As a leader in your organization, I am certain you have a clear picture in your mind of where you are going.  Whether you lead at a team, department, or organizational level, it is almost a certainty that you spend a significant amount of time thinking about the team, department, or organization that you must become. 

But here’s the question – does the rest of your team, department, or organization know what that looks like?  A shared vision is the key to their ability to get you there as quickly and easy as possible.  If they don’t know the vision inside and out, then get started communicating that message to them right away.

However, you need to start with where you are today.

Where are you now?

Because of the recession, this is a conversation that many of us have been avoiding.  However, the fact that times have been tough makes this conversation all the more necessary.  The rest of your team wants to know what’s going on – good, bad, or indifferent.  Besides, if you want them to help you get somewhere more attractive, you have to help them clearly see the comparison from where you’re starting.

Where are you going?

What is the vision you have for your future team/department/organization?  I don’t mean the vision statement that you frame and hang on the wall.  I mean what does it look like?  When you close your eyes and look at your future company, what do you see?  Describe in detail for the rest of your team what you see.  What services will you offer?  What skills will the team need?  What kind of growth and profitability will it require?  Who will you be selling to?

And once you have described what it looks like at some point in the future, take the time to explain WHY it is so important that your Vision becomes your shared reality.

How you will get there?

When you have taken the time to share where you are and where you are going, the steps you lay out to move from the former to the latter will make much more sense.  When you ask your people to change a behavior, acquire a new skill, or hit a new performance level, they will be in a much better position to understand why it is so necessary.  With that understanding, they are much more likely to make it happen.

Frequency

Be prepared to deliver these messages over and over again.  In fact, once you get to the point that you are absolutely tired of talking about it, they are just getting to the point of understanding it. Stick with it and keep going – you want them to know it as well as you do.  When they start repeating it with you or maybe mocking you a bit – you know you’re achieving your goal!

Your team wants to help you be successful.  It’s your responsibility to put them in position to do so.

Photo by Jaysin Trevino.

@kevintrokey

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We’ve talked about the evolution into social business and offered some ideas of what that might look like in your agency. Here I’m going to offer some specific suggestions for getting started with that process.

Remember, social should not be an end goal itself; social media tools should become an integrated tactic within the operations of departments. And for it to be effective in helping you achieve your company vision and goals, there is a hierarchy that needs to be followed:

1. Have a clearly defined purpose and vision for the company along with clear messaging about what makes you a unique and compelling business.
2. Have the vision broken down into clearly defined strategic objectives, including a communication plan.
3. Recognize that social media tools are to be used as tactics, along with other specific programs and process, to help achieve those strategic objectives.

In order to effectively integrate social into the plan, you first need to learn what it can do for you and then you can figure out how to go about accomplishing it. And that starts with education.

Form a team

Since we’re talking about integrating into business operations, we want to have a team of folks across disciplines participating in the learning process and the strategy. If a department thinks it doesn’t relate to them, be sure they’re on this team at least in the beginning - good business decisions are made based on what we know.

Your team should consist of people who:

• understand business
• are good at communicating business strategy
• are able to gather information from people, interpret that information, and share the findings
• are enthusiastic about your company

Why do I need a team? Shouldn’t I just hire someone to be in charge of social media?

It can be tempting to hire someone young who’s comfortable with the technology and pass all of this off to them. But that’s a mistake. Notice that we’re talking about business operations and strategy. Your best friend’s niece who’s in college and has a million friends on Facebook does not know your business operations, your strategy, or your messaging. And she likely doesn’t understand what significant or nuanced ideas she comes across that could be really important to the future of your business.

Working in the agency and industry and having a healthy dose of business acumen is what gives you that level of practical knowledge. That’s what you want to tap into. People can learn to navigate the social platforms with a little education. Learning your business inside and out takes a lot more.

Unless you’re a large company with a major marketing strategy, hiring someone specifically for social media is unnecessary. Most independent benefits and insurance agencies will be just fine within your existing structure.

However, while you don’t need someone specifically in charge of social media, you do need someone to be in charge of company messaging. They need to make sure that everyone participating in social has the knowledge they need to be on target with the company message and are working within your corporate guidelines and strategy. Again, this likely comes from someone already on your team.

Educate yourselves

Now that you’ve got the team together, read a couple of books and get your arms wrapped around what this means for your company and how each department can use this as a part of their business processes.

Discuss each book and talk specifically about what it means for your company. Have great debates on how it relates to you and what you might do with it. Take rigorous notes on these discussions and use this as the basis for forming a plan of action and eventually communication with the rest of the company on what you’re doing and why.

Here are a couple of foundational books that will help you really comprehend social business:

I recommend reading The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuck to understand the evolution of social media and why it's important for business today and into the future.

Then I recommend The Now Revolution by Jay Baer & Amber Naslund to understand how to structure your organization to incorporate social media as an integrated business tool throughout your company – to some degree you will need to restructure your business/processes. This book will provide a great road map for what you need to know and how to get there.

Learn from what you read & hear

As you get going and start the process of becoming a social business, the most important thing to keep in mind is that you need to do something with the information you learn. Keep this team together to have ongoing meetings about what you’re learning. Have everyone bring their findings to the team and decipher what it means to your business – should you be changing processes or product/services as a result of what you’re hearing?

It’s important to have leadership involved in these meetings because you’re not simply talking social media, you’re talking business strategy.

Photo by nagora.

@wendykeneipp

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Continuing the planning theme, here is one of our most popular planning articles. Originally published in March 2010.

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In a previous article about Managing Employee Performance, I talked about helping supervisors proactively manage their employees by engaging with them in a meaningful and productive way. When you help your employees take responsibility for their own success, you will feel the results in their level of return on engagement, as well as the positive impact on your company’s productivity and profitability.

To create this level of active engagement, it is critical to tie the vision of the company to the expectations of the team with specific, measurable goals and objectives.

Cascade the Vision: We all have responsibilities in our organizations to contribute to the overall vision.  Unfortunately, all too often we have no real idea of what that vision is, much less how it connects to our role and subsequent performance.

Start this cascading communication by finding and then communicating the answers to the following questions. As a result, many of your performance management issues will become obsolete or, at least much easier to address.

• Organizational values – What is important in our organization?
• Organizational vision – Where are we heading?
• Organizational goals – What are we going to accomplish?
• Organizational objectives – What results are needed to hit goals?
• Organizational behaviors – What is required to hit objectives?
• Organizational tasks – What job description activities are needed to hit objectives?

After you’ve identified the components of the company vision, the next step is identifying the basic building blocks of performance measurement and how they relate to the vision and goals of the company. 

Goals (of the company): We start by understanding the goals of the company. This is what drives the subsequent objectives and tasks we expect employees to perform. The goals tend to focus on profitability, employee satisfaction, client satisfaction, and/or growth. The example here could be for the company to create a minimum of 20 percent annual, organic growth.

Objectives: Objectives are the results you want your employees to strive to achieve and they are based on the goals of the company. For a producer, this may be to work on high-probability prospects, resulting from formal introductions. Objectives should be SMART:

• Specific – Who? (producer), What? (write $100K), When? (2010)
• Measurable – Numbers, frequencies, timelines
• Attainable – Reasonable, yet challenging
• Relevant – Has to be a difference-maker
• Trackable – Must be monitored and reportable

Tasks: These are the daily activities for which an employee is responsible, and they’re usually included in the job description. An example for a producer may be to build a network of individuals whom she can count on for those introductions.

As you can see, performance objectives are the critical link in connecting the individual to the organization. As with any tool, it is important to recognize what objectives are and what they are not.

Performance objectives:

• Help a company meet goals
• Help employees be more productive
• Assist in giving one-on-one communication
• Help employees be successful
• Give direction to management on financial increases

Performance objectives are not:

• A tool used just for compensation
• A system to find where employees are not doing their job
• A system to grade people

In order for objectives to be properly measured, there has to be a well-defined measurement scale, which takes the uncertainty of performance out of the equation. When establishing your measurement scale, it is important that "expected" isn’t at the top, it lies in the middle. There needs to be a mutual understanding of what outcomes are reflected at each level.

Measurement scale
5  -  Far exceeds expectations
4  -  Exceeds expectations
3  -  Meets expectations
2  -  Falls short of expectations
1  -  Falls critically short of expectations

Now that you’ve written the objectives, it’s time for everyone to get to work. And for the supervisor, it means having a monthly one-on-one with each employee. If everything has been set up properly, these check-ins should last no more than 10 or 15 minutes. The purpose isn’t for a full-out review, but just to review the feedback that the employee has tracked for the last month. As the supervisor, it is your responsibility to provide guidance on what they can be doing next and to give recognition for what they have already accomplished.

The monthly one-on-one sessions are imperative to connecting and engaging with your employees. This time investment is what creates the payback at year-end because you’ve been monitoring and reviewing performance throughout the year. Now, the year-end review is simply another review session, and there should be no surprises for either you, as the supervisor, or the employee.

As with so many challenges, the answers can be relatively simple, it just takes a commitment, a little discipline and a fair amount of effective communication. The return on this investment will be significant. Just ask yourself, “How badly do I want it?”

Originally published on agencyfuel.zywave.com © Copyright 2010 Zywave, Inc.

Photo by Jeremy Vandel.

@kevintrokey

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What’s your perspective on your competition? Do you think about them regularly and obsess over what they’re doing at all times? Do you worry that they’ve got a new solution, employee, or carrier relationship that you don’t?

Knowing who your competitors are and having an idea of what they’re doing is a good thing. But if you are obsessing over those things, you’re ceding control of your own business to them.

Running toward vs. away

If you have a strong company vision, a team you trust, you’ve empowered them to take the reigns in their own area, and you’re all driving hard on a vision toward a common goal, then you’re actively running toward something.

Yet if everyday is a focus on what the guy down the block is doing, and you’re worrying about that new solution they’re offering or the new sales guy they hired, and you’re looking for ways to one-up that other business, you’re not building a better company. You’re still running; you’re just running away. You’re running away from your competitors.

When you’re running away,

• you’re not thinking about the client; you’re thinking about yourself.
• you’re not thinking about your company strategy; you’re thinking about the competitor’s actions.
• you’re not thinking about and planning for your company vision and future; you’re thinking about today.

This limited scope, short term thinking will get you a random business model continuously disrupted with reactionary changes. It will also produce an inconsistent client experience.

Companies obsessed with the competition ultimately pursue damaging activities and create the scenario they’re working so hard to avoid – being beat-out by the competition.

Instead of focusing on what we don’t want, we need to affect change by focusing on what we do want. It is only with that driving focus on the goal that we’re able to choose the behaviors and actions we need to achieve the positive results we so desire.

The greatest financial opportunities lie in helping clients build better businesses, and without this properly placed focus, growth will prove elusive. 

Direct your thoughts, energies, and resources on what you can control – what you’re offering your potential clients and the experience you’re giving them after they’ve hired you. That is the best competitive advantage you can give yourself.

Photo by Tiffa Day.

@wendykeneipp

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Every company should have a plan. A plan of where the company is going. A plan for everyone in the organization to follow and rally around as enthusiastic supporters of a larger goal.

We all want to be working toward a higher purpose beyond the next task on our to-do list. What we come into work for every day needs to be connected to that larger goal that the whole team is working together to achieve.

Create a theme.

The company plan will likely be comprised of several large objectives to reach the Big Goal, but it should all be drawn together with a central theme.  It should all tie back to the larger idea of WHY you’re working to achieve that Big Goal. Without the WHY clearly defined, it’s just a random set of goals.

Sometimes people want to reach a certain revenue number – which is fine if you’re the owner of the business and expect to reap the financial rewards of that number. But what incentive is that for your salaried team members to dig down deep and really put in the extra innovation to help you reach that goal? They need something larger to work toward that is going to motivate them intrinsically on a daily basis.

Here’s an example.

I worked for an organization where my boss made a pitch to re-organize separate corporate sales teams, which had come together through acquisitions, into one unified team. He was eventually given the go-ahead to do it, but was met with a very pessimistic attitude from all directions. The company was a little lost in it’s overall strategy, yet, as the sales team, it was our job to convince customers that we were a strong, unified, focused company.

He knew that we needed confidence and belief in what we were selling in order to make this successful. So, in his effort to help bolster the team spirit, we set about creating our own goals, team structure to meet the goals, and a culture to support the confidence and trust we needed in each other to achieve this impossible task.  It was exciting because we were told it couldn’t be done; yet we had a leader who, at least publicly, had unwavering confidence in us that we could do it.

We all rallied around the goal and had team meetings on how we were going to do it. The structure started to come together, and as we worked through that, the culture started to become apparent and contagious. At one particularly defeating, yet exciting meeting, our fearless leader proclaimed emphatically, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”

Well, that was it. That became the theme for our team and our rallying cry. All we had to say was that one line and everyone knew what it represented:

- confidence in ourselves and our team abilities
- belief that we were selling something of value to the clients
- the goals we had set
- our constant pursuit of improvement
- proving to everyone that the impossible CAN BE DONE.

One small phrase changed everything for the team. We created a logo and used it on our internal materials, created posters for everyone to hang at their desks, used it as the theme for our quarterly off-site training sessions. We had team jackets embroidered with the logo and wore them proudly. We carried the spirit of that idea everyday and used it as our constant reminder that we were working toward something larger than just a number. Yet all of our energy we poured into that “something larger” drove that number every day.

A few pivotal ideas and actions drove our success. And they’re the same key ideas for any successful company plan:

1. We had a leader who had a very clear vision of what we needed to accomplish.
2. Our leader communicated that vision regularly and with great enthusiasm about what we were doing.
3. Team members got to participate in developing the strategic and tactical components of the plan – the parts we were responsible for executing.  Since we developed it, we owned it!
4. Even though we each had differing responsibilities, we knew that each of us was contributing in our own way to the larger goal. No one questioned what his/her role in that big picture was – it was clearly defined.
5. There was a culture of expectation, which created natural accountability. No one wanted to be responsible for the ship going down.
   • Leadership provided guidance and ongoing training and support to make sure we could do our jobs to the best of our abilities.
   • We each performed our roles and worked as a team to achieve our individual goals, our sub-team goals, and the whole team Big Goal.

I look at this experience very, very fondly because it worked. It was a real life example of great leadership and teamwork making a difference and demonstrating success. It can be done anywhere. You just have to decide that you want to do it.

@wendykeneipp

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When you are working with people or businesses in a service capacity, the client is paying you to be an advisor and watch their back. And really, they want you to perform that role. Sometimes it can be a little intimidating to approach someone with what may feel like unsolicited advice, but if you’re an advisor, that’s what you’re being paid to do.

It might be more comfortable to get permission at the beginning of the relationship to do this – set the table that you’ll be looking out for them and bringing suggestions from time to time. This not only prepares them to expect it, but it gives you some built-in accountability to be actively looking out for your clients.

There are many ways to follow client activities, and Internet tools make it very easy to not only keep an eye on their activity, but on their industry and local marketplace, as well.

If you’re familiar with their business operations and vision, and you’re actively watching them in the local news, following their online activity, or noting what’s going on in their industry, then you’ll very likely run into some information where it makes sense to proactively contact them.

Let’s think about some possible scenarios:

• Maybe it’s something as simple as congratulating them on an accomplishment, or note what kind of progress they’ve made in an area on which you know they’ve been actively focusing (clients love to know you’re paying attention away from the sales cycle).
• You’ve got some advice or tips on how to improve something they’re doing (e.g., improve consistency across locations with standards & training).
• You find some information that could help them improve their business (e.g., new technology now available that might replace existing out-dated technology).
• You can help them take a competitive lead (e.g., a trend that is taking hold in a different industry might translate to their business).
• Help them head off a potential risk or threat or take advantage of a possible opportunity coming down the pipe (e.g., new large employer coming into town looking to do a lot of hiring which might threaten their employee base).

If you’ve got solid business ideas and concerns that they need to consider, then by all means, talk to them. Don’t wait until disaster strikes and then say, “Yeah, I wondered if that might be an issue for you.” Take a proactive approach to the relationship and know that you’ve got their best interests in mind, plus a more distant perspective, which can always be beneficial.

When I hire someone in a service capacity, I usually start off the relationship asking her for advice on how I can improve and then directly open the door for her to proactively contact me with ideas. Which means I’m readily putting myself out there as being willing to take advice, be a repeat buyer, and a potential referral source or center of influence. I find that it’s the rare person who takes me up on this offer.

Happy, delighted, successful current clients are a direct link to new clients and more revenue. There are so many resources at our fingertips to keep an eye on what businesses are doing that watching and offering a little help along the way just makes good business sense.

Photo by Laughlin Elkind.

@wendykeneipp

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So, what happens if you work in an organization that doesn’t effectively communicate the vision from the top of the organization? What power do you have? Is there anything that you can do if you’re not the CEO or on the executive team?

Yes.

I read a blog post at LeadershipFreak.com by Dan Rockwell entitled “Full Steam Ahead!” It was an overview of the book by the same name by authors Ken Blanchard and Jesse Lynn Stoner. The post itself was very interesting and thought provoking about organizational vision and how we can create inspiring visions for our own sub-sets even if the top brass isn’t setting and communicating an organization-wide vision.

Then as I read through the comments, I came across one where someone offered a real-life example of how it can be done. I was truly inspired and wanted to share the exchange (see that one of the authors chimed in here, as well).

Gary Bamberger Says:
When I worked for a large organization, there was no over-riding vision. I created a vision for my department and included values in order to provide guidance for my team on “how” our work would get done. To reinforce this vision, I would point to it often whenever the opportunity presented itself. In 1-on-1 conversations with people on my team, I would show how their goals tied back to the vision for the department. It worked out really well and unified the efforts of our department.

• Wendy Keneipp Says:
Gary – I love the way you took control over what you could control within your own area! I think too often it’s easy too just say, “We don’t have “it”, therefore, I’m powerless.” That is an excellent example of leadership – I’m sure your team really appreciated what you did for the group.
• Jesse Stoner Says:
I agree with Wendy. Thanks for showing how it is possible to create a vision within ones own sphere of influence. You highlighted two keys to success: to live it and keep communicating around it. I hope your comment inspires others.

People leave bosses, not companies. For years, Gallup has been talking about this idea – studies, papers, books have all been written on the topic. And this anecdote by Gary is a fantastic real-life example of how you can keep a team together, and you can be a great boss despite what’s happening in the rest of the company.

Is this ideal? No, of course, you’d like to see the whole company thriving together, but you can make a significant impact in the lives of a few people by teaching them great leadership, and you can learn a lot about being that effective leader by actively practicing it with your team.

And maybe your actions will get noticed, and you’ll get the opportunity to help shape the vision of the company when the management team comes around to seeing the importance of communicating the vision…as set by your example.

Photo by Joan Campderrós-i-Canas.

@wendykeneipp

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I don’t know about you, but I know about a grand total of 5 people (outside of those in family owned agencies) who had planned for a career in insurance.  It seems that most of us sort of wander into the business by accident.  However, at the same time, it’s amazing about how many stay once here.

Stigma

Yeah, there is the stigma of being an “insurance salesman”, but when you look past the stereotype to the reality of what we do, it really is an amazing way to make a living.  It’s an industry where you can maintain an incredible work/life balance, you are in position to truly make an impact on the business of your clients, and it’s an industry whose financial rewards are unbelievable rich.

Unfortunately, I think in the past few years the industry shine has lost a bit of its luster.  Medical premiums keep going up, we’ve been in a recession that has been harsh on both us and our clients, and healthcare reform brings a whole host of unknowns.

Attracting young talent

I have heard many times that our industry is threatened by its inability to attract young talent.  If we allow ourselves to be defined and limited by our industry stereotype that may be a valid concern.  However, I have seen a very clear recent example of that not having to be the case.

Wendy and I were recently taking a member agency through strategic planning.  The principal of the agency invited her 23 year old, soon to be graduating from college, daughter into the planning session.  Danielle (the daughter) is an energetic, very entrepreneurial-minded individual.  She has already started multiple businesses and is clearly destined to do amazing things in the world of business.  I think she initially asked to participate in the session only because of her sincere interest in business, not because she had any intent of it becoming her career path. 

However, as the strategic plan took shape and the vision of the agency was formed, she realized that what they were planning for wasn’t the stereotypical “insurance agency”, it was clearly a vision of an organization positioning itself to help its clients find higher levels of success in very innovative ways.  She clearly saw that the “insurance agency” stigma didn’t have to be what defined the agency and its relationship with its clients.  Now, I don’t know with any certainty that she will pursue a future at the agency, but she clearly saw how exciting and rewarding a career option it can be.

If our industry can still be that exciting to the Danielles of the world, I know it will continue to be the unbelievable opportunity we have all come to know, even those of us who maybe wandered in by accident.   I think that what Danielle experienced in a fairly intense couple of days is what most of us learn much more gradually over the formative years of our careers.  Fortunately, the stereotype doesn’t have to define who we are or what we do.  When you think about the unique relationship we have with our clients, we are in an almost unparalleled position in terms of the breadth of scope of opportunities we have to make a positive impact on their business. 

In my humble opinion, this remains an unbelievable industry in which to make a living.  I’m not sure as many young people will wander into careers with your agency as they have in the past, but if you help them see that the stereotype “need not apply”, we may, in fact, find a whole new generation who join our ranks intentionally.

What about you?  Do you still believe?  If you were starting over, would you make the same choice?

Photo by rduta.

@kevintrokey

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As you read this article, look at it from two perspectives. First, reflect on how your own agency may be impacted by employee engagement. Second, think of your clients and the impact they are experiencing, as well as how valuable a partner you would become if you could help them improve their current level of employee engagement.

See if this sounds familiar:

AnyCo is a mid-sized business. Things were humming along pretty well; the firm's future seemed bright. Then, almost overnight, the economy seemed to implode around it. Revenues were on a steady decline. Margins were evaporating even faster than revenue. The confidence employees once had in their future started to wane. Further investments to grow the business had to wait. They lost complete sight of the vision that once drove their efforts. In fact, all that mattered was the bottom line—keeping the doors open. Survival became their new definition of success.

To ensure that survival, AnyCo had to lay off all but the most critically needed employees. The budget dollars for training and development were quickly eliminated. Salaries were initially frozen and eventually had to be cut. Employee benefits suffered the same fate. Increases in premiums had to be passed on to the employees, but soon even core benefits had to be eliminated.

These weren't decisions AnyCo management normally would have made, but they had become necessary just to survive. However, as necessary as these actions were, they weren't without consequences. The result was that the remaining employees became frustrated, angry, and more and more disconnected from the business until their level of employee disengagement was at an all-time high.

So, what is employee engagement anyway?

Our working definition is: "The positive connection an employee has to the organization and to the organization's vision. The higher the level of employee engagement, the more positive the employees' behaviors, and the more successful the organization becomes."

More important, why should an employer care about the level of employee engagement?

Recent studies conducted by Towers Watson, and Gallup, have identified that an organization that has an average level of employee engagement has a payroll efficiency of 63%. To translate that to dollars, for every $100,000 being spent on payroll, that employer whose employees are engaged at an average level is receiving only $63,000 worth of work in return. I don't know about you, but after I read that statistic, I had an entirely new appreciation for employee engagement.

Of course, payroll efficiencies will never hit 100%, but think of the bottom-line impact on the organization that can move these points even a littler higher!

So where does the remaining 37% of potential employee efficiency go?

When a company suffers from poor levels of engagement, there are a lot of associated costs, but many are liable to be overlooked:

• Turnover is higher;
• There is a greater demand on HR and its associated resources;
• Communication becomes more difficult and less effective;
• Attracting high levels of talent becomes more difficult;
• Management spends unproductive time with disengaged employees
• Workplace accidents increase;
• Employees are less productive, spending time complaining, looking for another job, not working to potential, etc.

As bad as all of this is, it gets even worse. Lack of employee engagement likely means lack of client engagement.

Dr. Gary Rhoads of Allegiance, a consulting firm specializing in employee loyalty and engagement, recently wrote a paper titled "The Spillover Effect," in which he identifies the correlation between employee and customer engagement as one of the most significant drivers to profitability. The more engaged a company's employees, the higher the likelihood of having engaged, rather than just satisfied, customers. Engagement is contagious. Not only does it spread from employee to employee, it spreads from employee to customer.

Research shows that when customers are engaged, they spend higher percentages of their discretionary dollars with the company with which they feel engaged and prove to be more profitable on each of those dollars spent than are the company's merely satisfied customers. Additionally, a synergy is created when a company has both engaged employees and engaged customers. In fact, they can expect to drive twice the financial results compared with organizations that are able to achieve active engagement from only one key group.

Signs that your employees are engaged

If an organization displays the following characteristics, they are in a good position to have high levels of employee engagement

Employer engagement—The company actively seeks to understand its employees and acts with the expectations and preferences of the employees in mind.

Perception of job importance—Employees have a clear understanding of the importance of their job and how it contributes to the organization's goals and objectives.

Clarity of job expectations—Success in each position is clearly defined, and the resources needed to meet that success are provided. As a result, the employee can focus on organizational success rather than being preoccupied with personal survival.

Career advancement—Each employee has a clear plan of personal development and a realistic path of advancement.

Opportunity to contribute—Employees have clear opportunities to contribute ideas and initiatives that will improve the organization.

Feedback—Employees always know precisely how well they are performing; they receive formal updates on a regular basis. A bonus check is nice, but it will be quickly forgotten (that's not to say it isn't important, but it isn't the complete answer). However, sincere and specific comments on what an employee did well may last forever.

How to improve employee engagement

Based on the list above, you probably have a good idea of how to improve employee engagement when it is poor. However, here are a few specific ideas.

1. Get input from your people. They know why employee engagement isn't as high as it could be and quite likely have ideas of how to make improvements. However, they need to feel comfortable regarding the confidentiality of their responses. Bringing in an outside consultant skilled at drilling down to the core issues will provide the right environment.
2. As you hear negative comments, fight the temptation to become angry with any individual identified as a source of the negativity. Instead, focus on how the negative behaviors can be eliminated and address them directly.
3. Be honest with the organization about what the survey indicated. It's okay to be disappointed with the results and to honestly communicate that disappointment. Fight the urge to sugarcoat the results and to downplay the impact. The employees know what they said, and they talk to one another. They will lose confidence if they believe that their input is being downplayed in any way.
4. Start fixing it! It's too late to turn back now; you have to start implementing change. If you don't follow through, you will make existing problems worse, create new problems, and ensure that any future efforts won't be taken seriously. Publicly state your commitment to implementation.
5. Prepare leadership to implement effectively. Engagement is largely about the culture within an organization, and cultural changes have to start at the top. Spend time with leadership focusing on specific behaviors that they need to demonstrate to make the implementation successful.

Final step

Repeat, but not right away. After you have given yourself sufficient time (a year at a minimum) to implement your initiatives, ask the employees how they are making a difference. Fight the urge to start asking too soon. Cultural changes, including improving employee engagement, take time to take root. Asking for feedback too soon will result in inaccurate feedback.

Employee engagement isn't a project; it's part of the culture. It may take specific projects to improve it from time to time, but we have to work everyday to make sure it is maintained. As levels of engagement improve, you will find that the rewards most coveted by engaged employees tend to change. Make sure your reward system is in alignment with what employees value.

Salary isn't the only motivator. The higher the level of employee engagement, the lower down the list of desired rewards financial compensation moves. Engaged employees tend to value non-compensation types of rewards. They value personal development, a rewarding job environment, and an ability to make a difference, to name a few. Think about it—the things that engaged employees value are the very things that will result in even greater returns for the company.

While employee engagement may seem to be elusive and intangible at times, the impact it has on virtually every aspect of your organization (including customers and bottom-line profitability) makes it something that can't be ignored.

Perhaps the greatest thing about an engaged organization is the exponentially higher return you will receive for continued efforts. You can create an environment that will drive a greater return you receive on investments made through your employees (training, benefit programs, team building, etc.), or you can reinforce a culture that emphasizes wages as the primary reward and continue to just plug the meter with disengaged employees hoping that more money will result in more productivity. Of course, the former takes more of a planned strategy, but the results are well worth the effort.

So, who is AnyCo? Well, perhaps it should have been named EveryCo. There isn't a company out there, whether it's your agency or any of your agency's clients, that can't benefit from very consciously focusing on employee engagement.

As a broker, you're in a unique position; the strategies and experience you gain from working on your own internal employee engagement can easily become a service you take to your clients.

Originally published in Rough Notes magazine March 2011.

Photo by Yasser Alghofily.

@kevintrokey

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"Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win. Opportunities multiply as they are seized." – Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu was a military strategist famous for his military treatise, The Art of War. While I hesitate to compare the attack we are facing as an industry to military action, and in no way want to demean the efforts of the brave men and women who fight for our freedom, there is no doubt that we can learn from his teachings.

We are an industry under attack. Of course, it’s not the first attack we’ve faced. We’ve faced the threat of “Hillary Care,” Elliott Spitzer, direct writers and the Internet – to name a few. As different as the earlier attacks may seem on the surface, the way we responded as an industry was almost identical to each. That response was actually a non-response; we sat back, did a little hand wringing, changed very little about how we work and hoped that it would pass without a fatal blow. Largely, that strategy worked.

However, it won’t work that way this time around. This attack is different: it’s real, it’s sustainable and will produce casualties. To say the least, it has put our industry into crisis mode. And when a crisis hits any industry, competition becomes fierce. Survival is no longer the result of a passive act. As is one of the fundamental laws of survival, you have two options: fight or flight.

Some are going to abandon the very industry that has provided such amazing opportunities and, I will argue, whose greatest opportunities still lie ahead. They are convinced that government exchanges, reduced commissions and employers’ decisions to stop offering benefits has made this an apocalyptic moment. That’s unfortunate for them, but I guess if all you see is yourself as a victim of events beyond your control, flight is the only viable option.

Actually, the fact that there will be a fair amount of flight is part of what helps produce so many opportunities for those who remain, for those who choose to stay and fight. For those of you willing to fight for your future, there is one additional question: How are you going to do battle? Are you going to wage a tactical war or a war of strategy?

Tactical

Unfortunately, this seems to be the battle cry of too many producers and agencies. They see their current business model threatened and just start swinging wildly. Below are some of the swings I see producers/agencies taking:

Buying books of business – This is akin to the manufacturer who says, “I know I lose money on every widget, but I’ll make up for it in volume.” If your current model is being threatened, just making it bigger isn’t the answer.

Moving into P&C – Those who take this tactic are making themselves more of a generalist and prone to further attack by the specialists. Specialists will always generate more value than a generalist. If you agree that your future has you getting paid for the value you create rather than the product you place, becoming more of a generalist takes you in the wrong direction.

Doing more for less – In an attempt to be more attractive, they start throwing more “free stuff” into their offering, further reducing their profit margin. If what you offer has any value, shouldn’t you get paid for it?

Even when you are swinging wildly you may connect with a few punches, maybe even win a battle. However, swinging wildly quickly becomes exhausting and soon makes you even more vulnerable. Until you create a solid foundation in your area of core focus, going in new directions is only going to create greater instability. Some of these tactics may be part of a long term solution, but only once the core is solid and they are determined to fit into a larger, overall strategy.

Strategic

When the “fight” instinct kicks in, it’s difficult to subdue the urge to start swinging wildly and to, instead, take time to size up the opponent (in this case the threat to the survival of your business model). Planning a long-term strategy, while feeling like it initially slows you down, is the only way to create a solid foundation, ensure your long-term survival and provide an ability to take advantage of the coming opportunities. Ultimately, it is the only way you can have any endurance along with your speed.

Having a plan means you have clarity in three key areas: current situation, vision and business needs.

Current situation – Describe your current business model. This may be difficult, but you have to be brutally honest. Actually, the difficult part will likely be seeing just how vulnerable to an attack you really are.

• What are you selling? (likely answer – insurance)
• How are you getting paid? (likely answer – carrier commissions)
• To whom are you selling? (likely answer – anyone who will buy)
• How are you acquiring new clients? (likely answer – quoting and hoping for lower numbers)
• What is your growth rate? (likely answer – much less than it was)
• How do you protect your profit margin? (likely answer – cross our fingers)

Vision – Now, answer those same questions again, but this time in terms of your future vision. I’m not talking about a mission statement-type vision, I’m talking about what your model needs to look like in the future. Take yourself out three years and picture that your model has grown to be exactly what you want and need. What does it look like, ideally?

• What are you selling? (possible answer – broad based solutions that impact our clients’ business bottom line)
• How are you getting paid? (possible answer – fees based on the value we are able to create)
• To whom are you selling? (possible answer – companies who fit our ideal profile and value what we have to offer)
• How are you acquiring new clients? (possible answer – by creating a plan that aligns what we have to offer with what our clients need)
• What is your growth rate? (possible answer – predictable, sustainable, and top among our peer group)
• How do you protect your profit margin? (possible answer – establish fees based on the effort/cost involved with each client)

Business needs – Once you have a true understanding of where you are and can clearly see where you are going, its time to determine how to connect those two points. Be sure you address the following:

• What new skills do I need to develop?
• What resources (outside partners, team members, solutions, etc.) do I need to procure?
• How will my sales process need to change?
• How will I need to alter my brand message?

Next, for each business need:

• Identify key initiatives and specific action items to which you must commit
• Set deadlines, as appropriate
• Communicate your plan to team members
• Empower your team to take ownership and contribute
• Monitor your progress and make adjustments, as necessary

Yes, we are an industry under attack. A passive response will be a concession of defeat. It’s time to choose: fight or flight. For those who choose to go to battle, you must choose a battle plan. Swinging wildly may be instinctive, but you will connect with precious few of those shots and can never ensure your ability to connect a second time. However, if you slow down for a moment, create the appropriate strategy and a disciplined plan of attack, you will look back at this “attack” as the time your business/career was liberated. You just have to ask yourself, “How badly do I want it?”

Photo by Kyle VanHorn.

@kevintrokey

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