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NS3 keynote touts importance of culture, value

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Conference Coverage
Thursday, July 25, 2019

Teaching is not the same as education and slowing down could be the key to efficiency, according to Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Chairman Chris George, the founder, president and CEO of CMG Financial, Inc.

Delivering the opening keynote address to attendees of the 2019 National Settlement Services Summit (NS3) at the Arizona Biltmore Resort in Phoenix, George stressed the importance of creating a company culture that promotes education in all forms, creating and sustaining value and avoiding wasting time, in part, by realizing that faster is not always better.

George sought to remind attendees of several concepts that he believes most professionals know would benefit their customers and internal relationships but do not necessarily implement in their day-to-day interactions. 

Creating a culture of value

In terms of driving and delivering true value to customers, George said companies should strive to elicit the following type of reaction from their customers: “Oh my goodness, that was the best experience I’ve ever had.”

To that end, rather than a mission statement that may fail to resonate meaningfully with employees, companies should have a mantra that every employee internalizes and uses as a guide in how they do their jobs and interact with customers. At CMG, that mantra is “Every customer, every time, no exceptions, no excuses.”

He encouraged the business leaders in the crowd to feel free to steal CMG’s mantra or come up with something very similar if they haven’t already, stressing that what is most important is what a company’s mantra means to its employees. Just as “with liberty and justice for all” means something not necessarily identical, but remarkably similar to most people in America, a company’s mantra should summarize the guiding principle that keeps its employees focused on a shared values.

“That’s how you educate your people,” he said. “You find something you can rally them around and you print it everywhere and you constantly say it.”

He also noted that it is just as important to reflect the values summarized in a company’s rallying cry when challenges arise as it is when in the midst of success. He encouraged all attendees to ask themselves serious questions about how they define their companies. 

“It’s easy to be good when it’s good – everybody’s good when it’s good – but how are you when it’s not so good?” George asked the crowd. “Who are you when the building’s burning? Are you running out of the building or are you one of those very special people that are running into the building when the fire occurs?”

He asserted that it is well within the power of a company’s rank-and-file employees to determine its culture, character and personality – it’s not solely up to the CEO.

“At a point where your company becomes, frankly, more than a half a dozen or so people, you’ve become too large to control culture any longer,” George said. “The culture [then] is in the hands of the people within your organization.”

Multitasking is overrated

In trying to speed up efficiency in their processes to compete in the technology-driven business world, George contended that some companies are trying to move too fast and would benefit from taking a more methodical approach when able.

“This whole multitasking thing is really overrated,” he said. “Just slow down … Just slow down …”

Rather than constantly trying to work toward multiple large-scale goals at once, George recommended a simpler approach summed up by an equally simple acronym – D.O.T. or “Do One Thing.” The premise for his D.O.T. philosophy is that anyone can take effective strides toward achieving their goals by resolving to simply taking one action in a given day. As an example, he said that a person wanting to lose weight could commit to doing one pushup a day, or to eat more vegetables, or to eat half a sandwich at lunch rather than a full one.

“There’s an old saying that says that slow is smooth and smooth is fast,” George said. “The best example I can give you is try to quickly button up your shirt in the morning. You can’t do that. Just slow down. You’ll button your shirt up faster if you just slow down and be deliberate in buttoning up your shirt.”

George stressed that by being patient enough to slow down and ensuring that one’s employee or boss truly comprehends has been said to them, even if it means testing them by asking them to explain it back, it is easier to keep things running smoothly.

He noted that “some people learn differently,” offering as an example his own experience of flunking out of high school after struggling to learn the way he was being taught – particularly in math. After being introduced to a different method of doing math in his 20s, George said he believes his math skills now could rival those of just about anyone.

“Sometimes people don’t get it the way you’re thinking they’re going to get it so you’ve got to teach in alternative ways,” he said.

Educate and test employees, don’t just teach

George contended that there is a difference between teaching and education, asserting that instilling education among employees is more valuable than simply teaching them.

“Teaching is an outbound process where you’re being talked at and education is something that you develop internally that you remember all the time,” he explained.

George said it is important to consider how often business leaders consider what they have in their employees and take time to educate and test them. As a result, the prospect of being tested is frightening to many employees who may wonder what happens if they fail the test.

“It’s okay! It’s actually okay,” George said. “You really think that world-class athletes never go back and talk to coaches and say ‘Hey, what am I doing wrong?’ ”

The process of testing employees and offering them constructive feedback does not have to be a chore or even be a scary process, George contended – quite the opposite.

“It doesn’t have to be harsh and it can actually be pretty fun,” he said. “You can game-ify the testing – which we do a lot of [at CMG]. But in order to maintain value and in order to make sure that you’re not upstaged by the technology that’s coming into this industry, you’ve got to make sure that your people understand what the goal is and, No. 2, you’ve got to make sure that you know what their weak spots are – even your own weak spots.”

Alleviating consumer anxiety

When asked about how mortgage companies can use technology tools to help alleviate anxiety among borrowers, George said he believes that mortgage advisors and counselors are as important to that task as is technology.

“I think we purposefully, over the years, have infused anxiety and angst into the process,” George said.

Given all of the information consumers are asked to provide during the mortgage process – income, debt, credit score, marital status, etc. – it is as if lenders are compiling “life’s ultimate report card” for their applicants so they then can determine whether they qualify for a loan, George said.

By allowing consumers to determine what type of loan they may qualify for on their own, technology is helping alleviating some of the “hand-wringing” that goes along with that process, he explained.

He also noted, however, what numerous studies and surveys have concluded – borrowers, from baby boomers to millennials, want to speak with real-life people during the homebuying or refinance process. Specifically, George said they want two people: an advisor to help them understand their options and what is best for them, and a counselor who lays out all of the scenarios that a borrower should be aware of during the process and even after the closing.

“More and more housing counseling agencies are trying to extend their counseling past the close of escrow, when people really need counseling,” he said. “So the point is [technology] is taking out some of the anxiety. You all are the other reason. Most people want to understand what they’re getting into the middle of before they get in the middle of it.”

Just as he recommended that employers and employees repeat back to each other messages they are trying to communicate to ensure they are both on the same page, George recommended that mortgage professionals repeat messages they exchange with borrowers to ensure that they understand what they are getting when they close on a loan.

“Repetition is important,” he said. “There’s something you should remember and it’s that consistency compounds. The more you do things the same, the more you can see those things grow over time. So the more consistent you are over time, you’ll see that benefiting you.”

Watch out for fraud

When asked about cyberfraud facing the industry, George said that wire fraud, though not as prevalent as it was three years ago, remains a major concern. He attributed the reduction in instances of potential homebuyers being tricked into wiring money to fraudsters to increased awareness and better practices among lenders and settlement agents who are passing that awareness on to consumers.

The type of fraud George noted is on the rise – and therefore a growing threat to the industry – is ransomware, which entails a cybercriminal hacking into a company’s computer system and stealing or locking down files, essentially holding them ransom until the company pays a predetermined amount of money for them to be returned or released.

“These individuals are attacking our industry,” George said. “You’ve got to figure out if you’re protected.”

He cited one recent case in which a company owner initially dismissed a text message from a fraudster, alerting him that his computer system had been hacked and he needed to pay to have it unlocked, ended up paying more than $1 million to have it unlocked. He noted that, prior to paying the ransom, the business owner paid about 40 experts to try to unlock the system who, after three days of work, were unsuccessful in doing so.

Given the drastic implications of not being able to fund transactions for multiple days as a result of such an attack, George implored attendees to educate themselves and their employees about ransomware and to ask themselves if they are protected.

MISMO news update

Speaking to MBA’s work developing uniform lending instructions with its MISMO initiative, George noted that the association recently invested $2 million into expediting the MISMO process on the technology side.

Regarding the progress in creating new forms to be used in the MISMO process, George said MBA, for nearly three years, has been working to address questions about sections concerning “predominant language” – particularly with regard to its utility when dealing with Spanish-speaking borrowers. That entails ensuring that borrowers can complete all forms involved in the mortgage process, end-to-end, in their native language.

Today's other top stories
Senate parliamentarian rules on budget bill’s CFPB, AI provisions
CFPB’s enforcement practices, CIDs scrutinized during hearing
HUD announces plans to relocate to NSF headquarters
MBA says uptick in mortgage application payments means decline in affordability
FHA publishes RFI on Buy Now, Pay Later loans


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