Six rules for (self)leadership from Jack Welch worth pondering.
Ask yourself how each might apply to your own life and business.
1. Control your destiny, or someone else will.
2. Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it were.
3. Be candid with everyone.
4. Don’t manage, lead.
5. Change before you have to.
6. If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete.
These all resonate with me and my own client interactions on a daily basis.
I match each with a Mortgage Brokers world as follows:
1. Set client expectations, don’t have a client setting yours.
This applies to schedules, flow of documents, the rate conversation, etc.
2. New policies, new procedures, new rates, a new day —embrace it.
There is no stability in the world of Mortgage Finance, the goal posts are always moving.
3. Don’t waste time talking to clients about what could have been done, focus on what can be done.
If is not longer workable with an A lender, then move on to a B lender, if not a B then perhaps private. Always be candid about the reality of a situation as it applies to the current market.
4. Set the pace for meetings, have an agenda for every client call, have your math done in advance on payments, fees, etc.
When change happens ask questions, do the math, run scenarios past suppliers. Learn how new rules will change a file before you submit the file for review.
5. Look down the road at what is, and what may be, coming our way and adapt in advance.
While everyone else is learning how to describe the new Form 10 here in BC – you have already been practising your scripts for weeks, months, perhaps even a full year.
6. Rate is the easy part.
Are you aware for instance of how little incentive bank staff have to work P+I files? (in fact many will be unaware of what P+I stands for in this context) Do you know the differences between the P+I programs offered by each of your suppliers? The time limit on the release of funds, the mechanics of the release of funds, the range of ‘maximum’ funds available from one lender to another, etc. Know your products, especially the ones that take extra effort to learn.
Many mortgage agents want to press the easy button — instead find the ‘difficult’ button because this is where the advantage is found.
Thank you