The art of leadership

Leading isn’t easy, so do it right

By Kimberly Greene

29 May 2018

If you manage a team of any kind, you know that being a successful leader requires more than simply being good at what you do.

Travis Newton is a co-branch manager with Academy Mortgage in Salem, Oregon. He says that he and his co-branch manager, Mike Wilbur, take a “lead from the front” approach that is more than just leading by example. The pair, who have been business partners for the better part of a decade, take great effort to keep themselves on the same level as the rest of their team members.

“We’re on the front lines with the loan officers to battle rates, battle loan programs every day. And we just want to empower our loan officers to be able to be the best they can, of course,” Newton said. “We try to be there in the thick of it, in the middle of the war zone with them so we’re not just up here, at our desks yelling at them to do stuff, we’re right in the thick of it with them. So that has really helped our growth and helped our retention as well, because people want to work for us.”

One misconception that people have when they become a leader is that they need to be “above” their team, where the orders and instructions flow from the top down and everyone else needs to fall in line. The best leaders, however, know that there is great value in sharing the load through delegating as well as being approachable. Not only will your team be more likely to come to you in the event that something goes wrong – and can therefore be remedied sooner rather than later – but they are also more likely to feel that they can learn from you and willing to take your suggestions on board.

“The best teachers that I had never put themselves on a pedestal where they were teaching top down. They were teaching to me, on a parallel plane,” said Chad Jampedro, president of GSF Mortgage Corporation.

Having a repeatable process is a great tool to have when leading a team of originators because it enables you to scale with consistent results as well as being able to communicate that system to new originators. That being said, you also want to allow space for each individual originator to bring their own strengths to the table. Ultimately, there are many different ways so meet, connect with clients and partners, and you want to provide support to the weak spot of each originator. After all, you can’t expect to be a successful team leader and/or branch manager without providing team members any kind of coaching, training, or support. That includes anything from informal tips and meetings to in-house sales and marketing support to educational sessions on regulations. It comes down to being able to provide what your team needs as individuals as well as providing the resources that enable them to grow their brand and their businesses in their own right.

Originators aren’t the only ones who benefit from good leadership. Support staff benefit just much as originators when it comes to promoting a positive, enjoyable office culture and interpersonal connections with those in leadership positions. Good leaders set the tone when it comes to fostering that attitude.

“Everything we do, we try to make it enjoyable,” Newton said. “It’s not about the numbers alone that they bring in or what they do for us, it’s really about just getting to know them as a person and we try to have our one on one meetings with them to talk more about the family and what they have going on at home, what they’re doing this weekend, what’s they’re doing after work, as opposed to, ‘hey did you get that loan done?’ or ‘did you get this item done or that done?’”

It may seem trivial, but good treatment is the gift that keeps on giving, and that care and benevolent attitude is reflected in your team’s treatment of any clients with whom they come into contact.

“If you treat your employees extremely well, they’re going to do the exact same for your clients. You can’t just preach customer service, customer service, customer service all the time, because everybody does that. We want to give them a phenomenal experience as an employee where they love coming to work and they in turn treat our clients that way,” Newton said. “I think that’s really great to see that, it creates more of a family atmosphere where people love coming to work.”