Sonu Mittal, Freddie Mac’s senior vice president and head of the Single-Family acquisitions division, believes in servant leadership. Sonu’s responsibilities are wide ranging and include sales, credit, quality control, loan and digital product development, modeling and meeting our affordable mission goals. To accomplish all this and more, Sonu is constantly focused on ensuring that his employees have the tools, support and direction they need to help the organization succeed.
For Sonu, delivering value to others is of greater importance than getting the credit. He echoes a quote from Indira Gandhi, the former Prime Minister of India: “There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there.”
At 17, Sonu moved to the United States, and soon after, he began his life-long career in financial services at large organizations. He has served in roles ranging from sales to mortgage production and digital transformation, among others. For the past 15 years, Sonu has managed large teams, and it was during this time that his leadership principles came into full focus. Some of his principles are borrowed, others are crafted based on his experiences, but the evolving 10-item list serves as a quick and easy way for his colleagues to understand what is important to him and his expectation for collaboration and teamwork.
“When people ask me how I like to operate or the culture I hope to create, they are really asking about my work style and what is important to me,” Sonu said. “Putting together these principles helps people understand the fabric of who I am as a leader.”
Here are Sonu’s 10 principles and the rationale behind each.
No. 1: Leaders build leaders: “Someone helped me get in the elevator and up the level where I am today. I believe developing the next set of leaders is an important part of our job — no matter your team or role. You don't need to be a people manager to be a leader.”
No. 2: Run toward a challenge, not away — and always lean forward: “It’s a human tendency to say ‘no,’ particularly when confronting a challenge. I believe we should make decisions from a place of belief in individual power to positively affect the future.”
No. 3: Great communicators win the day: “There was a time in my career where I was good at delivering positive results, but not as good at acknowledging the great team that helped make those results happen. Upon self-reflection, I realized that I was not telling the full story of our wins well enough. We all deserve recognition for our good work and that only comes with good communication.”
No. 4: Be tough on problems, not on people: “In business, we should focus on the problem we are trying to solve, not admonishing the people with whom we are working. In doing so, we can both firmly tackle the problem and create a safe environment in which to work. You may not have the same relationship or communications style as everyone else in the room, but by focusing on the problem first you can drive better outcomes.”
No. 5: People need to bring all news forward — not just the good news: “I try to be inclusive and optimistic as a leader, and that means highlighting wins. But that ultimately led my teams to only bring the good news forward. So, I had to make it clear that just because I want us to focus on how we’re delivering results does not mean we should not also openly discuss areas of opportunity.”
No. 6: Treat people with respect: “Our coworkers can become our extended family, and it’s important we treat them all with respect — and not just based on where a person falls in the company hierarchy. I tell my team, all of you are in your roles for a reason and I respect you and your expertise. Everyone else should do the same.”
No. 7: Build for sustainability of process and results: “As a leader, my focus is to ensure we are not chasing ideas that are not sustainable or do not deliver the right value. We need to be aware that ideation leads to execution and the execution must be sustained.”
No. 8: Own the details, but don’t live in the details: “Because of the role we play in the industry, Freddie Mac performs a great amount of diligence to fully understand the ramifications of our actions. But we also should keep in mind that we operate in an industry that is cyclical and dynamic. If we spend too much time on the details, we may miss our opportunity. Likewise, often in meetings people come prepared to share everything they know about a topic. In doing so, they can miss identifying the salient takeaways or actionable insights.”
No. 9: Celebrate successes, even small ones: “Our day-to-day can be intense and fast-paced. And although our work — and our impact — is critically important, we cannot forget to recognize performance and celebrate successes before we turn our attention to what comes next.”
No. 10: Don’t forget to have fun: “Many of our jobs are so structured that sometimes we feel like we need to schedule time to have fun. I believe in inserting fun into our daily work as well. Without adding fun, any job can lose its excitement over time.”
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