How Good of An Agency Leader Are You?

Leadership is a big challenge in the independent insurance space. For many agency owners, you may have never worked anywhere but your family’s agency or maybe you have really only been led by a parent. The journey to go from agent to CEO can often be uncharted waters for many agencies.

In most agencies, we work with owners who have a passion for either the operations or the sales side of the business. In order to survive and thrive, you need to have a plan of attack for both sides. True growth comes when you’re operating efficiently and effectively on both service and sales, and it’s when and if you can add in a real marketing strategy that you will see record growth.

So if leadership and really running an agency and maximizing your people is a struggle, we understand. We work with agencies across the country that need help driving a leadership model in an agency that really works. One of our long-term clients, Chris Paradiso of Paradiso Insurance puts it best, “Your agency’s biggest expense will always be the people–if you can’t figure out how to maximize, encourage and motivate them you are not optimizing your agency’s biggest asset.”

Agency Performance Partners has created a few items your agency should be focused on in order to lead your teamto success.

Having an accurate organizational chart: You may not think it but where people go and who they report to is a big deal. As the agency owner, you may often feel burned out because everyone is going to you. You need to set up a clear infrastructure that allows people to know clearly to whom they report and why.

Creating team leaders: We have never been a fan of the word “manager.” It sounds unmotivating, authoritative and, well, not fun. Great agencies have team leaders who are helping coach the team on the field and calling plays as they see necessary, kind of like a quarterback!

Updated job descriptions: These are an unused tool in the insurance space. Maybe there is an old job description you dust off for a new hire. Instead, you should commit to updating job descriptions each and every year and your team should review them with their team leader quarterly.

Mission Statement: Question, do you even know your mission statement? If not, how can the rest of the team live it? Your mission statement needs to be front and center and talked about.

Team meetings: You need to have routine team and agency-wide meetings. Yes, meetings are good. Department meetings can happen more routinely but you need to pull all the troops together monthly to get their feedback and provide good clear communication.

90-day check-in meetings: If your team is your largest expense, meeting with them every 90 days is critical. You will find so many details that as the owner you may not be privy to. Maybe it’s technology that is not working or processes that need help. Spend the time–it will pay you back!

Set goals and have an incentive for them: Goals help people work together. Don’t be surprised if the first time people aren’t psyched about the goals. Make the rewards fun and exciting. The bottom line is to give your goals 90 days of your attention–don’t say it and then run for the hills!

Track your goals: Goals need to be tracked and shared and shown. In order to set great goals, you need to first establish a baseline metric. ”Where are we now? Now we need to update them daily, weekly and monthly.”

Believe in forever recruiting: Yes, you need to be forever recruiting. If you have a bad apple or someone leaves, two weeks is not enough time. Plus you should be recruiting because you should be growing. Get job postings up to forever recruit!

Address internal conflicts: Don’t bury your head in the sand on internal conflicts. When you see a conflict brewing, address it right away between the team members. It will fester if you don’t.

Select one area at a time on which to focus: That’s right, don’t overwhelm the team. Pick one thing at a time and focus and finish!

Launch new items with parties, not meetings: Who wants to go to a meeting to learn about change or more work? No one. Instead, hold launch parties that make it exciting and fun!

Provide compliments: Yes, your team loves compliments. Challenge yourself to provide one per day and watch how your team blossoms in two weeks.

Track your progress publically: You should clearly track your progress in a big way. Make it public where your entire team can see things. Be repetitive–keep the focus on the goals.

This may seem like a lot of steps, but it pays off. Remember, as the CEO your job is to lead the troops! If you need help, you can download our Leadership Checklist (agencyperformancepartners.com/leadership-checklist) to help you on your way!