Teamwork and THE Box

Learning to work in the Box is not easy. All of us want something we don't have and have to be reminded to be content.

Content. Contentment. Not something we normally think of in a positive way. But, working in the box, succeeding in the box, is about being content that that you have to do with what you have. And succeeding with it.

Let's take the team I have to work with right now. I'm content with this team and it is maybe best team I've ever had. Everyone is focusing on their job duties, accepting responsibily, and striving to do their best with what we have.

Our industry is in a state of turmoil. At best, it is deep in paranioa and it should be with the results of the past few years. Defaults are at all time high and losses continue to mount.

I salute people like Carrie Hartwell, Kelley McCutcheon, Kandy Dinkins, Natalie Gaston, and Austen Smith that continue to come to work everyday and plug away at what is thrown at them.

Own Your Own Role as Followers

"It's wonderful that Henry Ford built Ford Motor Co., but so did the other 3 million people working with Henry Ford. So, yes, we all greatly need to own our own role as followers."

Ira Chaleff @ http://www.exe-coach.com/follow.htm

Deception

I read Ludlum's "The Bourne Deception" today and was struck by the author's (Van Lustbader) story line. Maybe not the story line itself as much as his sub-line; the real deception.

From Pages 128 and 129: "Human beings, it became clear to him, thrived on lies; they needed them in order to survive, be happy, even. Because the truth is often unpleasant, and people didn't care about that. Furthermore, it didn't suit many of them. They'd much rather lie to themselves, have those around them to lie to them to perserve the illusion of beauty. Realty wasn't pretty, that wasn'tthe truth."

Ponder that a bit.

There is more of this throughout this sometimes hard to follow read. Hard to follow because of the multiple plots that come together in the end. Sort of.

Though my intent was to just escape into a good novel this weekend, I really wanted it to be one that I couldn't remember when asked what I did this weekend. For sure something I wasn't looking for a pen to underline. Instead, I've been pondering how Van Lustbader's connectivity with deception, truth, and lies fits so well into my inside the box theory.

Think about it! Thriving on lies, thinking you/we have to lie to be happy or even survive is because we/they/you have to live outside the box we're all in. You/we don't want what we have, or rather, we want it, but more. You want something better

It goes all the way back to Genesis 3.

To that end.

What is difficult about Teamwork?

LinkedIn Discussion: Linked 2 Leadership: "What is difficult about Teamwork?"

Too much hope and not enough smart trust; people that aren't willing, or unable to have good conflict; leadership is unable to get real commitment; team members aren't willing to hold others accountable, nor be held accountable; desired results aren't continuously being cast and re-cast.

But, if I had to put it in 10 words or less, 'uncommon agendas that lead to bad behavior and poor results.'"

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.