“I Hated Working For You. It Changed My Life.”

It’s time for my annual 360° manager performance evaluation. As a general rule, most manager performance evaluations are flawed mostly because they do not really tell us what we want to know—what did our direct reports learn, did they grow, are they better now, and did we change them?

Three years ago, I decided look at my 360° manager performance evaluation from a different perspective…to expose myself professionally (Managing Naked)…to growth opportunity per say.

I still look at the ratings (we all like to be liked) and even more carefully at the comments about what to improve and what went wrong. But from that point, I’m laser focused to look deeply for signs that colleagues and direct reports have changed positively, are considering change, or might change in the future—that is the whole point of Managing Naked.

Really, two weeks ago, I’m having lunch with mortgage loan originator that I worked with seven years ago, suddenly she blurts;

“I hated working for you. It changed my life.”

Naturally intrigued, I felt compelled to ask;

“I’m sorry you hated working for me, can you tell me more? “You were a pain-in-the ass. It was all of that personal getting past my limiting emotional crap, thinking about thinking, am I doing what I saying, and those #$%)!! cognitive wrappers. But I did figure out I need to rethink, and make sure my actions aligned with my career. I realized there is a connection between my past and what I want to do in the future. I realized that I can integrate my passions, and that I really do have something I now want to do. All of that self-reflection made my other facets of life both harder and easier too.”

What luck! We often have to wait 25 plus years for this transformation, and both the colleague and I got the payoff and feedback immediately. This does not happen very often, and maybe it shouldn’t, but this is the change most of us seek. I am also not sure I should take too much credit. It might have just been the right moment in this colleague’s life, and many of the other mortgage loan originators clearly just hated, without the epiphany.
The danger here is that it is way too easy to ignore negative criticism and hope that mortgage loan originators will look back in 20-years and thank you. It is very true that the best life lessons often settle months or even years later, but since we don’t track this is any systematic way, we don’t really know the long-term impact of our caring in most cases.

If you are a successful purchase-money mortgage originator of integrity, and perhaps looking for a final resting place that allows you to focus on what you do best…originate and close more loan. If you are a culture fit, I promise, I will continue being a “pain-in-the-ass” that will positively change your life.

Tony Gallegos
Email: tgallegos@DirectLendersllc.com
Direct: 404-985-9980