Pursuing Even More Excellence
I was recently talking with dad about education and career development, and he told me about an opportunity he was given early in his career. The opportunity was definitely interesting, but his response is what really struck me as so notable.
He was taking summer classes at a small state university a few years after graduating. One of his classes was taught by a visiting professor from UCLA who quickly recognized that my dad was an exceptional thinker and could quickly analyze and create strategy. The professor thought he should pursue this gift and study for his doctorate. The professor offered him a teaching assistant position to help cover some of the high costs he would have to incur – namely moving to LA with my mom and brother (I was yet to be born).
Well, he didn’t go.
When I heard this, I was absolutely shocked. He was never someone to shy away from an intellectual challenge, and this was one of the greatest. So why didn’t he accept this one? Then it hit me:
He didn’t have anyone in his inner circle that had more faith in his abilities to transcend his current circumstances than he had in himself.
He didn’t have someone who could see beyond the required sacrifice to recognize the investment that this would be. He and my mom both grew up with modest means. Education and hard work were valued, but they weren’t risk takers. They were encouraged to get good jobs and hopefully raise their standard of living, but a steady job was definitely the goal.
I looked at him with this realization and said, “You didn’t have anyone to push you to do it. I would have pushed you. I would have made sure you did it.” He smiled, nodded and said, “Yes, I have no doubt you would have.”
I really would have because that’s what I do when I see talent. And that’s what we do every day here at BGN. We see the talent, we see the opportunity. We have an objective perspective and many comparatives. We know what success looks like, and we really can see the potential for achievement in individuals and in agencies.
We push people to step up to the challenge and set higher goals, not just for revenue, but also for skills and knowledge. We want to see them blow away their own expectations for themselves. And we want them to take that same level of expectation to their own clients.
Because we see beyond current circumstances for other people, we make it our job to help those people surpass their own modest expectations.
My challenge to you is to review your inner circle, and see who you’ve got on your personal team that believes even more in your capabilities more than you do. And encourages and pushes you to achieve more. If you’ve got someone, then listen very carefully to his or her advice. And ask a lot of questions.
If you don’t currently have someone, then I highly recommend you do some searching and open yourself to the possibility. Growth comes by challenging the status quo, and sometimes it can be hard to do that all on your own.
Having someone else believe in you and encourage you to do something even bigger than you imagined is positively exhilarating and can be life changing. And hopefully then you can pass that gift on to someone else.
Now, in the end, I should be glad my dad didn’t go because I probably wouldn’t be here otherwise!
Photo by C.P. Storm.
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Be Committed or Go Home
Changes - they're generally things we’re either excited about and committed to accomplishing, or they’re things we feel we should do and only put forth a modicum of effort to attempt the changes.
One way will likely include planning and commitment to the end goal, a lot of hard work, reality checks along the way, plan adjustments, and hopefully an end result that is somewhat in line with the original vision.
The other will likely include a half-hearted attempt to describe “an ideal scenario”. This will be more wishful thinking than an actual goal. The effort will lack commitment and will eventually be abandoned in favor of the status quo because it’s just easier, and the other is a potentially painful path of hard work and consequences you may not want to encounter.
By not setting a firm end goal and going all-in with your commitment, what happens is you just see flickerings of the new way, but not enough to sustain it and turn it into a fully burning flame.
For example, if you’re trying to change a child’s behavior and get them to stop whining, you might draw the line in the sand and say, “No more whining. Find a different way to communicate your feelings.” Of course this might work once or twice, but the child will continue to whine because it’s ingrained. If you find this process exhausting to constantly remind him of the new expectation and you give in during a moment (or a few) of weakness, you’ve not only not established a new behavior pattern, but you’ve actually reinforced that whining is, in fact, the best way to get what he wants.
It’s the same at work with a new process. If you give in to the demands of complaints that the new way is “hard” and make an exception, again, you’ve reinforced that the new way isn’t really expected; it’s just a suggestion, and apparently not one that you’re really committed to making happen. Plus, you’ve just let everyone know that you don’t follow through on what you say you’re going to do, and you’ve taught them to not follow your directions because “this, too, shall pass.”
So, without a firm commitment to that end goal and steely nerves to sustain all of the attacks you’re sure to receive along the way, you shouldn’t even get started. You’re better off maintaining the status quo until you’re really, really ready to stand up and fight for what you believe is the best course of action for everyone.
Photo by Christine Szeto.
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Yep, The Horse Is Still Dead
For regular readers of our blog, this list may be familiar. Unfortunately, the strategies listed are all too familiar and, given the time of the year, we thought it a good time to share once again.
Here we sit in January with all the promise of a new year ahead of us, convincing ourselves that this is the year that we will make “X” happen. Don’t get me wrong, I love that kind of optimism, but I also want you to take an honest assessment of whether or not you have built a plan that will make “X” happen. In terms of your plan, there are a couple of ideas I would like you to keep in mind.
First, while you certainly need to clearly know what your end goal is, your daily focus should only be on the next step towards that destination. While the distance to that goal may seem paralyzing, find confidence in knowing that you can always take the next step.
Second, don’t give up too soon. All too often we give up when our efforts don’t produce immediate results. Instead of making necessary adjustments to our plan, we jump off one horse (often too soon) and on to another, and then another, and then another, and…well, you get the idea.
However, there are times when your horse is dead. As hard as it may be to admit it, it’s time to get off the horse and move on.
The following “dead horse” strategies (original author listed as unknown), no matter how perfectly executed, will not produce desired results.
- Buying a stronger whip
- Changing riders
- Threatening the horse with termination
- Appointing a committee to study the horse
- Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses
- Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse
- Harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed
- Donating the dead horse to a recognized charity, and deducting the full original cost
- Doing a time-management study to see if lighter riders would improve productivity
- Declaring a dead horse has lower overhead, and therefore performs better
I’m sure as you read this list you chuckled a little at the absurdity. However, I’m also guessing that the list may have made you a little uncomfortable as you see a bit of yourself in some of these strategies.
My challenge to you is:
- Define your destination
- Identify the fewest and simplest steps to get there
- Commit every week to the next step you will take
- Once a month or once a quarter, review your progress to your final goal
- As GPS Mayhem says, sometimes you need to “recalculate” your plan
- Go back to step 3
By the way, if you’re paying attention, you should never find yourself on a dead horse.
Photo by Micky Aldridge.
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Gone In an Instant – Our Year In Review
2011 was an incredibly busy and blazing fast year for us. Or it sure feels that way! We have been very involved with creating and training, and time seems to be defined by each of those mile markers along the way. We’ve learned a lot of great lessons and continue to incorporate each of them back into training, resources, and blog posts – where you’ll find our experiences and lessons diligently documented!
We started out the year launching our new sales system and digging into training sessions throughout the spring. Then there were on-site strategic planning sessions we conducted with individual agencies. That definitely kept us moving and thinking a lot about agency business models and the need to evolve that model. We rounded out the first half of the year with our networking conference, BGNLive.
From the conference we had several takeaways to develop for the remainder of the year. That included additional training and vetting new strategic partners. Another big project was getting an internal social networking site up and running for agencies to discuss ideas and share files & best practices with one another.
While we’ve learned many things along the way, here are a few key summarized lessons that we met again and again this past year which have been invaluable:
- Set your mind to it, create a plan, and commit to getting it done. Persistence, persistence, persistence.
- Making public commitment statements to your clients/community is a great motivator to keep going even when it’s difficult.
- Listening to clients’ struggles provides great opportunity to develop new/improved solutions/offerings.
- Asking for accountability is an amazing way to get things accomplished.
- Repetition, repetition, repetition. One time and one method of communication is not enough to learn something new or change thinking and behaviors.
Coming Up Next
As we move into 2012, we are looking to go deeper and get more specific on training, both at the network level and within each agency. Another area that will receive increased attention will be driving more interactive agency networking as a means for faster and more effective implementation.
We have our sights set on transforming agencies into independently thriving businesses regardless of the outcome of the various economic and healthcare challenges we face. You can be sure that we’ll continue to take every opportunity to learn and incorporate those lessons back into what we do every day to make our member agencies and brokerages more successful.
Thanks for a great year and here’s to another one to come!
Photo by Dharmit Shah.
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Asking Your Way to Improved Performance
Managing the performance of your employees is the key to maximizing their productivity. A Hacket Group study backs this up showing that companies who excel at performance management post earnings that are 15% more than their competition who are less effective at managing performance, they show a 22% improvement in net profit margin, and they spend 6% less on HR overall.
As important as they should be, almost nobody likes performance reviews. They’re uncomfortable for the giver and the receiver, largely because managers aren’t adequately trained in how to make performance reviews meaningful. While I would certainly encourage you to make that training investment, I would like to suggest a simple way to improve in this area right away.
Instead of thinking of performance reviews as an annual event, start by thinking of the review process as an ongoing dialogue, a dialogue that needs to start with the right questions
David Farr, CEO of Emerson Electric, is noted for asking every employee a short list of questions such as . . .
- How do you make a difference?
- What improvement idea are you working on?
- When did you last get coaching from your boss?
Together, the answers help employees discover how their role links to the overall company direction, puts a sharp focus on continuous improvement, and highlights how much coaching and development is valued by the organization.
When people choose for themselves what to do instead of just being told, they are always more committed to the outcome. So, although as a leader you likely feel a responsibility to tell your employees how to improve, you'll do better by asking them questions that will help them reach their own conclusions about how to improve.
Photo by takomabibelot.
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Relationships Still Matter
Having spent my entire career in the insurance industry, I’m not sure how much of an understanding I can claim for other industries. However, it’s hard for me to imagine an industry where the purchasing decision has historically been tied to the “relationship” as much as it is in ours.
As much as I want to believe that businesses have gotten beyond a decision making process more appropriate for choosing friends in middle school, I’m not sure that’s always the case. I mean, really, with the economic challenges we have faced over the last few years, wouldn’t you think that business owners would recognize the need to make the best business decision, every single time? Even if that means breaking a relationship with someone you could count on for a free lunch and an occasional round of golf?
But, the more I think about it, maybe the relationship isn’t mutually exclusive of good business decisions. Maybe the timing is just out of order. Think about your personal relationships. Who are you most committed to in your personal life? It likely isn’t the friend of convenience who comes around once in a while to take you out to lunch. You know, the one who you can’t really enjoy the lunch with because you know they wouldn’t have asked if there wasn’t something in it for them?
No, your best relationships are with those friends and family members who you know always have your best interest in mind. It’s the people who will drop what they are doing to help you with a moments notice. It’s the people who tell you the brutal truth because you need to hear it. It’s the people who help you see what is special about you and help you take advantage of those traits. It’s the people who make you a better person because you spend time with them. It’s the people who you naturally seek out in times of both need and victory.
Relationships in business aren’t a thing of the past, but I do think there has been a paradigm shift. Relationships can no longer just happen up front. They can’t be built by a little glad-handing, big personalities, or a self-serving lunch. No, relationships have to be earned in the same way you earn trust and true love.
- Take a genuine interest in your client.
- Be brutally honest when necessary.
- Give the best advice (even when it has nothing to do with you).
- Make them stronger as a business.
- Focus on their needs over yours.
- Help them take advantage of their strengths.
Do so without expectations and you will likely see that the end result is a relationship that will be almost impossible to break.
Who knows, they may even be the one who picks up the tab the next time you go out to lunch.
Photo by Erich Ferdinand.
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Willpower vs. Self-Discipline
Regular readers have heard me talk about the changes coming to our industry. You know them as well as I do. You also know that they are going to force a fair amount of change on us if we are to overcome the challenges and survive.
I’ve also talked about the great opportunities out there for producers/agencies who successfully make the transition. My hope is that you desire those same opportunities and have made the commitment to make them happen.
Desire is a great start, but you also have to have commitment
When doing something that is new to you, you have to prepare yourself to make that commitment - not just one time, but every single day.
Like a New Year’s resolution, it’s not what happens on January 1 that matters nearly as much as it is what happens the other 364 days. Let’s take a look at what I mean and how you can make it happen consistently.
Start by identifying your goal and be prepared to continually recommit to that goal. Now comes the hard part, and it is here where your previous successes are likely to become an obstacle.
Chances are you are as successful as you are because you have an unbelievable amount of willpower. Unfortunately, there is a natural limit as to how far you can get on pure willpower.
To move beyond that limit requires self-discipline.
When I first thought about these two driving forces, the line was blurry, at best. Upon further thought, here is how I now see the difference.
- Willpower is a rather sudden and momentary burst of focused energy, while self-discipline is structured, well thought out and consistent.
- Willpower, in the moment, is more tangible and seemingly more powerful. The reality is that the power of self-discipline dwarfs that of willpower.
If your goal were to lose 20 pounds, willpower would help you walk past that plate of donuts. Self-discipline would have you walking past them every single time. Willpower would have you getting up at 5:00 a.m. on January 2 to get to the gym. Self-discipline would have you getting up for the gym every day that follows.
If your goal were to grow your book of business, willpower would have you stopping to plan out your week in advance. Self-discipline would have you planning out every week in advance. Willpower would have you getting your pipeline full with great opportunities. Self-discipline would have you maintaining your pipeline at that full level.
Sustained success takes planning & practice
Again, I am certain you have a large amount of willpower, but don’t fool yourself into thinking that it will sustain your next level of success. Willpower can help you get anything accomplished once. Once is relatively easy, but it isn’t enough. Don’t let your ability to do anything once provide you a false sense of security.
Self-discipline isn’t natural for most of us and, left to our own devices, we won’t maintain it over time. Therefore, it is important to recognize that part of creating self-discipline starts with structure and, perhaps most importantly of all, includes making yourself voluntarily accountable to someone else. Without the support that comes with accountability, your likelihood of staying on track is minimal - at best.
Use the following five steps as a model to help you achieve the changes you desire.
- Desire – Clearly define (in as much detail as possible) what it is you want to change or achieve. Then write an affirmative, present-tense statement about what it is that you will be doing. For example, if you are guilty of sporadic prospecting, your daily reminder statement might look like this: “I set 5 new business appointments each week.” Then go do it.
- Commitment – Every day you get to choose how to spend your time. Commit yourself on a daily basis to your new action.
- Declaration of intent – Share your desire and commitment with someone else. Don’t just share your big picture commitment, share the weekly to do’s that are necessary for the big picture to become your reality.
- Accountability – Not only give permission to someone else to hold you accountable for staying focused, but set the expectation that they will call you out on inconsistent behaviors. Tell them up front that if they can’t do that for you, to let you know now so you can find someone else. Make the accountability as objective as possible. If you have specific “have to’s” for the week, be sure it is the follow through on these items for which you are accountable.
- Self-reporting – Your accountability partner can’t be watching all the time; you have to admit to your shortcomings. Be willing to go to your partner and confess, “I didn’t set any new appointments,” or “I’m struggling in (this) area. I need your help to get back on track.”
The challenges we’re facing in the benefits industry are not necessarily easy to overcome, but they are infinitely doable with the right plan, focus and self-discipline. You just have to ask yourself, “How badly do I want it?”
Photo by Eric E Castro
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I Love My Job…er, Career!
These are some follow up thoughts on Kevin’s post about having a job or a career. It’s something I think about quite a bit because I really do love my career immensely, and we work with people every day who love their careers, too. We also work with some who are struggling to find that “right fit”. It’s a common point of discussion around here.
If you don’t have a level of passion about what you’re doing, then you need to take some time and really think about where you do find passion. I’m not talking about blindly following some desire that has no potential for economic success. We’ve talked about finding that center where your passion intersects with both your talents and your economic drivers. That’s where the magic really happens.
When you commit yourself to a career, it might be for a lifetime or it might be for a period of time. Whatever that timeline is, it should be one that includes a great personal enthusiasm and intrinsic motivation for what you are doing.
It should be something that you think about in your “on” hours and your “off” hours. You should be seeing connections to your work everywhere you turn. You should be so thirsty for more information about what you’re doing that no one ever has to remind or coax you to read or study. You should be looking for ways to make your agency and your clients better at what they’re doing and looking for any opportunity to talk about your learning every day with anyone who will listen. Because you want to!
You can reinvent yourself and your career several times over, but whatever you’re doing at the time should be your total focus and commitment. Without both of these things – the focus and commitment – you will perform poorly. And you’re cheating your clients, co-workers, and your company.
I love the philosophy Gary Vaynerchuck shares in his book, The Thank You Economy:
Encouraging people to leave their jobs is not (necessarily) my focus here, but rather encouraging people to do what they love to do each day. Maybe that just requires a focus on the right parts of your job and getting rid of those pesky things that you’re not very good at anyway.
But really, if you’re not doing what you love now, then when are you going to do it?
If you’re considering where you are in your career, you might want to take the time to read Kevin’s article on the intersection of passions, talents, and economic drivers. If you want to delve deeper into a personal branding exercise that will step you through each area and help point you to some conclusions, let us know. We’d be happy to share ours with you. Just
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or leave a comment below.
Photo by Alex & les temps qui passe.
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Do You Have a Job or a Career?
I guess there are many ways you could describe the difference between the two, but I’m sure you have an immediate difference that comes to mind for you. At a recent Producer Training Camp, we overheard one of the attendees describe the difference as the following:
“A job is something you learn once and just do it. A career is something you intentionally choose and commit yourself to constant learning in order to stay current.”
I like that explanation as much as any I’ve ever heard. I know I wouldn’t want to go to a doctor who quit studying and learning as soon as he had his degree in hand. It goes without saying that when he committed to being a physician, he committed to a lifetime of learning.
Guess what? You’ve chosen a career. You are a professional. You’ve committed to, and your clients deserve, a lifetime of learning. Just being a reader and a listener, while a great start, isn’t enough. You have to be very purposeful about your ongoing learning.
I suggest you start by evaluating your current abilities, and the future requirements, in the following areas.
Technical Skills – What are the technical skills that have to be razor sharp? What are the technical skills that you need to develop to stay on top of your game?
Some examples might include: alternative financing, actuarial analysis, or compliance issues.
Sales Skills – What is required for you to be able to effectively communicate your value proposition? What new skills would allow you to position yourself as a true partner with your clients rather than just a vendor?
Some examples might include: 30 second commercial, listening skills, closing strategies, effective networking, asking for referrals, etc.
Business Acumen – What is the general business knowledge that you must have in order to have a peer-to-peer conversations with a business owner? What knowledge could you obtain that would have them coming to you for advice about “non technical” challenges?
Some examples might include: national economic trends, operational basics, corporate structure, or perpetuation.
There is no limit to the learning opportunities you need to embrace to make you more effective at what you do and to improve the impact you can have on the business of your clients.
If you’re interested in a tool that would help you assess the areas on which you should be focusing, leave a comment and e-mail address below, and we’ll be happy to share with you.
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“You Suck at Powerpoint” & How it Changed our Presentations
"You Suck at PowerPoint" - that was quite a title that originally caught my attention when I went to SlideShare.net one afternoon in early December last year. I was compelled and had to see why I sucked. And guess what? I definitely did.
Everything Jesse Desjardins (jessedee) said was wrong with presentations, I was guilty of doing or having done. I didn’t mean to. I just didn’t know any better. I didn’t get how to make them not suck.
I’ve always heard,
No bullet points!
No blocks of text!
Make it visual!
Make it interesting and memorable!
Okay, that’s great, but HOW do I do that?? Well, Jesse managed to show me what I was doing wrong and how to make it right all in one easy presentation.
We had an upcoming webinar where we were going to use a bullet pointed presentation and decided to overhaul it at the last minute. It took a huge investment of time because it was changing our thinking, learning a new skill, and re-working something all at the same time. There’s nothing like a little pressure to make it all come together, though, right?!
We did it and were thrilled with the result. And since then, our audiences have seemed to appreciate our efforts, as well.
Are we now design experts? Certainly not, but we sure enjoy creating presentations now rather than dreading putting more bullet points and logos on slides and trying to decide how many lines of text we can fit on each one.
As Jesse points out, “Your slides are there to support you, and unfortunately if they suck, so do you.”
We’ve made the commitment to not suck, and think you should too! Of course, if you’ve already got this figured out, then good for you and your audiences.
Do you have some great presentations or some tips to share & show us your skills? We'd love to see and/or hear about them!
