Dave: You are absolutely correct about this focus. It has never made any sense to me that we take a producing loan officer who has a full-time job and then make them a producing manager, which basically adds about three other full-time jobs: recruiting, training and leading. All the while, the need for personal production never seems to go away.

You are also correct in pointing out the fact that you can’t help your loan officers with their problem if you can’t get on top of your time issues. For one, you won’t have the time to help them. Secondly, a leader must act as an example. So, what do you do?

The first hint is to get on top of your personal production. If your production is ruling your life, you will never have the time to manage or set a good example. As a producing manager, you will have to make important choices about priorities. There are none more important than deciding what business to go after and what business to eliminate. Get rid of your inefficient business referral sources and the deals that are taking too much of your time and energy resources.

If you don’t have enough production, then you are going to have to spend too much time running after business instead of managing and, once again, how can you teach your loan officers to produce if you can’t master this? A top producer has less time for coaching, but they are leading by example. In reality, it is hopeful that there is a balance between coaching and personal production. But the real answer in both cases is "synergy." Synergy enables you to accomplish both the goals of production and coaching with less time and energy.

Let’s present an example. You should go back to basics and do some of the things you would like them to do. For example, when was the last time you visited an open house? Instead of suggesting that they visit opens, you do the same and take them along. This will give you time to coach while you further your own origination goals. It will also make them more confident when they visit their first open house.

If you send them out to an open house without this experience, they will have a much less chance of succeeding. It is only by viewing someone knowledgeable in action that they will be able to gain not only confidence, but also the proficiency to handle the different situations they will face when they are out on their own.

I will end with two important tools to consider when you are balancing managing and producing:

• Delegation. You need to delegate what is not of primary importance to achieving your goals. You might delegate to operational staff, subcontract certain tasks or even hire an assistant. The goal is to free up more time for production and coaching. There is potential for synergy here as well. For example, you could use the assistant position to grow your sales force by making this position a stepping-stone to becoming a loan officer.
• Time blocking. Time blocking is an important tool to help with time management. Jeff Blount’s book, Fanatical Prospecting, emphasizes this tool for those who don’t have enough time to prospect. The same can be said for those who don’t have enough time to coach their sales force. Effective time blocking not only gives you more time, but also provides an excellent example for those you lead.

Dave Hershman is Senior VP of Sales of Weichert Financial and the top author in the mortgage industry. Dave has published seven books, as well as hundreds of articles and is the founder of the OriginationPro Marketing System and Mortgage School – the online choice for expert mortgage learning and marketing content. His site is www.OriginationPro.com and he can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..