Bob Mansur, CMB, AMP: Are You Guiding Your LOs to Perform Well?

Bob Mansur, CMB, AMP, is a mortgage industry veteran and the Managing Partner of Credit Employee Performance Solutions. CEPS changes behavior to increase productivity and reduce risk in the mortgage industry so company leaders can sleep peacefully. They do this by analyzing, recommending and implementing the six critical elements of employee performance to overcome current and future challenges and transferring to your leadership the knowledge and skills to perpetuate that success. He can be contacted at bob.mansur@crediteps.com or 317-517-1892.

(This is the third of a four-part series.)

In the initial article of this series, we addressed the value of setting behavioral requirements for LOs who are not reaching their goals to produce their agreed-upon numbers. The second article offered a process for setting standards so underperforming LOs know what’s expected of them. You’re about to read a presentation of how to respond when they strive to meet those behavioral standards.

In the English language, what is the shortest word that contains the letters a, b, c, d, e, and f? Answer: feedback.

In the most recent article of this series, we looked at the value of a standard selling process, particularly for your LOs who have trouble reaching their goals. We recognized that a standard process will not always work. Consistently using one, however, increases their likelihood of success. As author Idowu Koyenikan says, “If you quit on the process, you quit on the result.”

As a reminder, we laid out in the that last piece a standard selling process consisting of four behaviors:

1. Describe the action you want to see or hear.
2. Set the frequency of each action.
3. Explain why you expect this behavior.
4. Identify the benefit to your LO.

So, what’s your role as a leader once you’ve set the process expectation and trained your LO to apply it? You become responsible to observe performance and coach on its results. In addition to training, a key element of coaching is feedback: “a reaction or response to a particular process or activity” (Dictionary.com). As Bill Gates has noted, “We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.” And isn’t improvement what you want for any LO when you’re committing to her/his success this amount of your time?

But before giving feedback based on your observations, you must be certain you’ve clearly explained the standard behavior you require. That’s because good feedback is based on a mutual understanding of your expectations. People can perform successfully only if they know how to “do something right”.

Just like selling, giving feedback is a behavioral process made up of multiple actions.

1. Repeat the established, behavioral standard you expected: “We agreed you would contact every customer as often as they want, but at least twice weekly, using the methods they find acceptable, right?”
2. Tell the LO what you saw and/or heard in her/his performance: “I see from the information in our customer management relationship tool that you have four pending loans, and you’ve called, texted, or emailed each of them two or three times in the last seven days.”
3. Ask the LO how they believe your observation compared to your standard. “How do your actions in contacting those customers compare with what we agreed you would do?”
4. Actively listen to what they say: “Sounds like you think you nailed it.”
5. Respond with agreement or disagreement: “Absolutely! This is impressive! Nice job.”
6. Explain the effect you believe their action (performance) will have. “This level of contact should keep these customers loyal to you to eventually take their loans to closing.”

Now you’re wondering, “Do I really need everything after step two of the process? Can’t I just congratulate her/him and move on?” In this example, yes, but…

Remember that part about, “If you quit on the process, you quit on the result.”? Since you’re expecting the LO to follow a behavioral process because it increases the likelihood of success, should you not do the same? You probably realize the example above represents reinforcing feedback, intended to acknowledge successful performance that meets or exceeds the standard. Yes, in that case, get to your message – presumably a compliment – right after you’ve explained your observation. Reinforcing feedback is intended to drive repetitive actions. You’re saying, “You performed well.” You’re implying, “Do it again.”

So, what do you get by performing the entire process when success is so obvious? There are two benefits: consistency and practice.

Not all feedback is reinforcing; much of it will need to be constructive. It is intended to change the actions you observed. In other words, you saw or heard behaviors resulting in poor performance.

Is it fair to say many (most?) people are conditioned to expect only constructive feedback? For this group, reinforcing feedback is all too rare. Yes, it occasionally happens, like finding a $20 bill on the sidewalk, but certainly not as often as we’d like. As a result, when leaders offer feedback, the targeted individual usually steels themself for criticism. If you’re using a consistent process, she/he will learn the steps in that process. So, when you start offering feedback, she/he prepares to defend themself. How refreshing is it, then, when this consistent process surprisingly pivots to reinforcement rather than criticism?

But your feedback process becomes consistent only through practice. Here’s an example of those  process behaviors applied to a situation ripe for constructive feedback:

1. Repeat the established, behavioral standard you expected: “We agreed you would contact every customer as often as they want, but at least twice weekly, using the methods they find acceptable, right?”
2. Tell the LO what you saw and/or heard in her/his performance: “I see from the information in our CRM that you have four pending loans, and you haven’t contacted two of them in at least a week.”
3. Ask the LO how they believe your observation compared to your standard. “How do your actions in contacting those customers compare with what we agreed you would do?”
4. Actively listen to what they say: “So, you feel you have an acceptable excuse.”
5. Respond with agreement or disagreement: “I think I see where you’re coming from, and I disagree that it’s a valid reason.”
6. Explain the effect you believe their action (performance) will have. “Your failure to meet the standard we agreed on increases the likelihood these customers will bail on you and will use a competitor .”

Your ambition isn’t to reprimand the LO, although they may feel that’s what you’ve done. In actuality, you’ve offered behaviorally specific observations. As Joe Friday says in the TV show Dragnet, “Just the facts.” How an individual reacts to constructive feedback is up to her/him. If you believe the LO doesn’t have a tolerable reason for not acting as agreed, you owe it to them to be honest about their performance. NBA Coach Doc Rivers notes, “Average players want to be left alone. Good players want to be coached. Great players want to be told the truth.”

Whether offering reinforcing or constructive feedback, you can be successful with it only if you’ve established the standard against which you will measure the behaviors that comprise performance. Noted author Ken Blanchard calls feedback, “the breakfast of champions”. By coaching your LOs, including the use of honest feedback, you have the power to help people achieve championship success if they really want to work for it.

And if they don’t want to work for it? Answering that question is the subject of our final article in this series.

(Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect policy of the Mortgage Bankers Association, nor do they connote an MBA endorsement of a specific company, product or service. MBA NewsLink welcomes your submissions. Inquiries can be sent to Mike Sorohan, editor, at msorohan@mba.org; or Michael Tucker, editorial manager, at mtucker@mba.org.)