BUILD YOUR CAREER SECURITY
by Emily Huling
In this document, Emily Huling provides a list of career-security strategies that you can immediately implement in your work life to secure your own personal career security.
As company names disappear (remember The Home, Maryland Casualty, and Aetna Life and Casualty, to name just a few?) and agencies combine with other agencies or with banks, an employee's confidence in job security deteriorates.
Face it: There's no such thing as job security anymore. Even when job positions remain, job titles and descriptions are changing. CSRs are becoming account managers or risk managers. Producer titles are changing to consultant or advisor. Each changing job name requires an expanded set of skills needed to achieve objectives.
Future-oriented, smart employees are changing with the times by casting off the old mindset of “what's in it for me?” to “how can I help myself advance?” In other words, they're creating personal career security.
Career security means establishing your own unique competencies and individual reputation in the insurance industry. Don't blame your employer or coworkers for bad performance. Even when you find yourself in a difficult employment situation due to operational or market conditions, the career-security test is how you handle this challenging situation. Individuals must assume full responsibility for their own job performance.
This isn't as hard as it sounds. Maintain technical competency by embracing continuous learning. Establish professional competency by knowing what customers and coworkers expect and delivering it. Here's a list of career-security strategies that you can immediately implement in your work life:
BE CHEERFUL
My wise mother always told me, “You can't always be happy, but you owe it to the world to be cheerful.” People don't want to be around complainers and grumps. Life is more pleasant and more work gets accomplished when an individual's disposition is upbeat and positive. Don't saddle your clients or coworkers with what ails you. Be cheerful about life.
APOLOGIZE
When confronted with a situation that needs to be corrected, simply saying, “I'm sorry that happened,” no matter who's responsible, moves the conversation from problem to solution. This is a tough one for many people. Clients who need to get a problem resolved want to hear the words “I'm sorry.” Those magic words can avoid emotionally escalating conversations. You'll find that you'll quickly begin working together to find a solution.
ALWAYS TAKE THE HIGH ROAD
Not everybody you meet will be cheerful. Give people the benefit of the doubt. Don't take someone's crankiness personally. Be patient, understanding, and approach situations as if you can, and will, remedy the problem. Helping people and solving problems are opportunities to learn and shine. Take advantage of them.
MAKE THE CALL
Because our business dealings are so dependent on each other — producer to account manager, account manager to underwriter, underwriter to supervisor — we can't always deliver answers in the time frame that we've promised. When this happens, clients want one thing: To be kept advised of the status of the situation. Consider this example: You promise a policyholder that you'll have an answer by noon. At 11:45, the information you need isn't ready. Would you rather make the call to the client at 11:45, or get a call at 12:30 wondering where the information is? Career-security minded people make the call to avoid a potentially negative and damaging interaction.
CREATE PERCEIVED AUTHORITY
You can't possibly know the answers to all questions. And some situations are outside your authority level. When this happens, you need to refer to a higher authority to get assistance. How you state this communication to the client directly affects how you're perceived. Many people will say to the client, “I don't know. I need to ask my supervisor.” To achieve perceived authority the response should be, “Good question. Let me check on that, and I'll get back to you no later than noon tomorrow.” Which sounds more professional to the client? The second response, of course. Framing the response to give yourself authority and accountability is another way to enhance your reputation. And you must keep your agreements!
DEMONSTRATE ACCOUNTABILITY
Change and date your outgoing voice mail message daily. By telling the caller “This is Emily Huling. Today is April 1. I'm in the office today. I'm sorry I missed your call. Please leave a message and I'll call you back within two hours,” I've made myself accountable. Another way to demonstrate professionalism is to end all external e-mail correspondence with an e-mail signature that contains all the information found on your letterhead. If the receiver needs to forward the message, move it to a paper or automated file, or just get back to you in a way other than e-mail, all this information comes in handy. It means, I'm accessible and reliable.
We're all in the career security business. At all times, be sure your actions show that you can be counted on to get the job done.
Emily Huling, CIC, CMC, president of Selling Strategies, Inc., wrote Selling in a Hard Market . Through speaking, workshops, and consulting, Emily helps the insurance industry achieve customer service and sales excellence. For information, call (888) 309-8802 or visit www.sellingstrategies.com.