is the way it is right now and, and will be for a long time. And like I said, it, it, it probably will never be the same in many ways, um, which isn't all bad, but it's just won't be the same. And so having to adapt our lives and we know how change creates stress.

And it's one of those things where we like things just to be the way they are. And this has been an uproar. This has been a bulldozer coming in and turning our lives upside down. So, so many people, uh, are affected in so different, so many different ways. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, to your point, there's, there's so much to process this year. Um, and, and it's difficult to decide it's, it's difficult to decide how to respond or even take the time to think about how am I responding and what am I going to do about it and make specific choices about how to interact with, with people while we're trying to process. Right. It's a whole, it's a whole thing to go through.

Yeah. Um, and one thing that I've been, you know, struggling with, and which is why I wanted to have this conversation is how to keep positivity and things that are good and things that are great, you know, things that we're grateful for top of mind. Um, so I'm, I'm looking for some more ways that I have a gratefulness practice. Like I mentioned earlier, I do try to every single day jot down three things. It could be very simple, very simple.

It could be just like the sunshine outside. It's just something to be grateful for every morning. So my question to you, which is basically, you know, the, the theme for today is how do you encourage gratefulness, um, outwardly or, you know, to start with, we can talk about how you encourage it, encourage others to pay attention to what's good and what they should be grateful for. And then we can go ahead and tap into the N word. How do you do it for yourself a little bit later?

So how do you, how do you encourage gratefulness in this distance society? Well, first I have to say, to start with that, it's really how it's defined for me. And, and, and this allows me to show up in a certain way. And that is one of the powers for me of gratefulness, uh, is, is the, it gives you the ability to see. And, and I, and I think that that's so important to recognize.

It's kind of, it's kind of like being able to, to, to smell the flowers and see the sunshine or see the light in the cloudy day. It's, it's how you choose to show up. And, but you, in order to be able to show up in a certain way is you have to be able to see, you have to be able to recognize what's around you. And I believe gratefulness allows us to see if we have spiritual eyes and it's not just physically seeing, but it is it's being able to recognize there's something better, that there is more to what is in front of your face.

And it may be disparity and it may be poverty. It may be violence. It may be lack of finances, but gratefulness allows you to see something better. And so that I think that's the most important part is, is how I start. And when I show up at work and I, and I try to help others, it's, it's always about bringing empathy, you know, and understanding others, their dynamics, what they're facing in their lives and trying to come to a place of seeing through their own perspective.

So it's not just a, a moment of persecution or accusation or just one that's lacking empathy, whatever someone's facing. And so showing up in that way allows me to help others to kind of see the light and, and to turn whatever they may be facing with a positive attribute, you know, and not to be dismissive and uncaring, but to really show up with empathy, to understand, you know, why is they are where they are, whether it's perspective, outlook, or physically just somewhere. It's, it's how do we come out of that?

So it's, it's really coming to the place of, of, of saying there's, there's always something better. It could always be worse. And, but not very flippant with that, really in a meaningful way to really help others to see that your lives are better than what you think they are in the situation that we're facing, although it's dire, it could be worse. And let's look at that and let's figure out how do we help you see that so you can keep moving in life and not get stuck where you're at.

And, and, and that's really important, especially in work, because we, we have to show up and we have to do a job. And in spite of what we're facing, I always tell, my former boss used to say to us, you know, you have people that work for you and are struggling and, and sometimes you just don't want to show up to work physically. Well, it's things that you go through in life, they're hard, but it's a lot harder when you don't have a paycheck, you know.

So let's figure out how do we get you there safely, execute your work, and get you back home so that you can continue to provide so you don't make a bad situation worse. And so sometimes it's just as practical as that, is I understand what you're facing, but your family needs you to show up and do your job. And how can we help you to do that? You know, so it's just really meeting people where they live and having that, that, that, that empathy that you take with you wherever you go, so that you can identify with people and not be flippant and uncaring.

It's really important that people know that you care. Yeah, that's so real. It's so simple to take a couple moments and figure out how someone is doing, where, what, what they're experiencing, what their world looks like from, from their perspective, just for a moment, so that you can kind of come together and say, okay, yep, we have a job to do, but there's, there's always something, there's always something better. There's always a little bit of a silver lining amongst the things that are taking place. Of course, the things that are top of mind for people are things that are on the edges, right?

The things that are polarized, the things that are either really bad or the things that are really good. So it's kind of, it's kind of coming to the point of getting people to focus a little bit on, okay, where are you now? How do we, how do we focus on the up and up, right? The positive thing, and then how do we get to work? That's what I heard from what you were saying.

Yeah. Yeah, no, absolutely. And it's, it's so, and you know, our industry is so dangerous, you know, unfortunately we still have people that are injured. Henry, Henry's cutting out for a little bit and if he can, if he's coming back on in a second, we'll, we'll pull him back in. All right.

I think, I think Henry's tied up. So in the meantime, while he's getting reconnected, we'll go ahead and highlight some of the comments here, what people have responded with on what they're grateful for. Biki says she's grateful for collaboration between colleagues outside of the industry to keep her abreast of the organizational strategies overall, as opposed to just within her industry. That's really cool. Brian, he says he's grateful for his family, his dogs, his family's health and the help of, the health of him getting to help people and have a different relationship with their work.

That's really cool. Helping people to have a different relationship with their work. Ashley says she is grateful for the health of her colleagues. She's grateful for her family and the ability to stay socially distant and still focus on positive mental health mindsets. Erin saying that she's also grateful for the heartfelt mastermind.

Oh yes. Yes, yes, yes. We were all part of a heart, a mastermind a couple of years ago and we all had incredible learnings through our business entrepreneurship group. Also, Brian, he says he's grateful for one of the ways he has begun to practice gratefulness is by starting all of his correspondence with a thank you. It makes you stop and think of the ways the person you are corresponding with brings you value.

It gives you a chance to acknowledge that and say thank you. That's gold. I really appreciate that. Thank you, Brian, for that comment. I'm sorry.

We are thankful you are back. Thank you. I'm not. I'll tell you. All right.

I'm going to ask you our last question. What are you grateful for today, Henry? I am grateful for first and foremost always my family. That is the dearest, obviously, to me. Having a 23, two-year-old now, she'll be 23 in a month or two, just graduated from college and a son that is 20, just turned 20 last month and trying to be an aspiring soccer player.

And then a 15-year-old, almost 16-year-old, is getting ready to start driving. They are the center and joy of my life and helps to keep me in perspective. When you come home from work on a long commute, when you do drive in and come back and have these young people helping you laugh and see what really matters, I'm grateful for them, for sure. My extended family as well and the people that I work with. That's really cool to be able to say that and mean it, is I really enjoy the people that I work with and I'm grateful for the relationships that I've established over with Southland for the last 14 years almost.

Some of my best relationships exist there. Some of my best friends have come through work and just being able to meet folks like you and people around this industry that care and have so you can connect with people in different ways and learn from one another. I'm grateful for those experiences and they've all helped shape different parts of my life and give me perspective to keep pressing, to keep going and to keep sharing and knowing that this kind of thing, it matters in addition to the actual work we do.

It all ties together. Yeah, absolutely. Next time I see you, I'm going to ask you again as to when your book is going to be released. But I know it's too soon to ask you that now. But for those of you who are interested, please hit up Henry.

He's on LinkedIn. He's a good guy. He has so much to give. Thank you again, Henry. It's a pleasure to have had you on this show.

Thank you for having me, Brittany. You take care and good to see you. Yeah, same here. Bye now.