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
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008
I was traveling yesterday, by air (I’d rather drive). While on layovers, I always head to airport bookstores. Bookstores are culturally challenged and I like to see what’s being pushed that’s different from the local Barne&Nobles.
This time it was more of a renewed perspective on an existing problem: change (imagine that!)
Standing inside the doorway, surveying the crowd, and wondering if I dared walk in, I was drawn to a book of previously published articles. In this book was a reprint of an article I passed around corporate last year by Harvard Professor John P. Kotter. The article was titled, “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail.” Professor Kotter wrote a book back in 1996 with a similar title. In this article he lists “8 Big Errors” companies make when transforming (fancy name for CHANGE). I was struck hard by 6 of the 8, but in particular Error #1: Not Establishing a Great Enough Sense of Urgency.
Kotter’s “Error #1” has caused further reflection about Floaters vs Seekers.
As a quick definition, a floater is someone who is just passing the time, getting through the drudgery of work; waiting for 5 o’clock so he/she can….jingle those keys.
For the definition of a seeker, I’ll borrow from Os Guiness; "....true seekers are different. On meeting them you feel their purpose, their energy, their integrity, their idealism, and their desire to close in on an answer. They have become seekers because something has spurred their quest for meaning, and they have to find an answer. True seekers are looking for something. They are people for whom life, or a part of life, has suddenly become a point of wonder, a question, a problem, or a crisis. This happens so intensely that they are stirred to look for an answer beyond their present answers and to clarify their position in life. However the need arises, and whatever it calls for, the sense of need consumes the searchers and launches them on their quest."
Those of you who have read Guiness and the concept from which he writes about seekers could think I’ve taken a deeply intense subject and made light of it. But, I believe my correlation is totally relevant. Seekers are exactly what Alethes needs right now. A Seeker has urgency about his/her work and it seeking to change something; even if it is wrong! Seekers are engaged in robust evaluation and correction.
We, as a team and as an individual, don’t have time to float. The time is now for new AUS files; the time is now for creating WOWs with our clients. Our clients have choices. You have choices. I could write all morning about taking Personal Accountability for how you talk to people, how you answer the phone, how you return phone calls, how you CREATE URGENCY, how you walk around looking for someone that needs assistance, how you FIND a client that needs assistance.
What choices are you going to make today?
I Pray that you to have a Great Sense of Urgency; be a Seeker.
P.R.O.V.I.D.E Leadership,
Danny
This time it was more of a renewed perspective on an existing problem: change (imagine that!)
Standing inside the doorway, surveying the crowd, and wondering if I dared walk in, I was drawn to a book of previously published articles. In this book was a reprint of an article I passed around corporate last year by Harvard Professor John P. Kotter. The article was titled, “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail.” Professor Kotter wrote a book back in 1996 with a similar title. In this article he lists “8 Big Errors” companies make when transforming (fancy name for CHANGE). I was struck hard by 6 of the 8, but in particular Error #1: Not Establishing a Great Enough Sense of Urgency.
Kotter’s “Error #1” has caused further reflection about Floaters vs Seekers.
As a quick definition, a floater is someone who is just passing the time, getting through the drudgery of work; waiting for 5 o’clock so he/she can….jingle those keys.
For the definition of a seeker, I’ll borrow from Os Guiness; "....true seekers are different. On meeting them you feel their purpose, their energy, their integrity, their idealism, and their desire to close in on an answer. They have become seekers because something has spurred their quest for meaning, and they have to find an answer. True seekers are looking for something. They are people for whom life, or a part of life, has suddenly become a point of wonder, a question, a problem, or a crisis. This happens so intensely that they are stirred to look for an answer beyond their present answers and to clarify their position in life. However the need arises, and whatever it calls for, the sense of need consumes the searchers and launches them on their quest."
Those of you who have read Guiness and the concept from which he writes about seekers could think I’ve taken a deeply intense subject and made light of it. But, I believe my correlation is totally relevant. Seekers are exactly what Alethes needs right now. A Seeker has urgency about his/her work and it seeking to change something; even if it is wrong! Seekers are engaged in robust evaluation and correction.
We, as a team and as an individual, don’t have time to float. The time is now for new AUS files; the time is now for creating WOWs with our clients. Our clients have choices. You have choices. I could write all morning about taking Personal Accountability for how you talk to people, how you answer the phone, how you return phone calls, how you CREATE URGENCY, how you walk around looking for someone that needs assistance, how you FIND a client that needs assistance.
What choices are you going to make today?
I Pray that you to have a Great Sense of Urgency; be a Seeker.
P.R.O.V.I.D.E Leadership,
Danny
Thursday, May 1, 2008
You might or might not be aware that today is the fortieth day after Easter; Christ’s resurrection. It was on the fortieth day that Christ ascended into Heaven to set at the right hand of the Father, our Lord God.
This event is recorded in Mark 16:19, Luke 24:50-53, and Acts 1:6-12. A summary of the test goes something like this…
So when they last met together, he led them out to the vicinity of Bethany. They asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He said to them: “it is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
After the Lord Jesus had said this to them, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. He sat at the right had of God.
They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.’
There are many amazing and awesome things about this event, but the two that is the most astonishing to me are;
Christ was flesh and blood, still, when this happened. He ascended into Heaven after walking around in a resurrected human body; He even ate fish when His apostles did not believe He was real and not a ghost or spirit.
He will come back the same way.
What a day that must have been!
This event is recorded in Mark 16:19, Luke 24:50-53, and Acts 1:6-12. A summary of the test goes something like this…
So when they last met together, he led them out to the vicinity of Bethany. They asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He said to them: “it is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
After the Lord Jesus had said this to them, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. He sat at the right had of God.
They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.’
There are many amazing and awesome things about this event, but the two that is the most astonishing to me are;
Christ was flesh and blood, still, when this happened. He ascended into Heaven after walking around in a resurrected human body; He even ate fish when His apostles did not believe He was real and not a ghost or spirit.
He will come back the same way.
What a day that must have been!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Wow. What a whirlwind of a month! As we wrap up this month, our Agenda needs to include: paying attention to details, looking around you and seeing what needs to be improved, and asking “what can I do to make a difference?”
We’ve been through 30 days of new system installation, loss of our primary production lines, changes in investor guidelines, and decreased numbers. We were profitable last month and expect to be slightly profitable this month. One month ago we were drowning in post-funding guideline changes and it was scary. Yet, we kept on keeping on. We put our heads down, took personal accountability and behaved our way out of a literal mess. Let’s recognize that the mess was two fold; ours and the industry changes.
May will bring about a lot of changes; auditors – new processes – more AUS training – new product mixes – new underwriting methods – new pricing models – new strategies – heightened need for people performance. Again, let’s recognize how overwhelming this can be and decide now how to respond.
I’ve very Purposefully picked this time to bring QBQ and Personal Accountability back to the forefront and hope that everyone embraces this tool. We have come a long way and our survival depends upon our ability to behave well. Behavior is 100% your responsibility; not blame, but leading and influencing. It is your personal choice as to how you behave. My door, email, and phone is open for questions, concerns, and discussion; seek clarity.
We'll continue to focus on the 3 processes of People, Strategy, and Operations; an important part of this is how well we perform and how we gauge our performance. We'll talk a bit about this in the 1006 meeting today.
Thank Don and Betsy for the meal today. Every month you bring us lunch on the last day of the month and I appreciate it (even when it’s girl food!) Thanks Don…and thanks Betsy for putting up with us!
Danny
We’ve been through 30 days of new system installation, loss of our primary production lines, changes in investor guidelines, and decreased numbers. We were profitable last month and expect to be slightly profitable this month. One month ago we were drowning in post-funding guideline changes and it was scary. Yet, we kept on keeping on. We put our heads down, took personal accountability and behaved our way out of a literal mess. Let’s recognize that the mess was two fold; ours and the industry changes.
May will bring about a lot of changes; auditors – new processes – more AUS training – new product mixes – new underwriting methods – new pricing models – new strategies – heightened need for people performance. Again, let’s recognize how overwhelming this can be and decide now how to respond.
I’ve very Purposefully picked this time to bring QBQ and Personal Accountability back to the forefront and hope that everyone embraces this tool. We have come a long way and our survival depends upon our ability to behave well. Behavior is 100% your responsibility; not blame, but leading and influencing. It is your personal choice as to how you behave. My door, email, and phone is open for questions, concerns, and discussion; seek clarity.
We'll continue to focus on the 3 processes of People, Strategy, and Operations; an important part of this is how well we perform and how we gauge our performance. We'll talk a bit about this in the 1006 meeting today.
Thank Don and Betsy for the meal today. Every month you bring us lunch on the last day of the month and I appreciate it (even when it’s girl food!) Thanks Don…and thanks Betsy for putting up with us!
Danny
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
As you might know, I read quite a bit, but most of it just goes by the wayside unless I read it again and again. But! Every once in a while I’ll breeze through something (you know, there’s so much to read and so little time)…I’ll have a drifting thought specific to an article, or a piece of an article. This article has been the subject of that drift many times the past 3 weeks.
The following are excerpts from that article on Performance Appraisals.
"Performance evaluations are about as much fun as an annual physical exam for a fifty-year old male. At least the physical exam is useful!Few business activities create more havoc in the workplace than the "how are you doing" sessions most companies require their managers to foist on their workers. Managers hate to complete them, workers hate to receive them, and even the best of them tend to produce friction between the firm and the worker more often than they produce results. Still, this pivotal ritual in employee relations continues unabated, with companies trying out new systems hoping to discover one that works across the board."
"Beneath the surface of the evaluations, another problem erupts. In a culture where many of us define our worth by our jobs, the performance evaluation strikes at the core of our being."
For the complete article, go to http://www.hcbcworklife.com/ and click on Viewpoint on left navbar.
Danny
The following are excerpts from that article on Performance Appraisals.
"Performance evaluations are about as much fun as an annual physical exam for a fifty-year old male. At least the physical exam is useful!Few business activities create more havoc in the workplace than the "how are you doing" sessions most companies require their managers to foist on their workers. Managers hate to complete them, workers hate to receive them, and even the best of them tend to produce friction between the firm and the worker more often than they produce results. Still, this pivotal ritual in employee relations continues unabated, with companies trying out new systems hoping to discover one that works across the board."
"Beneath the surface of the evaluations, another problem erupts. In a culture where many of us define our worth by our jobs, the performance evaluation strikes at the core of our being."
For the complete article, go to http://www.hcbcworklife.com/ and click on Viewpoint on left navbar.
Danny
Monday, April 28, 2008
In case you did not get the announcement I left hanging on Friday’s Focus, we had a couple of days where our Underwriting Received numbers jumped to 25+ loans per day and well over half were “AUS APPROVED” loans. That is good, really really really good. This is a direct result of our increased emphasis on turning these files around faster in underwriting; initial file and conditions. We haven’t arrived, yet, but it is an incredibly good sign of future victories.
My focus for this week will be on…
Past and future Performance Results; we will be pulling a lot of reports and numbers and building new “dashboards.” These dashboards will consist of numbers/dates/data.
My direct reports will be working on lists of numbers/dates/data they pay attention to and what reports they pull to review those numbers/dates/data. We will also want to know what benchmarks the numbers/dates/data is being compared against.
We’ll be discussing this week in how well we are performing in all aspects of our business processes; hiring, originating, processing, underwriting, closing, funding, shipping, investor relations, finance and accounting, profitability, warehouse line management….everything.
Processes; Systems, Strategies, and People. If you have not read the attachment I sent last week on this subject, please do so.
Roy asked me to pass on this information: The Fletcher, Mary Ellen file funded on Monday the 21st and was purchased on Friday the 25th; it was a “First Touch Purchase” The file was conventional and AUS-approved. The LO was Jayne Herrera, Kim Odom processed (YO! - KIM), the underwriter was Mike, Carmen drew the docs, and if I remember right, Isabel funded the file. John "the Man" Harris shipped the file.
Now, I don’t care who you are (as Chas would say), that’s GREAT PERFORMANCE RESULTS. Thanks everyone.
Oh….who shipped that file? And who Processed it?
The daily 2pm AUS meetings are proceeding very well and should be bringing everyone together. It has amazed most of us as to how many ways the AUS findings can be read and interpreted, thus, the reason we will meet about this process everyday for weeks. Please remember that all underwriters and others in the office and field are in this meeting from 2 to 3pm everyday. Beginning today, I will attempt to log these discussions for future benefit.
To that end, Thanks for the hard work,
Danny
My focus for this week will be on…
Past and future Performance Results; we will be pulling a lot of reports and numbers and building new “dashboards.” These dashboards will consist of numbers/dates/data.
My direct reports will be working on lists of numbers/dates/data they pay attention to and what reports they pull to review those numbers/dates/data. We will also want to know what benchmarks the numbers/dates/data is being compared against.
We’ll be discussing this week in how well we are performing in all aspects of our business processes; hiring, originating, processing, underwriting, closing, funding, shipping, investor relations, finance and accounting, profitability, warehouse line management….everything.
Processes; Systems, Strategies, and People. If you have not read the attachment I sent last week on this subject, please do so.
Roy asked me to pass on this information: The Fletcher, Mary Ellen file funded on Monday the 21st and was purchased on Friday the 25th; it was a “First Touch Purchase” The file was conventional and AUS-approved. The LO was Jayne Herrera, Kim Odom processed (YO! - KIM), the underwriter was Mike, Carmen drew the docs, and if I remember right, Isabel funded the file. John "the Man" Harris shipped the file.
Now, I don’t care who you are (as Chas would say), that’s GREAT PERFORMANCE RESULTS. Thanks everyone.
Oh….who shipped that file? And who Processed it?
The daily 2pm AUS meetings are proceeding very well and should be bringing everyone together. It has amazed most of us as to how many ways the AUS findings can be read and interpreted, thus, the reason we will meet about this process everyday for weeks. Please remember that all underwriters and others in the office and field are in this meeting from 2 to 3pm everyday. Beginning today, I will attempt to log these discussions for future benefit.
To that end, Thanks for the hard work,
Danny
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Focusing and reflecting is a tough thing for me some, much, most, of the time. I’m not the type to focus very well. I love that red block; be quick, be prepared, be gone! “Back-in-the-day” when I was still agile and willing to suffer more self-inflicted pain than I am today, I loved barefoot waterskiing….still do, but the pain out-weighs the urge. I’d be scurrying along, no skis, at 47 mph rope and have some of the strangest thoughts. My ability to focus was pathetic and thus, I took some incredibly hard falls. What was possibly the last of such falls was 3, maybe 4 years ago. Cathy saw it (I was wanting to show off for my woman!!! :-). Literally, I thought I’d broken both arms and my face. These falls are so fast you can’t even close your eyes and your eyelids get rolled back to the point you have to reach up and fix them.
Obviously, I should have been paying attention to keeping my toes pointed up, and my knees bent, and my eyes on the top of the windshield…but nope, I was thinking about people watching and I needed to look good. And it was an incredible fall. I understand the sound, when my hands, forearms, and face slapped the water, was like a rifle shot. It was incredible. But then….you can’t waste a crowd! Right??!!
(Ok…deep breath. Whoa! Did I just hear a barefooter on the water?…wow, no wind, there’s dust on the water!!)
(Focus..deep breaths.)
(Ok, I’m fine, for now…concentrate) Today and tomorrow, I need to be sure I’m focusing on what is important and not on looking good. I understand that “looking good” can be the result of the importance, and can even drive us to do the basics well, but style points only represent 20% of the score and without the basics, we don’t get the style, and looking good is way too temporal.
I’m continuing to focus on our Mission and our Values. I’m focusing on how we live those out through people, systems, and strategies. This has been my focus for months, even years, and I am hopefully learning how to live this out better than before. If I appear intense, that’s why. Everything I do is directed towards that purpose.
Ok, new thought. Bryon shared some great news with me yesterday afternoon. I was in the rear kitchen…needing coffee (I quit the Crown a few years ago). And there was no coffee, I was feeling incredibly irritable, Paul was trying to talk to me about something, I was silently praying that I could pay attention, and Mr. Cunningham popped his head in. If you don’t know Bryon very well, he’s a reporter and I can tell when he has something good to talk about. There’s a certain skip and sway. He was looking good! And I forgot about the coffee….
Don’t miss the 1006,
Toes up, knees bent, eyes on top of the windshield…
Danny
Obviously, I should have been paying attention to keeping my toes pointed up, and my knees bent, and my eyes on the top of the windshield…but nope, I was thinking about people watching and I needed to look good. And it was an incredible fall. I understand the sound, when my hands, forearms, and face slapped the water, was like a rifle shot. It was incredible. But then….you can’t waste a crowd! Right??!!
(Ok…deep breath. Whoa! Did I just hear a barefooter on the water?…wow, no wind, there’s dust on the water!!)
(Focus..deep breaths.)
(Ok, I’m fine, for now…concentrate) Today and tomorrow, I need to be sure I’m focusing on what is important and not on looking good. I understand that “looking good” can be the result of the importance, and can even drive us to do the basics well, but style points only represent 20% of the score and without the basics, we don’t get the style, and looking good is way too temporal.
I’m continuing to focus on our Mission and our Values. I’m focusing on how we live those out through people, systems, and strategies. This has been my focus for months, even years, and I am hopefully learning how to live this out better than before. If I appear intense, that’s why. Everything I do is directed towards that purpose.
Ok, new thought. Bryon shared some great news with me yesterday afternoon. I was in the rear kitchen…needing coffee (I quit the Crown a few years ago). And there was no coffee, I was feeling incredibly irritable, Paul was trying to talk to me about something, I was silently praying that I could pay attention, and Mr. Cunningham popped his head in. If you don’t know Bryon very well, he’s a reporter and I can tell when he has something good to talk about. There’s a certain skip and sway. He was looking good! And I forgot about the coffee….
Don’t miss the 1006,
Toes up, knees bent, eyes on top of the windshield…
Danny
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