ELEVATE YOUR PEOPLE
Challenging yourself, stepping outside of your comfort zone – this is what feeds Jessica Howard’s approach to leadership. By striving for goals in unchartered territory, she has discovered strengths and capabilities in herself and inspired others to do the same.
Jessica has spent more than a decade in the Human Resources field. Just over six years ago she joined LandSouth. Jessica never envisioned working in the construction industry, until she met the people and saw the potential opportunities the company offered. It was the beginning of an unprecedented era of growth at LandSouth and Jessica embarked on building something special.
At first, Jessica was an HR department of one. Launching the HR department was daunting, but also invigorating and educational. Through working with her mentor Javier Cintron, the company’s CFO at the time, she embraced the challenges of HR in the construction industry. Her work started with recruiting and providing fundamental HR needs – policies, handbooks, and processes. In those early days, there was hard work, and lessons learned along the way, which made successes even sweeter.
Today, Jessica leads LandSouth’s expanded HR team. Through her direction, the HR team is committed to bringing in the right people that will continue the company’s commitment to excellence. The focus is on people development, process automation, and continuous improvement. It’s the full HR strategy. Helping people grow and improve lights a fire in Jessica and is the basis for her leadership philosophy, which she demonstrates by being kind, collaborative, and authentic.
Jessica has also led the charge in bringing people in who are the right cultural fit. It’s not simply about skill sets. Different people bring different strengths – whether it is technical, operational, administrative, or something less defined. It’s about who they are and how they approach their work and the teams around them. The right people become LandSouth people, and that is what makes it such a special place.
Prior to LandSouth, Jessica worked at Amazon. She was fortunate to have not one, but two mentors who shaped her approach to HR and leadership. They got to know her, understood her strengths, and were the first to push her outside of her comfort zone. These mentors taught her how to level up her specialist experience by challenging the conventional, while still maintaining empathy and compassion. Through their guidance, she thrived.
At LandSouth, Javier Cintron continued this guidance and helped Jessica discover that authenticity, collaboration, and compassion go a long way in the construction industry. Jessica now pays it forward by being a mentor to her team, helping them grow and enrich themselves.
As a woman, Jessica brings a unique perspective to a male-dominated industry. Her goal is to serve as a mentor to women in the construction industry, whether it be in HR or other areas. She wants to help them meet people, learn the industry, and step out of their comfort zone. She’s doing what she recommends to other leaders – “Elevate Your People!”
Jessica reinvigorates herself by finding quiet time through music, her husband, and beloved pets, or simply a good read at the beach. Enthusiasm for life, her work, and the people that surround her are at her core. It’s what gets her excited about LandSouth and the future. The magic of LandSouth is the highly collaborative people who are committed to caring for one another.
Jessica is passionate about finding and developing great people, helping them achieve and grow, and has become an indispensable part of the LandSouth Leadership team. She’s excited for 2023, LandSouth’s upcoming 25th anniversary, and welcomes the company’s unlimited growth potential for many years to come.