If you own an insurance agency, you’re a leader. You’re in charge of the futures of your staff, clients and family. Being a leader is difficult. Becoming a leader takes time, effort and hard work.
Leadership can mean different things to different people, but there is a traditional image of leadership. The traditional leader is strong, intelligent, brave and honest. It’s an image developed by novels and movies. We have all known and heard about modern day leaders, including my personal example of a leader, Nelson Mandela. In order to lead, it is essential that you put the interests of others ahead of your own self interest. Leadership requires us to make difficult decisions in which we weigh the risks and benefits of many strategies. Leadership is demonstrated in many ways, including major acts of heroism and doing the small things in a professional manner. Although they are not often thought of as leaders, business owners including insurance agency owners are in a position of leadership. They become the symbol and identity of the agency. Agency owners should be cautious if they see themselves as symbols of the agency they represent and they should not equate their own success with the success of the agency.
Insurance Agency Owners are Vital to an Agency’s Success
An agency needs to have a strong, successful leader. The mistake a lot of insurance agency owners make is that they assume that the business will only be successful with them at the helm. This assumption doesn’t usually come in the form of a conscious thought. It occurs when their personal identity becomes too closely aligned with the agency’s identity.
This feeling of alignment can sometimes lead to bad decisions. Insurance agency owners will refuse to sell their business, because they fear the business will fail without them. Sometimes they hold on to this belief for too long and the agency value suffers.
Insurance Agency Owners and Selflessness
With this in mind, it’s important to consider another traditional characteristic of a great leader, selflessness. A truly great leader considers the good of the many over the good of the few. Selfless leaders accept that the agency itself is more important than any individual, even the owner.
An insurance agency owner, who follows this characteristic of leadership, will engage in perpetuation planning to protect the future of the business. A good perpetuation plan will determine the future of the agency beyond the current ownership. Perpetuation planning will also give an insurance agency the opportunity to assess their leadership skills and decide how to move forward.
Before you take the first step in the perpetuation planning process, there’s a question that all insurance agency owners should ask themselves, “What kind of leader am I?”
Are you an agency owner curious about the value of your agency? Read our Indicators of Value Here.
