Most of us have developed our leadership style by observing the leaders, executives and managers we worked with or for throughout our career. Of course, we inject our leadership style with our own take on the world including our values. However, these are usually modifications of the model we’ve observed and been a part of [...]
Dealing with Difficult People
June 15, 2009 By 2 Comments
You know, this would be a great business if it weren’t for having to deal with people all the time… OK, so maybe I’ve exaggerated things a bit, but we’ve all certainly heard that saying before. Why does that sentiment ring true for so many folks? Obviously it’s because of all the people challenges we’re [...]
Leadership Finesse: The Art of Asking Questions
February 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Whenever I ask people what they feel the biggest leadership problem is, I always get the same answer. It’s not lack of integrity, poor decision making, or lack of vision (although that’s #2). Poor Communication is cited as the number one shortcoming of leaders. Poor communication is often the cause for unnecessary conflict, improperly done [...]
How to Retain Agents in a Tough Economy
December 1, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Finding good agents is always a challenge. It’s time-consuming and usually requires some financial investment as well. So it just makes sense – after going through all the effort to bring them on board – to invest a bit more time and money to retain them. Many organizations approach this task from the wrong perspective. [...]
Emotional Intelligence in Leadership
November 21, 2008 By Leave a Comment
I’ve recently had some discussions with clients regarding whether employing the competencies of Emotional Intelligence in their leadership style will accelerate or decelerate their productivity and progress. Study after study has shown that leaders who sharpen and employ EI skills consistently outperform peers who lead through variations of the stereotypical Command-Control model. Additionally, companies which [...]
Turnover is Not a Problem
October 25, 2008 By Leave a Comment
“Ha!” you say. “For someone to make a statement like that, they obviously haven’t worked in the real world and certainly have never had to run a company.” Well, let me assure you. In my past I’ve not only run companies, but spent many years in one of the most notorious industries for turnover – [...]
Does Attitude Really Count?
September 24, 2008 By 2 Comments
For as long as I’ve been a professional I’ve heard that a person’s attitude makes a difference. You’ve probably heard all the cute sayings about attitude – “Your Attitude Determines Your Altitude”, Attitude is Everything”, “The Only Thing You Can Control is Your Attitude”. Every sales manager talks about attitude. Every leader talks about attitude. [...]
The 4 Myths about Internet Recruiting
May 2, 2008 By Leave a Comment
There’s as much demand as ever for insurance and financial services. In a tough economy, people especially need their assets protected and they need sound professional advice for minimizing erosion of their investments. So it’s no surprise that the need for more, highly-productive agents and advisors is on the rise. There seems to be a [...]
Motivating Agents: Why it doesn’t work
January 20, 2008 By 2 Comments
A topic that I’m often asked about is how to motivate agents. Executives are always looking for ways to improve the attitude and performance of their agents. Clients will tell me about how they’ve met and worked with each of their agents to get them to improve their performance but can’t seem to make a [...]
Internet Recruiting is Dead!
June 9, 2007 By Leave a Comment
Internet recruiting is dead. Or at least it should be put to sleep. Recruiting independent agents and financial advisors on the internet is basically good for one thing – appeasing corporate offices. It produces lots of activity – which corporate loves to see. But let’s face it, while it does produce lots of activity, it’s [...]
