In this eight-part series, Carl Van shares his thoughts on thecharacteristics of the awesome adjuster. The series is to serve asa sort of road map for those interested in knowing what it takes tobe among the top in their field.

Of all the characteristics that I have mentioned so far is thisseries, this is the most easily attained, and the most oftenignored, by claim adjusters. Do not confuse the desire forexcellence with being a perfectionist. People who simply cannotlive unless everything is absolutely perfect can get frustrated inthe claim world.

Awesome adjusters do not want everything to be perfect, but theydo feel that doing a great job is more pleasing than doing amediocre job. To be productive and valuable, one must see one'sresponsibilities, whatever they are, as important and worth doingwell.

When I was hired by my first insurance company, I was not putimmediately into a claim position. I was placed in the file roomand asked to help make photocopies for the adjusters. Keep in mind,back when I first started in the insurance business in 1980,photocopy machines were simple but slow.

Three of us in the file room would make photocopies for all ofthe adjusters. That is all that we did, and we worked in shifts.When I first met the other two, I thought that there must have beena mistake. How could someone as intelligent as I was possibly beworking with these two people? The first guy had a metal plate inhis head or something. The other guy could barely read English, andhad this weird lopsided smile that made me want to turn my headwhile talking to him.

After a few days, I decided that I had had enough, and I went tomy supervisor and told him that I wanted to be promoted into theunit that takes loss reports. He noted my desire and asked me to goback to work. Knowing that my future included much bigger thingsthan making photocopies, I did not take my work too seriously.After all, this was just photocopying. Any idiot could do it.

When adjusters would come to me with their files and ask whentheir copies would be done, I would roll my eyes and say, “It willbe done when it's done.” The other two guys would get all bent outof shape and go into a panic if they cut off something from thephotocopy that they were making. If something were a little bittwisted on the page, they would stand there and figure out how tobend the paper just right to make sure that every single piece wasphotocopied. It seemed ridiculous to me. This was justphotocopying, for crying out loud.

When adjusters would approach these Bozos and ask when theirfiles would be done, these dopes would give them an exact time andswear that it would be done by then. Sure enough, they worked likemaniacs to get it done on time. It made me feel sorry for them.They had such little minds and such little imaginations; thisprobably was the most important thing that they were ever going tobe asked to do in their lives.

After what seemed to be an eternity, about four weeks, I went tomy supervisor and pleaded, “I can't take it in there anymore. Thisis just photocopying, and it is really mindless. It takes nointelligence to do my job. It takes no skill, no initiative, and nointegrity. A moron could do this job.”

As I was saying this, I decided that I would be gracious andaccept my supervisor's apology, which was surely to come swiftly. Iwould accept an immediate move to the loss report unit. Perhaps hemight take me to lunch to further extend his apology for leavingsuch a skilled and talented individual wallowing in menial work forso long. A raise would not have been out of line, but I did notwant to be too greedy.

My supervisor had a slightly different response than the one Iwas expecting. “You're right,” he said. “That job does not take anyskill. It takes no intelligence whatsoever. Almost any idiot can dothat job, and you are not even the best one.”

Those verbal bricks hit hard. What was going on here? Was I tobe judged on the work that I was doing, and not how brilliant I am?Was I to be judged on results? How unfair.

It had never dawned on me that people saw me by the work that Idid. I judged myself by what I was capable of, but others werejudging me by what I did. I am very, very fortunate that I learnedthis lesson when I first started in this industry.

I have known many people like this. People just like me who didnot have someone to straighten them out as I had. People who lookedat their jobs of being claim adjusters as less than the mostimportant thing in the world. I have seen people go through theirwhole careers without understanding how crucial it is to want to doan outstanding job, regardless of what it is, at all times, becausepeople see you for what you do.

Scott, the No-Jerk

As a young claim adjuster with a year's worth of experience inauto property damage, I was asked to help out in the subrogationdepartment for a few months. One day while talking to mysupervisor, complaining that I needed someone else to help pull theweight, I was told that I did not need to worry about it anymore; atrainee had been hired.

I was elated. “Oh thank God,” I said, “Please tell me you didnot hire some jerk. What's his name?”

My supervisor responded, “Scott Jerk.”

“Jerk? The guy's name is Jerk?”

It turns out that his name was not Jerk, but Jurek. Scott Jurekknew absolutely nothing about insurance; as a matter of fact hespent most of his time at lunch and break talking about music. Hewas a quick learner and never seemed to mind when asked to docertain things, even when I could not explain why we were doingthem.

I proofread everyone else's arbitration forms before giving themto our supervisor to check. To complete these forms did not take alot of brains. It did not even take much skill. Anyone in thesubrogation department could fill out these forms completely withno errors, if they simply paid attention. That is why oursupervisor would always ask if we had double checked them. Most ofus would say yes, even if we had not.

The supervisor then would ask, “Carl, did Linda double check herwork to be sure that she had completed the subrogation formsproperly?”

“Well, she said that she did,” I would respond. My supervisorthen would review them, pass on anything that looked correct, andhand back anything that might have had errors.

When it came to mine, he would ask, “Did you double check tomake sure that you filled out everything correctly?”

“You betcha,” I would say, whether I had or not. Although I hadhigh rate of correct completions, every once in a while, he wouldfind one with errors. On those occasions, he would hand the formback to me and say, “Are you sure you double checked everything?”He knew full well that I had not, or I would have caught the error.

One day, something extraordinary happened. I gave the stack ofarbitration forms to my supervisor, and when he got to Scott's, heasked whether Scott had double checked his work. My response was“He said he did.”

At that point, my supervisor invoked what I now call the ScottReality. He took the stack of Scott's arbitration forms and simplyput them in the pile as approved, without bothering to look atthem. I asked, “Why is it that you are checking all of the otheradjuster's arbitration forms, and even my arbitration forms, andyou are not checking Scott's?”

He looked at me and said, “If Scott says he double checked them,then that means he did double check them.”

I was absolutely floored. How was it that Scott, after just afew weeks in the department, was already doing work at such a levelthat my supervisor had decided he did not even need to bother tocheck?

I spent the next few weeks keeping an eye on this Jurekcharacter, trying to figure out what his game was. Sure enough, Ifound his little trick. When Scott said he that he had donesomething, he really had. If the supervisor said to use black inkinstead of blue, Scott used black ink. If Scott were asked to proofread all the letters before they were sent out, he proofed them. IfScott were asked to make a second copy of contentions and staplethem upside down in the file folder, that is what he did.

The reality was that Scott liked doing a good job. Not only didhe enjoy doing an excellent job, he liked the fact that peoplecould trust him when he said that he was going to get somethingdone.

Raising Expectations

Most of the time, the desire to do an outstanding job comes frompersonal values instilled at an early age but, sometimes, it can bedeveloped. To learn the desire for excellence, one must be exposedto the rewards. This is management's greatest failing: attemptingto train employees to desire excellence without showing potentialrewards. How does anyone know that they want something until theyhave tried it or seen it?

Scott already had the desire for excellence when he became anadjuster. He knew that meant that even the boring things have toget done; such as making sure that forms are complete, gettingstatements when needed, documenting files, attaching photos in theright places, and using the right color ink. Why? Because Scottknew that no one could see his hard work if their attention were tobe distracted by the little things.

The desire for excellence does not impede the ability to acceptfeedback and constructive criticism. Pride in one's work is anessential element in the desire for excellence, but it cannot standin the way of accepting that improvement is possible and should besought.

In a very short period of time, Scott's recoveries far exceededmine. While I was wasting time redoing work, because I had not beenthorough enough in the first place, Scott was moving on to otherfiles.

Scott Jurek now is a senior claim executive for a regionalinsurance company. He has been put in charge of claim operations inseveral states and serves on the claim leadership team. Once upon atime, he was a subrogation adjuster trainee, who liked big bandmusic, who worked in a small office in Los Angeles, at a desk nextto mine. I was fortunate to have been a friend of his, because hissuccess was inevitable and I had the privilege to have him rub offon me. The Scott Reality, the desire for excellence at all times,is a hallmark of the awesome adjuster.

Carl Van is president and CEO of International InsuranceInstitute and dean of he School of Claims Performance. He can bereached at www.insuranceinstitute.com.