Communicate, But Connect First With Your Credibility

John Maxwell is writing a new book titled Everyone Communicates, Few Connect and he is posting chapter drafts of his manuscript for comments at http://johnmaxwellonleadership.com/.

He is asking for comments and stories, even corrections. Here is a bit of my comment to Chapter 8; The Connector Creates an Experience Everyone Enjoys.

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Credibility. To truly connect with an audience it takes credibility.

When I hear John Maxwell speak, I'm connected to the credibility he's built with me as I've tested the principles from his books and tapes over the years.

On a more personal, and closer to home level, the communication (words out of one's mouth, or fingers), is altered by the credibility the communicator has with us. The connectivity is more real, more often, we see them in real-time. Such connectivity causes problems when you have someone you deal with on a daily basis, especially when the results of their work is not up-to-par; that connectivity will affect the communication because of the credibility. They might laugh and even be encouraged, but due to the credibility issues, the connectivity is short-lived.

Because of that erosion the communication and connectivity was only good for momentary grins. The communicator’s credibility is tied to their level of leadership and the lower the level, especially the Position level, will cause serious damage if the others are being driven by management to learn from the communicator.

True connectivity has to be grounded in credibility.
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I listen to a new pastor and he sticks to what I’m familiar with; credible. He brings up something I’m not familiar with……I’ll have to check out what he said, and get to know more about him, his past, and his doctrine before I connect well with him; he doesn’t have good credibility with me at-this-time.

Yet, I listen to John Maxwell, or Tim Keller, or John Piper and I have few filters engaged. They’re credibility with me already assumes a higher level of in my connectivity. I expect to connect with them because of the credibility they’ve built with me over the years.

Similarly, at work, whether communicating in person or email, my connectivity to the other person is driven by the credibility that person has with me, and even how I feel my credibility is with them. Much like Covey describes in The Speed of Trust, credibility and connecting well spins around how we walk the talk, our behavior, how capable we are, and the results we get.

Communicate, but connect first with your credibility.

Note: go to John Maxwell's link and read more about Everyone Communicates, Few Connect

Best laid plans of mice and men.....

Saturday morning.

"Best laid plans of mice and men sometimes go arwy." Believe me when I say "it was one for the record books." I sit here and reflect back over the past few days and think about how the week started and what I was focused on....and whew.

I found Wednesday morning with a lot on my mind. I had been up for a bit and had decided to interrupt my regular routine by going to the office earlier than normal.

Having struggled with a lot of interrupting thoughts, I needed to stop listening to myself and let someone else drown out what was going on in my head. So, I hit number 6 on my truck's CD player and here comes John Maxwell's booming voice with "LEADERSHIP LESSON #8 - A LEADER'S FIRST RESPONSIBILITY IS TO DEFINE REALITY."

To say I was astonished is an understatement and I'm not sure how many times I replayed those opening words....."a leader's first responsibility is to define reality." God gave me the perfect message and I paid attention.

Dr. Maxwell went on to talk about some rules for successful leadership from Jack Welch's book Jack: Straight From the Gut. My notes (I stopped in Starbuck's parking lot to take them) include the following:

• Control your destiny, or someone else will
• Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it were
• Be candid with everyone
• Don't manage, lead.
• Change before you have to

Whether it's Maxwell, or Welch, or Covey, or Carnegie, or Collins, or Drucker, or Lencioni, or Piper, or Morris, or Moore, or the Apostle Paul.....it's not entirely all the same, but similiar lessons over and over and over again. I look at these 5 points and what all these leaders have to say about what they've seen work best and I realize again how true, how basic, and how much I have to learn.

Talk straight; confront the brutal facts; you're always leading because you're always influencing; leave the right impression; tell the truth - don't lie about even the smallest things; say you're sorry, and mean it; ask questions; listen first; have a plan and at least try to work it; pay attention; ask where your own blind spots are; look past yourself; learn - get better; extend smart trust; trust but verify; be "on purpose;" don't just let life push you around - be purposeful; create transparency; you'll be the same 5 years from today as you are today except for.......; tell your wife and kids you love them everytime you leave the house - every time; guys - remember that whatever points you've earned today, your wife considers them expired at midnight each night; it's not about you or me - it's about the values.

And it's not about the coffee, nor the money.

I look back at the stress I experienced in people's lives this week (I repeat....I look back at the stress "I" experienced in people's lives this week) and it was about someone concerned about their money. Now, I don't doubt that I have blind spots to other things right now, but as I run a quick inventory of the week. As I reflect on the stress, the conflicts, the turmoil, the not so nice phone calls, the emails, the upset people, I notice they were all about the money and pride and bad behavior. Not about values, but about people wanting something to do with their individual money and/or pride and behaving badly in the process of pushing for it.

But it is not about the money, and I'm repeating myself quite a bit this morning; It - is - NOT - about - the - money - IT IS ABOUT THE VALUES. And values are led forth with good behavior.

Take that inventory and work through each minute detail and event. Map it back to the beginning. Be blunt with yourself. Better yet, find someone that will Straight Talk to you.

Starbucks' Behar was telling us, in essence, that being about the coffee is about the money, but being about the service is about the values and behaving well.

Back to Lesson #8, what comes to mind when you reflect on the past few days? Are you a leader that defines reality?

Are you a leader that confronts the brutal facts, chases the values, and believes you will survive?

Godspeed,

Danny

..circling back - for something to help with your focus and reflection:

http://www.leadershipchallenge.com/WileyCDA/LCTitle/productCd-0787984914.html

...

Best Business Practices – Listening

Listening well is one of my many struggles. Studying this behavior the past few months has helped (I pray!). Stephen M. R. Covey describes it as: not only to really listen, but to do Listen First – to include understanding, respect, and mutual benefit.

Mr. Covey depicts Listen First as the 13th Behavior of “Leading at the Speed of Trust” and further explains its opposites and counterfeits.

Opposite:
• speak first - listening last
• not listening at all
• focusing on getting your own agenda
• not considering whether others may have information that could influence you
• ignoring other’s needs to be understood
• self-focused, ego-driven behavior

Counterfeit:
• pretend listening
• spending listening time thinking about reply
• waiting for turn to speak
• listening but not understanding the other person’s point-of-view

Listening well builds trust and is vital to good sound teamwork. Experts like Covey and Maxwell insists that listening is essential to building trust while Lencioni insists that building trust is paramount to well functioning teamwork.

Reference materials include;
• The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player, by John Maxwell
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, by Patrick Lencioni
• The Speed of Trust, by Stephen M. R. Covey
• Bible: 1 Samuel 3:1-3, 1 Samuel 26: 1-25, Job 2:11-13, Habakkuk 1:1-11, Luke 2:42-52, James 1:19

Are you listening to the message you are putting forth? Are you putting forth the clear message you want others to hear? What about silence? When another person is listening and only silence is the response - that too is heard.


Seek clarity in listening well (me too),

Danny

PS: tomorrow – Communication with the loan applicant

Good Morning: We are at the half-way point of the last month of the FHA mortgage business as I’ve known it for over 24 years. FNMA and FHLMC introduced their automated underwriting engines in the mid ‘90s. Some 6 or so years ago FHA followed with their “scorecard” to run with DU and LP and now we are at a point in history where the traditional manual underwritten loan has almost been eliminated.

With automated underwriting comes a more consistent product and a higher “quality” of loan. Those that know me well know that I firmly believe that by setting higher standards we will raise the outcome. Yet, I’m struggling with denying an entire class of people with the ability to purchase a home and in essence, that is what is happening. I also dislike being at such the forefront of this change. It is also interesting to note that the 540-580 credit score loan is performing today the same as it did 10 years ago. While we have been attempting to change our business model for a few months, this is much more drastic than any of us would like. Though, it is making us change and I wonder about the timing of it all! And that is another reflection for later.

It’s appropriate that the subject of our Leadership class the past week has been about Intuition. John Maxwell teaches….”Some people are born with great leadership intuition. Others have to work hard to develop and hone it. But either way it evolves, the result is a combination of natural ability and learned skills.” I have to point out the “work hard to develop and hone it” part because this is an area I believe critical to successfully leading well. I also point it out because it is an area I personally have had to develop and struggle with way too much.

Maxwell lays out 3 lists of 5 “things” in each list in which you can develop and learn better Intuition:

Reading; Situations, Trends, Resources, People, and Oneself
Providing What Others Can’t: They See Differently–They Provide Correction, They See Globally-They Provide Direction, They See Clearly-They Provide Structure, They See Relationally-They Provide Support, and They See Expectantly-They Provide Confidence
Competing With the Best: Become a Man/Woman of Prayer, Communicating Personally with People at all Levels of the Org Chart, Laying out the Vision, Selecting and Training Leaders, and Releasing Leaders to Lead

If you’d like to participate in a discussion on the subject of Intuition, join us in the conference room at 11:45 today.


My focus today is on

1) where we are at with our pipeline and supporting systems to close it out this month and

2) AUS and its supporting systems. The supporting systems for AUS includes;

DU, DO, LP
IDs and Passwords
Uploads, downloads
Who runs AUS?
How is AUS run?
How the loan gets to us
Validations
ProLender
Pull-Throughs
What do we Sell?
????

What are you focusing on today?


Danny

LeadingWell Disciplines

A person that intends to lead well recognizes that he/she must be a leader leading leader. LeadingWell is about the desire of developing other leaders.

Author, mentor, and internationaly recognized speaker John Maxwell describes a Leader as "anyone who influences; period-the-end." Dr. Charles Swindoll is reported to have said, "give me one word to describe leadership and I say 'influence,' give me two and I say 'inspiring influence.'"

LeadingWell disciplines recognizes the disciplines of a Leader Leading Leader as one who strives themselves and equips others to be;

1. Purposeful - you approach others to purposefully add value to the relationship;
2. Relational - you are warm and inviting and work at relationships;
3. Objective -you assess strengths and weaknesses objectively;
4. Vulnerable - you model self-disclosure and honesty;
5. Incarnational- you live out what you teach;
6. Dependable; you are consistent and responsible with your actions and promises;
7. Empowering - you give power away and facilitate growth in others;
8. Resourceful - you use every tool you have to grow people and improve processes.

There are many parts to an organization's culture and these P.R.O.V.I.D.E.R. disciplines are something we can daily use to assist us in the fulfillment of our Vision, Mission, and Value Statements.

Credibility

I really want people around me that are credible. Don’t you? What a difference it makes when you know, without a doubt, that a job is going to get done and get done correctly. It happens faster, easier, and with less emotion. It’s also more profitable and it just plain feels good.

This past week, with some time-off, I thought a great deal about what credibility means to me and wondered about what experts had to say about it. Three of the five books I picked up from my desk had the word “credible or credibility” in their indexes.

Chet Holmes, The Ultimate Sales Machine, mentions numerous times the importance of credibility with customers and potential customers and co-workers.

John Maxwell, in his commentary on Proverbs 17:2, says that “credibility is a victory, not a gift. We gain credibility when our life matches our talk and when both add value to others.”

Stephen M.R. Covey, in The Speed of Trust, writes about Self-Trust and the Four Cores of Credibility; Integrity, Intent, Capabilities, and Results. Think about how much better you feel when you're working along side someone whose walk and talk match up (integrity); their agenda works with yours (intent); they have the ability to do the job (capability); and past performance has produced results (results).

With the changes in the business the past year, you’ve probably had a hard time trusting most anything or anyone, but did you stop trusting yourself? Many of us did because we weren’t sure what was ahead and some, if not much, of the past has proved to be a mistake. Yet, by still being around to read this likely means you’ve weathered the storm well enough to at least survive. So, how about this summer? Are you staying in the game? How’s your “self-trust?” It was a wise man who said “we can’t talk ourselves out of something we behaved our way into – but, we can behave our way out of it.”

This is in part what our Round Tables are about, learning Self-Trust and its effects on building Best Business Practices. We’ll have two Round Tables in Dallas on Thursday. A separate announcement will go out later today. Hope to see you there.


Danny


Read more about credibility and how it relates to our company’s values at http://alethes-values.blogspot.com/ .

I’d like to encourage you to read 2 things this morning;

the book summary of “360 Leadership” by John Maxwell and
the Focus and Reflection dated 4/16/2008.


I’d then like to hear what you took away from these readings. You can either email or post as a comment on today’s blog. And the blog allows you to be anonymous!


Thanks, Danny