Do you remember all the fights growing up with your siblings? I know I do.  Now that you are all grown up, have you questioned your decision to work with family members or siblings in an insurance agency?  

There are several benefits to working with siblings, but there are also challenges.  Not only are you facing different personalities, but whatever made you fight as kids can even be more complicated now that you’re adults. 

Now you have decided to work together? So are you ready to dive into working with siblings in an insurance agency? 

There are so many benefits, yet those benefits can also be challenges!

Benefits of Working With Siblings In An Insurance Agency:

• Trust: Siblings often have a deep understanding and familiarity with each other, which can build a strong foundation of trust. This trust can be beneficial when working closely together in a business setting
• Family Legacy/Long-Term Commitment: Siblings often have a strong commitment to each other’s success, as they share a lifelong bond. This commitment can translate into a high level of dedication and perseverance in the insurance agency, driving long-term growth.
• Shared Visions and Values: Siblings typically share similar values, upbringing, and a common background. This shared vision and values can help align their goals and work ethic, promoting a cohesive work environment
• Communication: Siblings often develop effective communication skills over time due to their long-standing relationship. This can enhance collaboration, problem-solving, and decision-making within the insurance agency.
• Sinergy and complementary skills: Siblings may have different skill sets and areas of expertise, which can create a synergistic effect. Combining their individual strengths can lead to a well-rounded team that can handle various aspects of the insurance business

Challenges of Working With Siblings In An Insurance Agency:

• • Personal Dynamics and Conflict: What made you fight as kids, may still make you fight as adults, so be careful with this, this is a professional business setting and you need to not only be professional but also act like a professional while at work
  • Difficulty in establishing boundaries: So sometimes as siblings we tend to cross boundaries to see how far we can get, sometimes to even annoy our siblings on purpose, if you want your agency to work smoothly this cannot happen anymore!

• Lack of Objectivity: this is the fact of not being influenced by personal feelings or opinions but considering only facts. With family we tend to lean on feelings instead of facts, so make sure you stop and think, “How am I reacting?” when I should be thinking and “responding” to FACT not FEELINGS

• • Sibling Rivalry: In some cases, sibling rivalry can spill over into the workplace, leading to unhealthy competition or conflicts. This can negatively impact team morale and overall productivity.
• Succession Planning: This can be difficult, sometimes older siblings think they have a higher right to be at the top of the succession plan. This may not be the case. If all of the siblings are working in the agency it depends on their role.  Distributing shares and discussing succession plans can get heated and cause more conflict. Everyone wants it to be fair, but fair can be in the eye of the beholder, which is usually the parents. It is also important to involve a third party to discuss and work through these issues as someone from outside can look at things differently and give advice. 

Building a Professional Relationship

Establishing Clear roles is HUGE! This needs to be done in the BEGINNING!!! If this is not done in the beginning everyone will assume their own role and throw their weight around as if it is their role just because they want it to be. 

But if you haven’t that’s OK too.  Some people are natural leaders and some are not. Some older children may try to assume a leadership role that they are not suited for and aggressively “assume” the role and fight with other siblings that do not agree with them. 

Sometimes we have to accept our strengths and listen to others to help determine these roles and where we fit into them.  If these roles were not determined at the beginning of the endeavor, have no fear, all is not lost! Now is the time to create these roles and responsibilities and the time to learn how to stick to them.  

Start by defining the roles the company needs and the roles you are already in and go from there. Communication is always key with your siblings while building these roles. Our Agency Assessment can help with the foundation of the agency.

Communicate Openly and Honestly to avoid misunderstanding. This DOES NOT mean you are allowed to yell, argue, or fight. It means when it comes to the business, discussing things in a calm collected “professional” manner. 

If and when the communication becomes anything different there is a problem. Siblings often have unique communication dynamics, which can lead to misinterpretation, misunderstandings, or lack of effective communication. 

 “The only person YOU can control is YOURSELF, remember this. You can control how you respond (not react, don’t react!).  You need to reflect on how your reaction may have caused someone else’s reaction and work on getting better at these interactions.” Therese Potter

Set Boundaries Between personal and professional lives. The worst thing about family businesses is how it can negatively affect family relationships. 

If business and pleasure mix it will cause deep-rooted unresolved issues and conflicts that are beneath the surface resulting in possibly destroying relationships and making family gatherings uncomfortable. 

You have to separate work from pleasure.  Make rules like not allowing talks about the business during holidays and family get-togethers. Small talk at work about the family is ok, but bringing family events and issues to work should also not be tolerated. 

You don’t want your staff hearing this and getting involved either, so be mindful of your conversations. You can find a link to our family contract below. 

It is a professional work environment, not a competitive field. Growing up we compete against our siblings for our parent’s attention all the time, what makes you think the workplace will be any different? 

You need to recognize and address any competitive situations you may have by working with siblings in an insurance agency. If your parents own the agency which is usually the case you have to be careful that siblings aren’t competing for the parent’s attention in the business side of things. 

Remember this is a business and not a playground. You have to deal with everything in a professional manner!

Fostering a cooperative work environment will be important. You need to foster siblings’ strengths, not everyone has leadership skills, organization skills, sales, and service skills, you may need to determine who does what before making any major decision about working with siblings in an insurance agency. 

Just because you are family does not mean you can’t celebrate work wins! You need to celebrate individual successes and collective successes as a team.  You would want your employees to feel celebrated and loved, the same goes for family that you work with, but don’t make it awkward. Treat everyone the same and if you can’t do this you need to figure out how!

Resolving Conflicts Effectively

We are surrounded by conflict, you cannot escape it, especially when working with siblings in an insurance agency. Always encourage open and respectful communication when conflict arises. 

In a normal agency, you don’t see very much conflict, you see people discussing topics in meetings. They can disagree but they talk through their disagreements. DON’T FIGHT or argue and physical fighting is NEVER warranted in ANY situation.  

Physical altercations should be grounds for termination, this is something that wouldn’t happen in an agency between 2 co-workers and is not acceptable in any case. As a team, you should implement conflict resolution strategies across the agency.  

Having these strategies in place before conflict will help you and your staff have a plan on what to do if a conflict arises. If the conflict happens to be with your co-work, who is also your sister or brother, this does not give you the opportunity to treat it like the good old days and treat them like a child.  

It most definitely does not give you a chance to disrespect them or treat them any differently than you would treat a co-worker who is not related to you. If you find yourself getting worked up, frustrated, and overwhelmed by the situations you need to do some self-reflecting. 

Getting professional help, or learning how to meditate to help reduce stress and calm yourself when conflict arises is a key not only to a successful career and life but to a successful family-owned and operated business.

When you work with your family it is hard to separate work and family issues. You need to focus on the family when you are not working and work when you are not with your family.  The environment at work needs to be one of professionalism and respect for others, their job, and their work. It is not a time to bring up family matters or family business.  

You need to make sure you are treating everyone that works for the agency the same. You can not favor employees regardless of your relationship with them.  

Company culture is VERY important. That company culture can determine whether you keep employees or not, so make sure you build an agency culture you are proud of, not one you don’t even want to think about. If this is the case and it bothers you, APP is here to help. 

We have worked with many sibling-run, family-owned, and even spouse-run agencies and we know how to set the ground rules to work through all the background noise, get to the important matters, and get the focus off the family issues and back on to the insurance issues.  

If you are working with siblings in an insurance agency and need help, set up an appointment with us today and we will determine how we can help your agency be ridiculously amazing. Here is how Agency Performance Partners can help!

Balancing Work and Family

BOUNDARIES when working with siblings in an insurance agency are very important. Those boundaries need to be set early and followed and checked up on consistently. Encourage family meetings to discuss family matters and business matters. It is not appropriate to air your family issues at work and it is very unprofessional to do so.

If a problem arises, schedule a meeting to discuss the matter behind closed doors. Don’t vent to co-workers about family issues or vent to family about co-workers whether they are family or not. 

Here is where you HAVE to keep those issues separate and I can assure you it will not be easy, but is necessary.

I think we all have trouble with WORK-LIFE BALANCE. But when working with siblings in an insurance agency that balance is even harder. 

You need to make sure you are taking care of yourself. You will see that in some family-owned businesses, the family tends to overwork and work late hours. 

This is not healthy for anyone. We recommend Free to Focus by Michale Hyatt to help with work-life balance. There are some very logical tips he gives that can make things so much easier and help you as an individual place boundaries for your time and your life. 

Once you have your personal boundaries in place and you have focused on yourself and your well-being, it is then time to work on the business side of things and boundaries at work. If you don’t have good personal boundaries for yourself and your time you won’t be able to implement boundaries and other strategies at work.

If you work remotely, be very careful of texting and instant messages to each other. You need to have a “work channel” where you ONLY discuss work and you keep it professional. 

Then have a family channel where you send pictures and chat as family members, no work allowed. Also be careful of venting to a family member, because this can also cause issues. 

When you vent to your spouse, remember they also attend family events, and in their head, they are reviewing the negative conversations you had about a sibling for example and it makes them have trouble enjoying the family event because they may be upset about something you told them that may have happened at work. 

Be mindful of these situations! Only you can change how you react or respond!

By now I am sure you have discovered your own strengths and weaknesses. Siblings’ strengths and weaknesses are usually found pretty quickly.  Use these strengths to your advantage in the agency. Put people in the positions that work for them. 

Make them see that you are using those strengths and weaknesses towards a forward-moving company and try to STAY IN YOUR LANE. Don’t try to do everything, especially things that lean toward your weaker side. As hard as you may want to do everything in your family-run business, keep to your strengths and use your sibling’s strengths also to your advantage. 

But also don’t use others’ weaknesses against them! Everyone has a place and a role.  Use job descriptions to determine that. Keep everyone to their specific role! 

Everyone is different and will also have ideas. Share ideas with each other, you never know when one will be brilliant, but if you don’t share them you will never know. 

If one of your siblings is always torn down when they give ideas they will stop giving them. It is very important that you prevent this! Everyone should feel free to share ideas with each other.  Your business cannot move forward without learning, building, and growing. 

Your business needs to foster growth. Growth through learning and professional growth can change the face and the trajectory of your business.  Motivate everyone on your staff to attend insurance conferences. Listen to insurance podcasts and read books. Here is how Agency Performance Partners can help!

Working with people and building relationships, in general, can be challenging, but when you add family members to the mix, it can be very difficult and can tear families and companies apart.  

If you desire to have a successful family business you have to establish the ground rules BEFORE the members work for you. If you don’t you will find out really quickly that you will need ground rules and processes and procedures to keep everyone in line, on the same page, and keep your business successful.  

Siblings compete for their parents’ attention, for most of their lives. When you are working with siblings in an insurance agency this increases the level of drama and misunderstandings due to the sibling’s history with each other. 

You have to set ground rules and job descriptions and hold people to them. Have processes and procedures in place for the agency and the expectation everyone will follow them.  

Effective open communication is key and sometimes siblings need to be retrained on how to do this in a professional environment when they start working with each other. Use conflict resolution strategies and try to keep a work-life balance by keeping family to family and work to work. The rewards of working with siblings can be amazing.  

You all are working towards a common goal, a family legacy that could be passed down to your own children someday.  You can watch each other succeed and celebrate those businesses’ successes together. 

But you have to do it right, and the only way to do this is in the mirror. You have to do better for yourself and your siblings and try hard to get it right. 

The business can not only be amazing, but this can also be the means to the end that the siblings can’t work together for the common goal of the agency. We hope you are using our family contract linked above to help you on your way to an amazing family-run agency. If you are not there yet, feel free to reach out to us, we have worked with so many family-run agencies and we can help! You can book a meeting with us here.