EF Fall 07.indd - National Association of Professional Allstate ...

You should set one, three and fiveyear goals, and then reduce them into90 day plans. That’s a thirteen week planthat includes key goals and action items.By breaking your long term goals downinto short term goals, your goals will notappear to so overwhelming. Instead ofthinking about how you plan to achieve$20,000 in annual AF production, you’llfocus instead on $5,000. Many Allstateagents and EFSs have improved their resultsusing this technique.Every person in your agency shouldalso have a documented Positional Contractor Agreement. Have staff memberswrite their own about their job in youragency. Then, you can review them andsee where they need help in understandingtheir jobs better. Who knows, theymight surprise you and show you whatthey are really doing on a daily basis...Last, but not least, you need a solidProcedure or Operations Manual foryour staff. This manual or manualsshould be living documents that containall the pertinent information necessaryto run your agency.Everything needs to be flow-chartedand documented: from how to open upthe office in the morning, to how to performa quarterly review with a client, tohow to answer the phones, to how toclose down the offices at night, etc.There are a several huge side benefitsthat comes form investing time to documentall of your systems. When you aredone, at least three things happen:1. You don’t go to your team member,Joey, and say, “You’ve messed up again.Why can’t you get this right?” Instead,when something goes wrong, you goto Joey and say, “Joey, my boy, there issomething wrong with our system here.Let’s look at it together and see whereit broke down!” Sure, Joey may havemessed up following the system. But,now you are working as a team to solvethe problem and if the problem is thetraining system, you can fix it withoutmaking Joey feel bad or getting upsetyourself.2. The second hidden benefit is thatthe manuals start to manage the teamand you get more free time. That’s right!You get more free time because the manualmanages for you.3. You start attracting great peoplebecause your agency becomes known asa great place to work. Expectations arewell documented, teamwork is encouragedat all levels in the organization, andeveryone starts having fun and tellingtheir friends about your office.Remember, this is a marathon, not asprint. You won’t create a perfect teamin a few months, or even in a couple ofyears. It takes time to get it all done sothat you can have a profitable agencythat works without you. But, it can bedone...Key 5:Support Risk TakingWithin the set rules of the game,encourage the team to take risks. If therules and boundaries are well communicated,everyone will stay within them.When you support risk taking, yourstaff is free to take new approaches togetting business, to retaining clients,and to increasing lines of sales into currentclients.KAIZEN is a Japanese term for“Continuous and Never-Ending Improvement.”By supporting risk taking,KAIZEN can be accelerated and youcan retire sooner. Delegate to the teamand support risk taking within the rulesof the game and KAIZEN will occur.Most companies go through periodsof growth followed by plateaus, or a levelingoff. Because growth periods are oftenthe result of innovations brought aboutby risk taking, encouraging risk takingtends to reduce your time on the plateauand increase time spent in the growthmode. This will keep you growing at afaster pace and moving ever closer tothe successful business that runs withoutyou, the owner.Key 6:100% Inclusion and InvolvementSynergy is found when the result isgreater than the sum of the parts. It iswhere 1 + 1 = 3, 4, 5 or more. Synergyoccurs when everyone is included andinvolved in the business.At HCA, Hospital Corporation ofAmerica, they have a sign on the wallthat says that their mission is to provideevery patient with the best health programsand environments possible.When Steven Covey, author of FirstThings First and Six Habits of Highly EffectivePeople, visited one of their hospitals,he asked the janitor what he didat HCA. The janitor’s response was, “Ihelp keep our patients healthy by maintaininga clean and healthy environmentfor their stay.”That janitor was both included andinvolved in helping HCA achieve theirmission and vision.I wonder, if we asked each of your staffmembers what the vision of your agencywas and how they helped contribute tothat vision on a daily basis, what wouldthey say?TEAM: Together EveryoneAchieves More.If your team were more effective,would you feel better about your businessand your life?For more information on buildinga rock solid team, read Instant Team byBradley J. Sugars. You can pick one up atBarnes and Noble or order them onlineat Amazon.com.Time for a BusinessHealth Check?To see how your business is doing, goto www.actioncoach.com/cornerstone fora free Business Health Check or a BusinessDiagnostic Test.Also, watch for a free seminar called“Billionaire in Training” featuring BradSugars. The seminar will held throughoutthe US and Canada this fall. Please feelfree to contact me for more information.How Do I Get My Own QuestionsAnswered by the Coach?To ask a business question,just go to www.regonline.com/ask4allstate.This web survey has beenset up especially for Allstateagency owners tosubmit questions directlyto me.60 — Exclusivefocus Fall 2007