INTERVIEW IT’S THE SECRET SAUCE TO SUCCESS
Of your 50,000 readers, 49,995 of them aren’t even close to a level of clarity that puts tension on their own decision-making and behavior.
Even though the short-term gap in income due to expenses went down, they looked to grow greater revenue using a higher value time. I think capacity is the productivity discussion, it is the effectiveness discussion. You can’t expand capacity without arbitrage, which is like the role technology plays or without the selection and focus. So, I say it’s the principle of doing the deselection, and frankly put it on someone else’s plate. Do only the things that only you can do.
it’s about whether they are able to as well. You clarify what success looks like for them. You define the criteria for how you measure that. You make sure they understand the processes that are not negotiable. It’s about understanding the right things to be done and making sure people are doing the right things. That’s really what alignment is about. It’s the magic, by the way. It’s the secret sauce to success.
FELDMAN: Once you have alignment, how do you make sure it stays aligned?
SHEAHAN: It’s defining what success looks like for them personally. If you want to ask your average broker or agent what success looks like, they would give you a set of generic answers or give you some production numbers. That’s not a level of specificity that drives behavior. It’s specificity like: How many hours are you working? What kind of business are you doing? What’s your average policy value and what kind of client are you serving? What’s the breadth of products that you offer? What is your average dollar sale? I’d get to a level of specificity that really drives decision-making. And then out of that alignment, it becomes a little bit easier. So, I’ll give you an example. A lot of people in my space have extremely robust social media presence. I don’t. People
SHEAHAN: Bloody hell, how long we got? [laughter] That’s a big question. I have a company with 50 staff dedicated to solving that problem. Alignment. So, here’s the deal. There’s no shortage of good ideas. But they don’t all have the impact we most want. Alignment is a process of clarification. What does success really look like? And then relentlessly focus on only the things that get you to that outcome, and basically just be happy not doing anything else. But if you’re running a decent-sized book of business and you have two or three staff, then it’s not just about whether you’re able to do all the right things that are in alignment with your outcome, 12
InsuranceNewsNet Magazine » April 2019
FELDMAN: How do you ensure that people are aligned correctly?
constantly are frustrated with me for that. But I know that because I’m clear on success. I’m able to evaluate whether social media activity on a daily basis is an extremely valuable investment in my personal time and I often come up with the answer “no.” But the only reason I know how to evaluate that is because I’m clear on what success looks like for me. FELDMAN: So, people are not specific enough in defining success and working back from there? SHEAHAN: Correct. Of your 50,000 readers, 49,995 of them aren’t even close to a level of clarity that puts tension on their own decision-making and behavior. I think people are afraid of being specific because it means you begin to say no to things, and people don’t like saying no to stuff. They’re worried that they won’t get there, so they take every dollar of revenue that gets presented or every client. But those of us who are really successful in business know that not every dollar of revenue is created equal, and sometimes there are better clients. If you’re afraid of turning your back on anything, then you see yourself on this self-perpetuating spiral downward. FELDMAN: You talk a lot about people “stepping into their power.” What do you mean by that?
