For anyone responsible for the success of their business, taking ownership is key. Ownership means accepting responsibility, taking initiative, and taking charge. For mortgage professionals intent on building their business to the next level, adopting an ownership mindset will undoubtedly help them get there. Here are few things to consider when it comes to taking ownership for your work:
You Don’t Need to Be the Owner
Ownership doesn’t have anything to do with actually owning the business. Whether you are the owner, a branch manager, or even if you’re a brand-new loan officer, your commitment and investment in your work should be the same — absolute. Conversely, a business owner who isn’t present and doesn’t accept responsibility isn’t demonstrating ownership. It’s your attitude that puts you in the driver’s seat, not your title. I’ve written before about how loan officers can start to think like entrepreneurs, here, and I stand behind that fully.
Ownership is Motivational
Taking ownership of your work can be a powerful source of motivation. You’re not clocking in at 9 and clocking out at 5, detached from the results. You’re making it perfectly clear that you’re responsible for every success, and every failure. Ownership gives us a deeper connection to our work, and that often sparks new motivation to succeed. Rather than checking the boxes on a list of tasks that someone else gave you to perform, when you see your work as your own, you have more freedom to approach it in your own way. This increased freedom can inspire us to try new things and look for new ways to improve.
Improve Your Problem Solving
We all encounter problems and challenge — at every stage in our careers — and when you operate with a sense of ownership, it becomes your personal mission to greet these head-on. When you feel a sense of ownership in your work, the days when you shrugged your shoulders and waited for someone else to handle it are gone. Your new attitude will encourage you to keep refining and strengthening your problem-solving skills all throughout your career.
Make More Progress
With an ownership mindset, you may still have an owner or manager setting some of your goals for you, but you’ll also be setting goals for yourself. As I mentioned earlier, ownership puts you in charge of your successes and failures, and it also puts you in charge of your progress. Some mortgage professionals see their careers as a track — they sit back and see what comes next. But the mortgage professionals who take ownership of their work chart their own courses and forge their own paths.
Taking ownership of your work allows you take charge of your future success. It will transform your perspective and help you take your work to the next level.
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