In many agencies, the team would rather have a root canal than participate in any training or teaching a new team member. The idea that something could disrupt their day is just too much! That’s plain old crazy talk and it will hold back your career. The world and insurance technology are always changing, you either educate yourself and train or become an outdated dinosaur talking about how you remember rate cards. As for training others, it’s a blessing to be able to train new team members. Remember, someone had to teach you right?
Let’s first focus on personal development and training. I’ll never forget when I worked with 12 agencies who all brought their service teams in for a training with me. I got the bitter beer face from all of them. I asked, What did you think when your agency manager told you that training was in your future?” The responses: I don’t have time, I have to wake up 10 minutes early to get here, I don’t need it. By the end of the day everyone’s tune changed but the initial response was more like “Can I get a root canal instead?” When your agency owner invests in your development, show a positive attitude. Get excited. Even if you learn 1 thing you are ahead. Don’t be a Debbie Downer; embrace the idea of training.
Next, please welcome new team members with open arms because they are here to make you less busy in the long run. I can’t stand it when I spend time and effort recruiting with an agency and miraculously no one has time to train them. This is a classic slow down to speed up. If you don’t train them the right way and coach them they will never get it and you will remain “busy”. Remember, somehow you got trained in the industry. This is paying it forward. Also, you have the opportunity to improve your training experience, so just do it. We need to welcome new team members, not make them feel like a burden.
Training can take us all out of our comfort zone and that’s the point. Be a champion of training not a Debbie Downer.
