Do you ever wonder why in a group setting no one wants to be the first to talk? This is probably an overstudied perspective, but you need to be able to create an environment where asking questions is encouraged and rewarded. I have created and moderated communities of thousands of people over the last 10 years and there is one pattern that keeps on repeating. The pattern of just a few question askers and the rest are hoping that someone will ask the question that they really want to know more about.

I have not formally studied human behavior, but I am a student of watching administrators in hundreds of different companies over the last 10 years. More commonly than not, the administrator is waiting for someone to tell them what to do or even worse is when they stop making suggestions because their suggestions are never explored in a constructive way.

The ability to ask questions is the positive reinforcement of learning which is completely critical to longer-term success! You should always want your teams learning, especially in a role where you expect them to keep you on the good side of the learning curve instead of the bad.

Do everything that you can to support your teams to ask questions and to continue learning. The moment that your team, and especially your administrator stops asking questions, that should be an immediate red flag! Every good manager, as well as most parents, knows that when someone is quiet…you need to find out why.

If your administrator is not part of the active communities to give them a platform to ask questions and collaborate with others, get them on one immediately. ICE Mortgage Technology™️ has the User Forum. KensieMae has The Admin Portal, you can find some on LinkedIn, as well as The Mortgage.community. If you have tried that already, and still need some extra direct mentorship or support, you can always reach out to Mortgage Workflow Partners Inc to find out more about the Encompass® admin partner program.

The goal for all of us to keep learning, and you can’t continue to learn without asking questions.

When your admin is afraid to ask a question, you should be very concerned!