Continuing in a series of posts that touch on 10 challenges for you to consider as you embrace a 2012 that is more productive for yourself, as well as for those around you. As I do so, I am borrowing from a book I read last year, The First 90 Days: Critical Success Stories for New Leaders by Michael Watkins.

Read previous challenge articles:
First Challenge – Promote yourself

Second Challenge – Accelerate Your Learning

Third Challenge – Match Strategy to Situation

Fourth Challenge – Secure Early Wins

Fifth Challenge – Negotiate Success

Sixth Challenge – Achieve Alignment

Seventh Challenge - Build Your Team

Eighth Challenge – Create Coalitions

If your success depends on the support of people outside your direct line of command (and it almost always does), it is critical for you to create coalitions in order to get the necessary things done. Building your influence among your colleagues is important to get backing for new ideas and goals. While it is natural to focus on those individuals in your silo (above and below you in the reporting chain), remember that your silo is a part of a larger organization and building those horizontal connections is important.

I especially see this ignored in our industry, which is ripe with silos. There are silos separating P&C from benefits, silos separating one production team from another, and silos separating sales from service.

If you are going to be a change agent within your agency, it is critical to force yourself out of your natural silo and work to build support and conversations around new ideas and initiatives throughout the whole agency. Your coworkers will always appreciate having the opportunity to be a part of a new solution. Not provided that opportunity, don't be surprised when they fight against a new directive for which they had no input, even if they will directly benefit. Besides, good ideas become great ideas when enhanced with the benefit of multiple perspectives.

Even as you work to include others in the conversation, be prepared for pushback. It will happen for any of the following reasons:

• Comfort with the status quo – Some people like things just the way they are.
• Fear of looking incompetent – They may fear that the change will create an environment in which they may not perform. Or perhaps they recognize they should have initiated the conversation.
• Threat to values – They may truly disagree with your direction.
• Threat to power – They may see you and your ideas as threatening the current power structure, either their power or the power of others in their respective silo.

Whatever the reason for pushback, it has to be expected. The important thing to remember is the earlier you get it on the table, allow people to voice their concerns, and address those concerns, the faster you can get on with effective implementation.

Remember, you will rarely, if ever, get full consensus, and full consensus should never be your expectation. Fortunately, most people are reasonable and, as long as they believe their opinions and ideas have been taken into consideration, will eventually give you their support (or at least stop fighting you).

Acceleration Checklist as suggested in The First 90 Days (paraphrased in places)

1. Whose support do you most need to succeed? What existing coalitions seem most powerful?
2. What influence networks are most important to you? Who defers to whom on key issues?
3. Who are your potential supporters? Potential opponents? Who is most likely to change their opinion in your favor?
4. How will you shape your message to ensure it takes the various interests into consideration?

Never underestimate the conviction of an existing culture to maintain status quo and to fight against new ideas, so be careful about the way you approach this change. I often see individuals who are so convinced they are right that they try to bully their ideas into place, but nobody likes a bully. Effective change is most often brought about as an evolution rather than a revolution.

Photo by Zach Taylor.

@kevintrokey

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You are all aware of MetLife's commercials talking about the "ifs" in life, right? Well, I think it's long past time for us to start thinking about the "what ifs" in our business.

I'm talking about those exciting conversations that start with "What if . . .?" I think that those two words are almost magical when used correctly. Think about it, kids use them all the time:

What if the sky was orange? What if turtles spoke French and could fly?

Starting a question with "what if..." immediately unlocks our imagination and envisions exciting new possibilities.

Unfortunately, somewhere between being a 5 year old with unlimited "what if" scenarios and our strategy sessions in the office, we lose the magic.

Now as unimaginative adults, instead of starting with "what if...", we start with "maybe we could . . ." or "I'd sure like to . . ."

Now instead of focusing on some great new possibility with our question, our "creativity" is immediately surrounded with self-doubt, and we look for all the reasons why our idea couldn't really happen.

My challenge to you

Force yourselves to regularly have "what if" sessions. Use "what ifs" to imagine ideal as well as doomsday scenarios. Whatever you insert after these two words and the way you ultimately respond will largely determine your future success. By engaging in these conversations as a team, you are much more likely to create the ideal scenarios while at the same time ensuring your ability to survive the doomsday scenarios.

A couple of suggestions to get you started.

• What if there was no insurance?
• What if you had to report your agency critical indicators to a peer group every month?
• What if everyone on your team understood your value proposition and sales system inside and out?
• What if you were the most feared agency in your market?

What if you brought your team together and put one of these questions up on the table? What kind of conversation would follow? What would describing the outcome do for your level of excitement? What kind of confidence would develop by being able to describe that future reality?

You see, when you start with "what if..." you're not even asking yourself if the idea is possible. It is assumed that it has already happened. You get to focus on the exciting new reality and all of the great outcomes that go along with it.

It's funny how the energy and excitement resulting from the conversation will allow you to make things a reality that would/could never happen if you had started with "maybe we could . . ."

We would love to hear your "what if" scenarios.

@kevintrokey

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Adding value in everything you do

It is so hard to believe that our fourth BGNLive has come and gone. I made the comment at the end of the conference how it sort of feels like it passes as quickly as a Christmas morning. You spend months shopping, buying gifts, and wrapping the presents and then the packages are torn open in mere moments.

It was much the same for us as we prepared for last week. Literally, months of planning, content creation, the building of supporting documents, and countless hours of practicing our presentations went into the preparation for last week. A week that, for us, seemed to pass in a flash.

However, for all of that preparation to be productive, last week can't be seen as the finish line. Just the opposite; it has to be the beginning for all of those in attendance. If we did our job effectively in preparation, everyone should have left our conference better prepared for their own success. And hopefully, everyone left with a commitment to put lessons learned into practice.

A few of the lessons we hope everyone took home.

• Practicing isn't enough. Deliberate Practice is what will allow us each to be an exceptional performer.
• Ideas + Execution = Value (Increase either of the first two and increase your Value)
• The most powerful questions we can be asking ourselves start with "What if . . . ".
• Sometimes all we need to get started is a Permission Slip.
• A healthy belief system is the foundation on which the desired results will be built.
• We have to plan for sales success, at the agency and producer levels.
• When all you have to focus on in a sales presentation is the power of "how" you work, amazing things can happen (Just ask a "benefits guy" who sold a P&C account).
• With the right discipline, preparation, and energy, cold calling can still produce amazing results.
• When you think of your centers of influence network, don't ask what it will be able to provide to you, ask what you can give to your network.
• Our strategic partners reminded us of the powerful tools to which we have access, yet which we struggle to fully use effectively.
• Everyone in the agency should see that they have a role in selling. We are either selling prospects on why they should become clients or re-selling clients on why they should remain clients.
• Becoming a team of continuous learners is positioning our agencies for success in this "Age of the Customer".
• Building cohesive teams takes work, but the results definitely justify the effort.
• "Value Added Services" really have no value. "Solutions", on the other hand, have unlimited value.
• A simple article discussed with our team can lead us to unbelievable places.
• Marketing activities should be developed to support our agency and producer sales goals, being sure activities are attracting the people with whom producers want to meet.
• To make the right first impression with prospects, we have to be engaging in conversations during the marketing process.
• None of us are facing our challenges alone. We should find confidence and inspiration from the other members of the network. It's exciting to think of what we can accomplish together!
• The "zone of discomfort" is where all positive growth takes place. As leaders, we must push ourselves into the middle of the zone. While our team members may not go there on their own, they will follow us there.

A huge thank you from Wendy and myself for the pleasure of spending the week with some of our best friends. As I said there more than once, it is an honor and pleasure we will never take for granted.

We have already started the planning for BGNLive5. We know, among other things, it will be an exciting reunion with old friends, as well as an introduction to new friends. See you there!

@kevintrokey

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Thanks for stopping by, but we’re gone for the week. 

Every nine months we have the great pleasure to spend some fabulous face-to-face time with a group of our favorite people in the world - the members of Benefits Growth Network.  While there may not be much fishin’ going on, you can rest assured we are working hard, making new friends, getting re-acquainted with old ones, and having fun with old and new alike. 

We are very fortunate to do what we do and to be able to do it with some truly amazing people!

And since there will be many sales people in the room, there probably will be a “fish story” or two told.  Just sayin’.

@kevintrokey

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