The 2021 Leader: Connecting the Dots!

After years of providing direction to leaders and entrepreneurs I have come to gather some keen insight over three decades that are undeniable attributes to success. Still, times have changed, people have evolved, and a new generation has pushed us into a mobile revolution.  What does this all mean for Leaders? Are the things that brought us success still valid? What is old, stale, and ineffective and what is worthy of keeping as fundamental tactics for our businesses? We answer these questions today and they are particularly important questions to answer. 

The Fundamentals:

Communication.

Availability to your consumer or subordinates. Access has always been and will always be fundamental to vital communication. The leader or entrepreneur who is not reliable communication wise is quickly relegated to untrustworthy. Keen communication is not only a trust builder its opposingly a deal killer.  

This past year tested our resolve with our ability to keep up with communications with the fast-paced demand of the volume of business we have experienced this past year.  

Leaders lead and that leadership voice was looked for like lighthouses in a dark storm in 2020.  True to age old disruption of the economy or in this case a global pandemic, leaders showed up to lead their troops through that storm. Their ability to provide a direction, to give reassurance and help people stay focused truly proved to be the beacon of success for those who knew it was not only needed but crucial to the survival of the fittest.

Time Management.

Many professionals relied on time management techniques to create the highways of communication they needed to control. Some mastered and rose to the need without sacrificing precious personal time and others drown in it.  Where you found yourself in this problem and how you solved your way out of it really put you on one of two paths.

The first path to solving the communication highway and escalated speed & need of greater communication brought on by the volume surge of 2020 put professionals either on their heels constantly digging out with longer hours and more of the same, “shoveling harder and shoveling longer”, which was the most common and innate response to a rising tide.   

The second path and more sustainable one was to either employ assistance or re-arrange how you handled the volume of your communication with time blocking and working with focus on the various areas of your business through bundled time frames in each day to hoe the fields of that task. Sales, processing, vital calls, emails, and management of your business typically falling to the bottom of that pile. While difficult, the ability for professionals to scale and manage their time effectively was the real-life saver of 2020.  

The afore mentioned “diggers” died a slow but inevitable death under the weight of a never-ending tide of work and those who did not die, certainly became weathered and exhausted from the relentless blows. As exhilarating as it is that we were the ones blessed with this business and saved when the pandemic had hurt so many others. 

Positive Thinking & Physical Well Being.

Finally, my third tactic I am calling one of the top three most vital aspects of successful leadership as a fundamental is the caring for your professional and personal mental wellness.  

It can not be argued that the greatest responsibility we will ever have is to feed our minds with positive things. To steer from negative people and things. That becomes hard when a lot of negative things are happening.  And make no mistake good things, even great things, often come disguised as exceedingly difficult things like the volume surge of 2020.  So that busyness while a blessing of huge proportions was also a weight and hardship for everyone in the mortgage industry to bear. 

I have seen that tremendously successful people and incredibly solid leaders are typically the same people you find in the gyms, find reading books, find consulting & coaching, surrounding themselves by like minded professionals and running with the wolves.  The wolf pack can offer a lot of strength.  We all have our packs and this past year that would prove to be a life saver for all of us. 

Reading, writing, journaling, hobbies, health & wellness, exercise, rest, and relationship would show up as the true hero’s in our world.  For those people who get this you can trust they will tell you it is the fuel, it is the passion, it is the purpose and the core of how they are able to operate under stress, in stress and around stress without falling victim of it.  

When I built my consulting firm, I knew these things were needed and so for our organization these types of consultants are made available for our professionals and we do not relegate that to “fluff” as so many often do with emotional & physical intelligence.  It is and always will be core. 

Now to the New Guys!

We understand we are now surrounded by a younger generation of entrepreneurs and leaders.  The average age of a professional in our space has been early 50’s for the past decade and that is no longer true.  The surge of new entrepreneurs and professionals from the Millennial generation has finally caught up and with that the industry has evolved.   Now professionals have adapted, young and old, to a more mobile existence which has helped meet the largest buying pool, also the millennials, since 2019.  In addition, they come bearing new tactics and traits for networking, socializing, and serving. 

They are Authentic.

“The new generation of professional is weary of the polished politically correct leader. Show them a person who says everything textbook perfect and you are going to lose both your consumer and employer audience. They no longer want the buttoned-up leader. Yes, they want to rely on a solid leader who has the fundamentals above mentioned as core beliefs, but they are not going to be put in a box and so the companies in this generation need to expect real talk, real honesty (opposed to fake honesty) and real people.

This is not a trend that will pass, it is a changing of the guard in our industry. The politician in this industry is losing their edge and we have seen that cannot be faked. This has proven to be true in the swelling fellowship of those leaders who are showing up with these innate traits. And while these traits cannot be bought or contrived for those who have these traits, it is an extremely powerful attraction to the coming generation. “

The Audience is Fickle & Impatient.

The audience is not only fickle and needs constant attention but also in need of consistent evolution. Unlike past generations who tolerated old tactics and techniques that were seemingly rusty, they will demand the leaders of the future to come bearing current trends and tactics.  

A generation of constantly stimulated minds they wear thin quickly when bored with routine and so leaders must constantly be bringing new people, new leadership, and new tools to entice them. 

Leaders need to have shorter meetings, get in, make your points, get out. They do not want to sit through long boring meetings and they also do not believe a lot of meetings are necessary.  So, while creating variety you must also create speed to messaging.  A world built on short video clips from handheld devices has served to train our youngest leaders that the story does not need to be long to be effective. 

When I built my firm and curriculum I did so with this in mind, and all our classes and curriculum are 10–30-minute segments.  Call it ‘Cliff Note’ education or what you will, it serves to be the most effective.  Longer does not equal more effective with this generation and in fact it likely will equal boredom and invite distraction.

They are on the go & they are uber social.

Finally, even though our mobility is lesser than ever with pandemic, these pros are mobile. They listen to audio from their cars, they read books through audio while showering. Many of our professionals we consult listen to their curriculum while driving or even working out.  They cannot sit still, and they will not sit still. 

They want more, they need more. They love to talk to each other, and they do so through social chat rooms, through social media, through messaging groups and they are effective in their communication.  Facebook groups and Clubhouse and Facebook messenger and LinkedIn Messenger have proven to be vital to their daily existence.  

In truth, the greatest ROI our firm has had in media conversion is organic messenger exchanges driven by organic social media posting with a clear CTA (Call to Action) to “message us”. 

It is obvious that this too is not a phase but a vital part of the existence of professionals and a society and world that is demanding virtual connection.  

Distance has not kept us apart. Travel limitations have not kept us from gathering in the way we know we can.  Face to face meetings are no longer in person and video meetings have replaced the physical face to face with a lot of financial pick up and time efficiency created in its wake.

The last word.

So, who gets the last word on where the successful leaders are or where they are going? I would say from my eyesight it is obvious that the consumer and the younger generation are not even going to ask they are just going, and they are going in a new direction.  They are just being, being themselves. They are just looking for the real and the honest and they demand your time, but only want a little of it at a time.  

Is it possible for us to deliver the fundamentals and evolve?  I think so. My greatest advice for mortgage industry companies and organizations is to not get mired down in the old ways and not build too much brick and mortar around your growth.  Think deeply but deliver lightly.  Act intentional but act quickly.  Show up consistently but show up differently.  

And if all of this confuses you or leaves you lost as to what it is, I am talking about I would tell you to go back to the beginning of this article and read it again or ask a millennial. 

Bring this article into your meetings and discuss it with your teams. Education is a tool. News is a direction.  Words are powerful, when heard and then action taken and executed. 

I have been showing up for a long time authentic. I have taken my fair share of lumps for it. That said, the one thing that has remained steadfast, consistent, and rendering me the greatest return has been being my god honest self and helping others find their truths in life & business.