It may sound ironic but I really feel that many people will do almost anything they can to avoid work. As mortgage professionals we are in an interesting position to live this almost every day of our lives. We have clients, referral partners, support personnel, and many others around us who spend more time and energy trying to avoid working than they would have consumed actually just doing the job correct and completely from the very start.

For those who can't seem to finish anything, I call these people the €90%'ers€. People who when they get around to starting a task, get it about 90% complete and then for some reason they just stop and hope that somehow it gets done without any further effort on their part. Why not just complete it? Why not be sure it is done correctly? Why have to deal with having to go back and €fix€ something you likely knew was incorrect in the first place?

Compliance issues and regulations are not going away. Loan applications are not going to get approved that are incomplete or are clearly not qualified. Yet every day I see originators submit files into their processing or underwriting teams that they KNOW are NOT complete and certainly not approvable. Why? What is there to gain? Do we really need practice putting together our transactions? Do we not know the requirements for a proper loan submission? Do we think that someone else will step up and clean our mess? Has it come to that? Are we that lazy or are we just so sure that somehow we can get away with substandard efforts and get full compensation? As a professional, your minimum standard of work should be excellent.

I was working with a sales manager who was having issues with a particular originator. Nancy was under producing and had a long list of reasons why she wasn't generating opportunities and getting deals closed. Excuse after excuse as to why there was no new business. When challenged, she complained about lack of appointments with referral partners and the lack of houses for sale in her market. When asked further about the lack of appointments, she said she was scheduling appointments but people were canceling. When asked what she did to prospect during the time she had set aside for those appointments, Sally had no answer. The only thing Nancy did with her time when the €appointments€ canceled was to complain about the lost meeting, she did nothing to generate a new opportunity.

This is the point. What is your plan? What are your €Plan B€ and even €Plan C€ when the original prospecting activity gets scuttled? Other than to complain to all around her that is? If you have no contingency plan in place when things go away from you other than to go negative, you aren't a true professional; you are just like Negative Nancy!

Work is work. There is a right way to do your job perfectly and everything else is not the way a professional does things. Work is work! You need to know what perfect is and master the work so it is done perfectly each and every time, not just some of the time. You also need to know what to do when your plan is interrupted by other people or their failure to complete their work with or for you. Work is work. It takes work to do it right. It takes more work to do it WRONG!

Our profession requires that loan originators work to originate and submit files that are ready to be processed, underwritten, closed, and funded. That is what you get paid to make happen. This requires a plan. This requires knowing what is perfect. This requires having alternate plans to prospect when the original plan breaks down. This requires being 100% committed to an exceptional outcome for everything you do. Why? Because being exceptional is easier in the long run than being anything else.

Work is work! Don't be a €Negative Nancy€. Be the expert and authority that others look up too. Be the professional that does it right each and every time. Know and do the work; the rewards are worth it!

Questions or comments: mike@IMTcoaching.com or visit us online http://improvemytomorrowcoaching.com