We ain't small, we are super high touch

Starting 14/9/2015, we are a small high touch team of merely 10 of us. This reminds me a lot of the time when we were promoted as a Unit Manager in year 2009.

Like what you see, recommend your friends who want to try a new profession. Ops! by the way, we are seriously Insurance Professional.

Ground Zero?

I guessed it was just another journey we have to pass thru that one day our children will leave home and start a family on their own. Similarly, one day our downline managers will do the same. And, to me, it has come early. In this one Monday in September, that both our downline managers informed me that they have decided to branch out from Echelon Group. 

Am i shocked? not really. I was indeed quite prepare for it. They were promoted in year 2013 as Unit Manager (UM1) and this is the 3rd year with the Group. Since promotion till now, i just realised that no growth has been recorded with their units. Unlike my direct unit, we are still having growth every year (we really worked damn hard for growth :p) it is always my philosophy in life that all things which is important is deemed to be done well. Done well also means we must have growth, improvement in all dealings. So, i just thought probably it was about time that they should also ventured out on their own and run their agencies without tagging with the group. Perhaps a better outcome. Better outcome as in, they have to now do everything on their own. Learn to be a Leader, without any back up. 

When my UMs were with me, I will always take myself as a back up. If one day they fall, i'll still be there to take care of things, while waiting for them to bounce. Now, I don't carry that responsibility anymore, and I only need to take care of my direct unit for growth. more focus. 

On this day of 11th September, it's the last day of the UM1 units in our office. Things have to be cleared. I have blasted a message to every agents that my UMs agents have to clear everything from our office and no entry to the office thereafter. This is the one thing i have to do for them. A favour. none of the unit will do well with agents still coming back to our office. So, strictly no entry. No structure activities together. All separated. only by doing so that their agents will have no alternative but to go with them and start a new structure with their managers. All must go!

I have prior to the moving out day, that i have spoken to their agents, some i met individually in office that they must give support to their managers. They have learnt so much as a team leader in Echelon group, so now, by all means, help their agency to grow. Have faith in their managers. I guess that's all I can do to help. 

My business associate asked me if it was necessary and what others will say. I really don't care what other people will say at my back, even if no one appreciate what i have done to help their agents to grow, or whether i'll always play the game as evil agency manager, I have no regret. 

When i take the role as a Manager, it is no turning back. I can only keep moving forward. 

To all Agency Managers, it doesn't matter if your agents don't understand your motive, never mind what others nicknamed us, or we are always the bad guy, hold on to what you do. No one Manager want their agents to perform badly, No Agency manager wants their UMs to do badly. Everything is for a good course. Have faith. It is ok to have our UMs leaving us, don't think of them badly, they must have thought through things many many times to have the courage to come forward and tell us that. 

Leaving us, 

..they will have to rent an office

..they'll have to start everything on their own

..they'll have to now take risk to make every decision for the benefit of their team knowing that not all decisions are accepted well by their agents

..they'll have to now conduct their own structure days knowing no one will be there early except themselves

..they'll have all agents count on them knowing that they're the only resource their agents have.

and the list will go on. We know, we have gone through most of it. 

So, now, a new episode begins. 

VITAL BEHAVIORS, NEW LOVE?

Attended INFLUENCER training on JUNE 10-12, 2015.

One of my favorite take aways from my INFLUENCER training is Vital Behaviors (VB). These are the smallest set of actions that lead to the results you want. It is an eye opener to me. Unlike the previous training I have attended, like 7 Habits, Awareness before change etc, VB are the few high-leverage actions that if you keep doing, produce the outcomes you’re after. Vital Behaviors are keys to change efforts whether you are trying to change yourself or something larger (your team, your organization, or the world). In fact, change efforts often fail because they either focus on the results but don’t identify the specific actions to get there, or they spend time and energy on a bunch of actions that are good ideas, but aren’t the vital few.

I like to think of the vital behaviors as the MUST actions vs. the SHOULD or COULD.  For example, if I want to get my body in fighting shape, I need to workout 4 times per week.  If I want to write a book, I need to write and edit daily.  I can do a bunch of other supportive behaviors, but if I don’t do these vital behaviors, I don’t get the results I want.  Vital Behaviors cut to the chase.

Our VB Tracking chart

This is our Vital Behaviours in Sales

We have implemented Vital Behaviours (google sheet) on 29May. Since then, most of us in the team are very focus on doing our daily VB, with the belief that this VB will truly lead us to the desired result soon.

DIVIDE & CONQUER

Entering year 2015, many people forecasted that this could be a challenging year with GST implementation. That just mean many people out in the market have lesser money to spend which also mean buying additional insurance coverage will be last in their priority list.

Being a leader in my team, I have to be the last person to buy in to this belief. Therefore, I have launched a series of strategy to make sure the whole group busy with increasing productivity and have little time to worry about what's going on the in the market.

The one right thing i have done immediately entering year 2015 is to enrol myself in few company training, which ALP-AM is one of those course I have attended. Some of you may ask, why attend training? Let me tell you that, I'm a product of training. I am no genius in sales or leadership, and attending training is one of those things within my control which i can find time to attend for a better me. Through this course, i have, of the very first time knowing what VITAL BEHAVIOUR is all about. This is the one thing i have heard trainers repeatedly mentioned or our AD team promoting in the past 2 years. Anyway, this Vital Behaviour is actually one of the element introduced in Influencer program.

Right after i have attended the class, i reviewed some of the important notes and decided to break up the current manager into individual grouping. Currently, everything that we want to implement in the group, all 3 managers have to brainstorm and reach an understanding before implementation. This method has in the past 2 years slow down the whole decision making process and some of the projects have not been able to introduce to the group members. And by splitting into individual unit to make decision, this will give more free hand for manager to decide or implement what is best for the unit. By doing this, whenever a new idea is shared among managers, even if 1 or 2 of the managers decided not to proceed with their team members, other managers can still proceed to do so with their own unit. There's 2 disadvantages of this strategy, (1) if group A is implementing idea A, and group B not participating, members of group B will definitely feel left out. (2) should there be no leadership of the direct unit manager to do what's best for his/her unit, the unit production will suffer. With all these consequences taking into consideration, I have implemented this split unit with the belief that individual unit will turn out to be just fine.

Sometimes, being a leader, we have to follow our inner voice and follow our hunches.

With this split unit, it's still at the very beginning stage of 3 months. We have already benefited from the implementation indirectly. The one thing i noticed is strong bonding among individual unit has fostered. Agents will have to find a way to work well with their direct manager. Though the result in production has not showcased, but i strongly believe that result too will comes one day.

Till then, if you're still reading this post by now, thanks for being patient with us. We are still a pretty new group, always finding a better way to move forward.