3 Reasons Agencies Fail to Execute

Welcome to the Agent Leader podcast. My name is Brent Kelly, your host. Thanks so much for joining me on today's episode. And today's topic is focused around the word execute. To execute. Now, I don't mean anything weird. No one's going to perish on this podcast episode today. I'm talking about, of course, execution in your business and in your agency. Moving from knowing that I should be doing some things to actually doing it. And you know, one of our great Sitkins Network members, his name is Miles Merwin. In fact, his podcast, if you go back in older episodes, you'll see an interview with Miles Merwin on here. Sent me an email many months ago now. It's been several months. It was last year in 2019. We were talking about some specific things that he was working on. And I was like, I should be doing this and this and this. And I followed up on an email and he just wrote back in one word. It just said hashtag execute. And I knew what he meant. And our next call, Miles had been taking true action on the steps that we talked about. Right. It's not about just saying that's a good idea. It's what are you specifically going to do? And on today's episode, what I want to share with you is three reasons that I see now, maybe there's more than this, and if you've got additional reasons why people fail to execute, I would love to hear them. But I want to talk about the three things that really stand out to me and what we see in coaching agencies on why they fail to execute. Now, before I get into the content today, I do want to make reference that our private client network, the Sitkins Network, I mentioned, Miles, already we are opening up applications. So if you're an agency that's looking for greater clarity, more consistency and doing the right strategies and a commitment, you're looking for that accountability for yourself and for your team to achieve the results you really want, that you deserve. I would love to hear from you. Just go to sitkins.com, so S I T K-I-N S.com TSN that's for the Sitkins Network. So sitkins.com TSN you can learn more about us and apply there to see if you are a fit for our private client group. All right, with that, let me get in today's content, which again, is around the area of executing, executing at a high, high level. And you know, we certainly work with agencies. That's one of the things that we focus on, is that it's about filtering down to the right things to do and then actually taking action behind them. And it's interesting to me when I look at agencies and just professionals in general, and by the way, I'm guilty of this in many areas of my life and business too. Right? I'm very aware of that. But those areas of why we're not doing the things that we know we should do. And I think it starts off by just understanding that there's this huge performance gap. And the performance gap is simply the gap between what we know and what we do. And, you know, think about. Just for example, we talk a lot at Sidkins about professional fitness, being professionally fit in your agency. And that's just a term that we use. But let's think about physical fitness just for a second. Physical fitness now, I would guess is that if I would say, hey, listener, if you were wanting to get healthier, to lose weight, to be more physically fit, what are a couple things you should focus on doing? And I'm guessing right now, hopefully in your brain, maybe you're not thinking. If you're thinking too deep, don't just keep this simple. You're thinking it probably revolves around diet and exercise, meaning I got to eat better food and I've got to work out, I've got to move my body. And the answer is yes, that's correct, right? It's been around forever. We know that if we eat better food, better nutrition, and we move our bodies that we will be able to get fitter, to live longer, to get off medications, to feel better. I mean, we could go down the list. And even though we know this, and every doctor and person in this field would attest to that, over 50%. Over 50% of our population is either overweight, obese, or just simply unhealthy. And this isn't a topic, obviously, on physical fitness. That's not my point. My point is the fact that just because we know something, right, it's obvious we know, doesn't mean we always do it. So just like physical fitness with professional fitness of agencies, why do some agencies know what they should do? At least they know enough, right? I'll say that they know enough of things they should do, then just simply don't do it. Well, there are three areas that stand out to me. So if you've got a pen and paper, you can take notes on this. But why do we fail to execute? I think again, there are three things that really stand out to me. Number one is I think that many agencies and agency professionals lack a meaningful and purposeful goal. Now, this isn't to say that you don't have any goals. You may have some goals. I hope you do. I hope you got some goals for 20, 20 and beyond. But the words meaningful and purposeful are the key there. That these goals are not just in your head, but they're in your heart. That it means something to you. It wasn't something that I said or something that your friend said or suggested or another agency leader said you should do. It's something that you want to accomplish for you and or your team. It's meaningful and it's purposeful. Two areas that we like to focus on is vision and mission. And, you know, oftentimes say, well, do you have a vision statement or a mission statement? Agency says, oh, yeah, we got this or that. And it's some type of frame that we put on a wall that no one knows and no one reads and can't remember. It's because we did it, because we said we should do it. I'm talking about a vision. And I believe that leaders see more and see before. This comes from John Maxwell. And I believe that leaders see more and see before others. So as an agency leader in particular, what's your vision? Where do you really want to go? And the second part of that is, why is that so important to you? Simon Sinek, and I've mentioned him before in podcasts. His books start with why. One of my favorite questions, he says, is, why do you wake up every morning and why should anyone else care? That's a really hard question, isn't it? If you really stop and think about it, what's your mission? And again, to me, a mission doesn't come from something that I'm supposed to say, or someone told me I should say a mission is because it's in my heart and I wake up with a desire to fulfill it. That's how you get that desire, that word desire. Think and grow rich. There's a whole chapter on desire. And I think it starts with that meaningful and purposeful goal. And I think too many agencies and agencies, professionals, whatever your role is in an agency, they don't really have a meaningful, purposeful goal. We kind of come to work or do our thing because we're supposed to do it. And we get done and we get done, but it's got to have meaning and purpose to you. Do you really want it or does someone else really want it? I think that's the first reason why agencies in particular fail to execute. It's a head issue, not A heart issue, secondly is, I think it's a lack of meaningful and purposeful habits and behaviors. So it's our habits and behaviors that we really haven't thought out and thought about the specific actions that we need to do. Not one time, not a few times, not when it's convenient, but what are the things that we are going to need to do to fulfill the desired result consistently every day or at least every week, whatever it may be that we've got to be consistent with this even when it's not fun, even when it's not easy. See, I think professionals do things when it's not easy because it still has meaning and purpose. Amateurs do it when it's easy. And then when things get hard, they go, eh, I'm gonna do something else now. I don't want to do that anymore. That's a big difference, I think, between professionally fit and just being an amateur. So a lack of meaningful or purposeful behaviors. We haven't really identified the critical success factors that are vital for me as an insurance professional, for us as an agency. And so we just get in hysterical activity. We start doing this, we do that, and we get distracted by shiny objects. We get distracted because we're bored. We get distracted because it's hard, whatever it may be. We get distracted. And so we start in one area and we never finish. We're really good starters, but we're not great finishers in many cases. The last one is this. And these are all important, obviously, but this one really ties everything together. It's lack of meaningful or purposeful accountability. And when I say the word accountability, most people kind of go, ooh, I gotta be accountable. Yeah. I mean, the best agencies I work with, they don't say, hey, Brent, maybe we should have some accountability. They say, give me accountability. Hold me accountable to what we said we were going to do. That's as coach is one of my main jobs is to listen to what you say, define it, design it, document it, and say, hey, listen, you said you wanted this. This is why you wanted this. These are things you said you were going to do. Why aren't you doing it? Help me understand. Help me understand. And that to me is accountability. Again, it's not just saying we're going to do something or saying something to yourself or one time. To me, it's about a culture, right? So the culture is the way that we do things in our agency that becomes part of who we are. We are accountable to results. We are accountable to each other. I'm accountable to you. You're accountable to me. And a cadence of accountability, which means this isn't going to go away. One of the things that we started to do at Sidkins within our internal team, this has been great in 2020, is that every Friday we have a accountability call. Our entire team. It's pretty short, but we talk about the main things that we agreed upon that we were going to do that week and what we actually did, and then what we're going to do next week, that we're all on the same page. Are we perfect? No. But I tell you what, it makes a big difference knowing that if I said I was going to do something, I sure as heck should have tried to do it right. Hopefully I completed it, but we've got to have a cadence. And again, the culture of accountability in an agency. These are the three things. And I want to keep this podcast short today. Again, this is part of a keynote that I'll be delivering and I'll be expanding upon this. But I just wanted to highlight these areas. And I guess my question to you as an agency leader, anyone who's listening to this, is, what's one area in your agency, in your business, in your life, that you've been failing to execute? And you know how important it would be if you did, if you just started to make the right steps. And again, going back to what I said, you understand why it's important to you, where you want to go with this. That's. What do you want? That's that understanding that I can't just lack a purposeful, meaningful goal. I have to be very specific on what it is that I want. The late, great Jim Rohn said this. He says, if you don't plan your life, there's a good chance that someone else will. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much. So my challenge to you is plan your life, set your goals not based on just what's in your head, but what's in your heart. Number two is lack of purposeful behaviors, habits. What are the things that you go. If I just do these few things consistently because there is nothing more powerful than compounding consistency. There just isn't. It's not fun, it's not sexy. And we get distracted because we live in a world of now. I want it now, now, now, now, now. So you're telling me, Brent, I have to do this every day for a year and then I may see a result? Yep. You know, we look at before and after pictures of people that get in shape, and we're like, oh, I want that. Well, guess what? It took them a while. Didn't start on day one or seven or 14. Right? It takes a while to get those results. You just got to be consistent. And then lastly, of course, is accountability. It's that lack of a meaningful or purposeful accountability that we really haven't told specific people. Here's what we're trying to achieve. I need you to hold me accountable. And by the way, this goes both ways. For agency leaders, you have to be accountable to them and they have to be accountable to you. And we need to understand and define and design it. We should document it. And then we should have that culture and cadence of accountability. So hope this short podcast was helpful for you and just something to think about to chew on on again, moving from knowing to doing, moving from ideas to execution. And if you want to learn more about what we do at Sitkins, just Visit us@sitkins.com S I T K I N S I wish you and your agency all the best in your success. Thanks for listening, Sam.