This April is distracted driving awareness month. The national safety council is implementing a campaign to stop people driving while distracted. They want to cut out the use of cell phones and other devices while driving. As well as being an admirable cause, this campaign reminded me of something.
We don’t have much experience of distracted driving on the road, but we often talk to insurance agency owners who drive their businesses with only one eye on the road. These owners allowed outside interests, or personal goals, to interfere with their responsibilities to the agency. They start to let things slide and pay less attention; the agency that generates their income becomes a secondary task. If you let that happen to your agency you are putting yourself and the business at risk.
When Your Lifestyle Becomes a Problem
When you run a successful insurance agency, you can have a great lifestyle. You can eat at the finest restaurants, drink the finest wine and go on amazing vacations. Unless you are really successful, and really careful, you can’t sustain that lifestyle while performing effectively as an owner. To remain successful, you need to improve every single day. If you don’t, your business’ revenue is only going to go one way.
By the time you realize you’ve been paying more attention to your lifestyle than your business, you could find that you have very little business left. Which raises the question, how are you going to maintain that lifestyle after you’ve sold a business that’s been in decline?
Dreaming Your Career Away
Like its road-going counterpart, this form of distracted driving comes in many forms. You don’t have to be distracted entirely from the business to cause some damage. It may come from momentary lapses, like clockwatching. If you lose your enthusiasm for the business, you might find your interest in day-to-day tasks begins to wane. You start thinking about leaving the office earlier and earlier in the day. You start wishing the day away, thinking about your retirement and how your life will improve.
You are unlikely to achieve that retirement daydream if you haven’t been paying attention to your work. When an owner or shareholder is clearly absent for most of the day it sends a message to employees. They won’t put in the effort if you’re not interested. If you are all spending the day with one eye on the clock, who is watching over the business?
This April, you will no doubt encounter a few flyers and online articles about the dangers of distracted driving. Even if you don’t need help keeping your eye on the road, it may be time to drag your eyes back to your agency’s future.
