Busy, but Not Having Fun - Part 2

Leaders need to learn the capacity to not add to their

anxiety but rather to channel it into adaptive responses.

Ira Chaleff, author of Courageous Follower

Continued from Part 1

Over the next week I had two more meetings with Tom's team and observed calls from Susan and her assistants as well as interaction with other clients. During this time we ran assessments to further understand strengths and weaknesses in Tom's team. I also found out that Susan's business, while 50% of Tom's volume today, had been only 30% six months ago. Two previous employees had left Tom because of the climate in the office and had taken a good portion of the business with them.

Tom was making money but he nor his team was having fun. His passion and desire to not only get the job done, but get it done right and treat everyone well in the process was to be commended. As I shared with Tom what I "felt" to be the cause of the problem (my Déjà vu was surreal), I proposed a process that would give him a detailed and objective analysis. The process itself would show his team and clients his commitment to their business; the results would give us a road map as to how to improve his office climate and allow Tom to broaden his client base.

Tom engaged me in 20 additional hours over a three week period. The process I'd proposed included additional interviews and online surveys/evaluations with everyone connected to his office:  clients (including Susan), past borrowers, support people at his home office and title companies. Sometimes people just think things will never change. But hopefully, the fact that Tom recognized this was a real problem and was spending money to correct it would calm down Tom's team and we would not have any more undesired exodus of employees and business.

To be continued......

Busy, but Not Having Fun - Part 1

There is a compelling business case for trust
and you can get good, or better, at it.

Stephen M.R. Covey

Tom was having a hard time keeping his staff calmed down about their top producing client. The staff, a processor and 2 assistants, had about all they could stand of the Realtor, Susan, and her assistants' daily badgering. Yet, Susan's team of Realtors did send them 6 - 8 loans per month (1/2 their business) and had for over 2 years.

The phone call to me seemed to be a last-ditch effort to try anything. After an hour of listening, asking questions and listening some more,  I asked everyone "what causes you to want to keep this relationship?"

The uncomfortable look on everyone's face told me more than the stammering answers. I had to finally ask "does at least one someone get laid off without this business?" Of course the answer was yes, yet it took everyone's effort to be ready for the multiple calls every day and there was no time to go out and develop new accounts.

More questions helped me to understand that Tom and his team sent regular (had even tried daily) updates to the team of Realtors. Still the calls came asking about every minute detail of every file. The Reatlors' assistants had even said "it is my job to call you on every loan every day and verify what is going on."

Quick calls by me to underwriters, title companies and other Realtors using Tom revealed his team's reputation to be excellent. I had little doubt that this was not a lack of talent, attitude, skills or knowledge on the part of Tom and his team but a lack of trust on  Susan's part and the fact that she believed her team's constant follow-up was why they were getting good service.

Over the next 2-3 weeks, I'll periodically tell the story of how Tom and his team turned the situation around, stopped the phone calls, decreased Susan's expenses while increasing his overall business and profits.

To that end.....

Danny