Mike's Secret For Managing Successful Staff

Provide your staff with opportunities or they will provide you with apathy and abandonment. 

It is a rare person that starts a job somewhere and then works there for years and years and years wanting nothing more than to do exactly what they were hired to do many moons ago for the exact same pay. Yet, so many Agency owners feel like they can get away with treating their people like this.
 
You need to find out what your people's motivations for working are and provide them a path to getting more of it. 

No one WANTS to work.  They may want to get out of the house so they're not home with the kids all day.  They may want to get out of the house so they're not alone all day.  They may want or need more money and all that comes with that, be it for personal or financial reasons. 

Once employed the person is probably not looking to do the exact same thing forever.  They're going to want to have more responsibility.  They're going to want to earn more.  They're going to want work-life balance.  They're going to want SOMETHING other than "Come here every day and do the same thing every day from now until you are no longer here."

And the funny thing is, you know this. Yet, so many Agent owners are trying to figure out how to skimp as much on things, that they're willing to turn a blind eye to culture, opportunity, and employee happiness to do it.  And then we see posts in our Insurance Soup Facebook group about how hard it is to find good people. Well, I'm going to say it... 

You've probably had good people and you've probably shit the bed with them.
You've probably have hired someone that would have been better with training. 
You've hired someone who could have taken on more. 
You've hired someone who would have worked harder if you didn't suck at pretending to care so much. 
You've hired someone who never bought in because you never shared the vision. 
You've hired someone who sucked for you but has been a star everywhere but your office. 

There are good people out there looking for solid careers.  Not everyone who didn't work out for you sucked. If everyone you hire sucks, chances are it's you who is the vacuum. 

If you hired someone and can honestly say...
I vetted them.
I got to know them.
I checked their references.
I got to know what they wanted out of their career.
I trained them. 
I coached them regularly.
I checked in to see how they were doing and feeling.
I provided them the tools they needed to be successful.
I provided a competitive pay structure.
I provided upward mobility.
I provided work-life balance.
I shared my vision and they bought in.
I made my office a fun place to work.
...and they STILL sucked? Well then, they probably sucked. But most Agencies are not doing or providing much, if any, of this.

"Sell more" is not good advice from a manager or owner to an employee who is frustrated. 

YOU sell more. You won't. You don't. Many of you can't.  Yet, you levy this exact pressure on someone who you expect to be as good or better than you without having anyone of substance within your 4 walls capable of getting them trained up because you opened an Agency without a plan and figured hanging a sign and buying some leads was going to make you rich. 

You need to provide them what they want and need to be successful: a great place to work, genuine care, culture, opportunity, and mobility. 

I promise you all those employees that you always bring in that "suck so bad" will be better. As will your Agency, your bottom line, your employee's happiness, the length of time they stick with you, your book of business, your client's satisfaction and a lot more. 

Better staff starts from the top. If they suck, chances are you do too. And it's ok to suck, just look in the mirror and work on yourself instead of wondering why a bunch of people aren't doing what you want better than you're willing to do it yourself.