We've all heard a lot about the sky falling lately. Some days, I believe it. Our economy is in awful shape. The insurance industry, according to one esteemed colleague, is at its worst since 1933. By nearly any measure, we are doomed. What will save us? How will we recapture the good old days? Who will be our hero?
May I propose a part of the answer? The hero is not me, or the government, or Chicken Little. The hero is you, the industry leader.
Read June's For the Manager column, "Create solid processes, avoid operating like law firm."
The sky has been falling for a long time. In my nearly three decades in the American agency system, I have seen a new crisis every few years--and many of you have seen them, too. We must continually adapt, adjust, reflect and plan--sometimes more than others, and now maybe more than ever. The one constant we have is that there always will be a crisis to manage. In the last 30 years alone, we had natural disasters including Hurricanes Hugo, Andrew and Katrina; financial crises including Black Monday of 1987, the 1980s-1990s savings and loan crisis, and the 2008 global financial crisis; and the usual spate of earthquakes, tornados and other disasters.
The very nature of our business, though, is crisis management. We are the ones who remain standing after Hurricane Andrew or Ike or the nameless storm or flood. Right now we are watching the Great Oil Leak of 2010 with bated breath, but we are ready. In each situation, we take the claims, adjust the losses and pay the bills. Each of us has a part in the solution. Some of the very steps we take to ensure our survival after these types of crises will ensure our survival through stock market crashes, dot-com fiascos and economic meltdowns.
Read Lisa Harrington's May article, "Juggling agency income, outgo and upkeep."
Part of what we do is in preparation, if we were paying attention during our boom times. Much of our job involves risk management, careful planning for all possible eventualities and sharing that information with anyone who will listen. We have our back-up drives, our flashlights, our phone trees.
And when the going gets really rough, as leaders, we make extremely difficult decisions. We cut where we must, and as good leaders, we hate it. Many folks in my circles say that the hard decisions should have been made before now, but we were generous. We hung in with an employee, carrier or agency hoping for better performance or higher productivity. After all, why not? Times were good, and generosity is valuable. None that I've spoken to have regrets about that, either.
But at some point, we can be comforted by remembering that there is one thing that doesn't change. Humans don't change that much in a single lifetime. Processes change and laws are passed and IT systems change, but the human psyche is just the same as it was 100 years ago. You can look it up; studies are done all the time on human reactions, brain activity and the like. Our skill at relationship management, as leaders, is never more valuable than in tough times.
And our lack of skill at relationship management will never glare back at us more harshly than right now. It is our most valuable skill for coming though any difficult situation. While we often feel the need to cut staffing to the bone, as the adrenaline sets in and survival mode overtakes us, we mustn't forget that we are dealing daily with human beings. The same set of good relationship skills we used in good times will work in bad ones. That's where you shouldn't change. That's where change is enough. You'll have to change a lot of things, but maybe not that.
Remember the basics of leadership in these times. Whatever decisions you must make, remember the impact they will have on the other human beings in your office. There is an affect up and down the ladder when major changes are made, and the reaction by the human beings could cause other problems and distractions that were unintended consequences.
So the part of the solution I offer is this: Stay close to your various circles. You need the juice from other brains, that connectedness that happens when we work together to solve a problem. There is nothing else on Earth that can duplicate it. In an effort to help folks with autism, for example, The British Psychological Society's website discusses one study showing increased neural activity in social settings versus in isolation. There is a distinct physical reaction in our brain matter when we are actually in a room with someone versus communication in other more isolated forms. Taking that to the level of managing and leadership, we should consider seriously the simple value of working through problems together, as a group, so we can find better solutions.
Talk to your employees. Ask them about possible solutions. Seek out your partners, carriers, agencies and peers, and just brainstorm. Visit with new friends about old ideas, and vice versa. Listen more, and talk less. We know how to do this. Our collective wisdom over centuries in this wonderful industry is not for nothing.
I understand the value of making adjustments in communication styles based on the audience. We know there are distinctions between generations, for example. That valuable observation is more about the leader's understanding of the contributions and abilities of those groups. Generally, the actual needs are the same. It's just the style, not the substance, in how you address those needs that may change.
While we are at it, let's bring down a few walls. Competition, thank goodness, is alive and well. But that doesn't mean we're at war with each other. We're at war with the economy at the moment, or perhaps with government programs that hinder that competition. But healthy competition among ourselves is good for the industry. We can share information and help each other and build respect for our peers without sacrificing food on our own tables.
Before we get too far lost in philosophy, let's be practical. What can we possibly do to fix the economy on our own? Are you overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all? We don't save the whole economy, just our own. First we survive, and we keep saving for the future, and spending when we can. The final answer will be different for each company, agency or person. We have the ingenuity and creativity to find new solutions. We've never had access to so much information in human history. Create a new vision and go for it.
You may want to consider whole new ways of doing business, such as bricks versus clicks, or add new revenue streams. Change your approach, your carriers, your agencies, your environment, your computer system, your employees, or even your wardrobe. But don't worry too much about changing how you handle human beings, assuming you were already doing that right, because we as a species just don't change that much in one lifetime.
Good leadership prevails. As Martin Luther King said: "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
