Who are you Leading?
The malfunction of leadership in organizations, teams and communities begins with the failing of someone to actually recognize that they are in a position to lead; that they are, in fact, the leader.
Often, it’s because people don’t know how to lead. It’s hard to see yourself in a role you don’t know how to do (this explains why I don’t lead on the dance floor.) Makes sense. Easy enough.
But the greater tragedy is actually the opposite: a person that has the skills to lead but doesn’t see an audience.
“I could lead, if only there was someone to lead”.
They don’t abdicate out of a shortage of confidence, laziness or a lack of accountability. They abdicate because they don’t see it as abdicating. Does the band play the next song if there’s no one in the theatre to hear it? Probably not. Are they any less a musician for not doing so? No, of course not.
At Shamrock Home Loans, our corporate vision is to Build the Next Generation of Mortgage Leaders. Well, you can’t do THAT if you have a bunch of people running around not seeing an audience to lead! So how do we fix that?
We start with the question: WHO do you lead?
And what we find is the real list is LARGER than people first identify. They lead more people than they realize. Knowing this is the start to fixing this!
In mortgage lending, for example, a Loan Officer leads a number of different people. But do they see it that way? They lead the borrower, the realtor (referral partner), the LOA and the processor. They also lead venders, people they exchange resources with – from title attorneys to appraisers to networking and affinity groups. (Funny how the lifeline of an LO’s business is a LEAD!)
If you’re a mortgage originator, your day is under center, leading a team poised at the line of scrimmage. Do you know this? Do you accept or do you abdicate?
Business is a dynamic enterprise. It has economies of scale, moving parts, vertical and horizontal exchanges. And it has PEOPLE. People need to be led. They need to be led WELL.
So do you know your audience? Would you see them when you’re standing on stage? Would they know you were there for THEM? Do they know you’re the leader?
