Taking Inventory of What I've Got To Work With

We're continuing to experience changes in the mortgage business that makes it more and more difficult to close loans. Even really good loans.

Everyone is extremely frustrated at not know the changes to the guidelines, yet, the whining is not near what it was a year ago. We've grown so accustomed to changes that we've come to expect it.

It is all some much out of our control with appraisals management companies, new time lines for collecting money and strict guidelines imposed by congress on estimating the "good faith" estimate.

So, everyday we need to take a good inventory of what who and what we have to work with. It changes too fast to set back and relax.

What's in our box? What do we have to win with? What agendas are with us, and what's against us?

Practice Allowing Accountability

For others to trust us, we have to allow them to hold us accountable. It's absurb to believe that we should be trusted for any other reason.

I had someone say to me once, "all that I've done for you and you question me?" The fact that there's questioning at all shows a couple of things.

First, it could be that the questioner simply wants to verify what he trusts; that's smart trust.

Or, it could be the questioner has gotten bad results and is attempting to understand what happened.

Not practicing smart trust will get bad results because agendas change and when agendas change, behaviors change. When behaviors change, results change.

Be agreeable to either accountability or questionable behavior and bad results.

Your choice.

Clarifying the Box

Having a clear understanding and acceptance of you and your company's limitations AND abilities are a must if you want consistant good results.

Let me clarify....you have to keep moving around and asking questions.

Let me clarify some more....you have to ask questions of what people's understanding of their expectations.

More clarification....ask questions to be sure what you've asked of people is what they heard you ask.

Hope is not a strategy.

You have to clarify, and to clarify you have to ask questions, and when you ask questions, let people answer, and when they answer differently than your understanding of the answer you expected, ask more questions. Understand why they think what they think.

Stop assuming.

Clarify what's in your box working for and against you.

Learning and Not Changing is NOT Learning

Though I'm finding myself with some new behavior traits, I'm still battling hard agaist habits/tendencies that have brought about bad results in the past. Here four bad behaviors I have to continue to fight:

• I want to trust people without accountability


• I tend to "hope" too much


• I don't follow through on requests I make; I don't inspect what I expect


• I don't have enough meetings and/or I don't lead and manage by walking around enough

While I've written previous about meetings and why they HAVE TO HAPPEN, it recently "HIT" me why people don't like meetings; they don't like the accountability. And GOOD meetings have a basis of accountability; during and/or after the meetings.

Ok, their are plenty of meetings that are "bad" meetings (bad bad meeting - shame on you), but right now I'm referring to those people in management and teamwork positions that come to good results-driven meetings. Yet, when someone leaves a meeting with an attitude of "well, that's an hour of my life that I'll never get back," that is an indication of a passive-aggressive behavior that is doing nothing but tearing at the heart of the entire organization.

What does this have to do with "Succeeding Inside the Box?" We have to know who is in the box with us. We have to know what is driving behaviors? What is each teammembers' agenda, their motive for being at work? Is it just to earn a paycheck? A bigger paycheck?

Or are they trying to make a real difference? Do they want to be part of something bigger than themselves? Are they trying to make a difference of make a bigger money? Do they just have a more, more, more attitude and agenda? Or does he throw out the "What's best for their family" bomb?

If your meetings are good meetings, something is really happening. Agendas are being sat, accountability is enforced, and planning is talked about. There's probably some drama, and that's good (see Death by Meeting...Lencioni). That person that constantly struggles to come to the meeting undoubtedly knows that he is going to come to the meeting, participate, even have good dialog, but will go back to his desk or out into the field and do what he wants, is killing your mission and purpose. Values are being trampled on. This person, regardless of what was previously agreed upon, will do only what he wants in the long run.

This is someone that doesn't belong in the box with you. Forget about the bus. Forget about a seat on the bus. Just get him out of the box. And quick.

Me....I want people that are part of a Team. I want a Together-Everyone-Achieves-More mind-set. Teamwork is a reality of Success, inside or outside the box, but we'll never succeed for the long-term without good Teamwork and people that talk about together-everyone-achieves-more and yet runs his own agenda is conning himself and others that depend upon him.

Look at the past, learn from it, and change. Know who's in the box with you.

Get out of your rut, learn from the past, and quit trying to change everyone. They're not going to change and you'd better.

Learn!

Every Good Con Man is a Great Guy

I rankles me to no end when you have someone you've caught with character defects, deep into lies and manipulation and he's declared to be a "good guy."

So WHAT he's a good guy? Why make the statement? What's the point?

Good grief, you catch someone manipulating facts, lying, behaving poorly, with hidden agendas, and then you hear that others are having the same problem.

And then its declared "but he's a good guy."

So what...all good con men are good guys.

More on Following...

Resource: http://www.courageousfollower.net/aboutirachaleff.html

Whew!

June is over and we’re half way through the year! Amazing…isn’t it?

Whether you’ve been with us from the beginning or have just joined in the past few weeks, I’m sure you recognize that the Alethes/Overland train has been on steep and sometimes treacherous grade. God tells us to not be worried about tomorrow and I know many of us have just paid attention one day at a time and this has gotten us through.

This is a tough time we are in and not just in our own industry. We’ll need to pay particular attention to “just today,” let’s be sure and remember the trip. Let’s remember where we’ve been on, and let’s know where we are going.

Over the next few days we’ll be -

1. recognizing accomplishments we’ve made this year

2. setting some goals for July and the rest of the year

3. determining needs to accomplish those goals


I’d like this an event that we all participate in, so feel free to come at me with ideas, suggestions, concerns, etc.


Thanks for all the hard work.

God Bless,

Danny