Busy Isn’t Productive: A Case for Agency Alignment

Foreign welcome to the Agent Leader Podcast. This is the podcast for independent insurance agency leaders, leadership teams and high level insurance professionals that are committed to becoming their best version possible. Not just by growing, but by leading better, by thinking clearer and operating at a higher level. Each episode we're going to focus on the strategies, the behaviors and the leadership disciplines that that separate good agencies from truly elite agencies. Hi, my name is Brent Kelly. And if you're ready to raise your standards, to challenge your thinking and intentionally build the agency that you want, you're in the right place. Well, we are back for another episode here and this is a solo episode today. And today we're going to be talking about alignment, true team alignment in your agency. And there's so many reasons why this subject, this topic is so powerful. But one of the things that we learned so much In October of 2025, we held our Mastermind summit. We had high level agency leaders in the room. And if you ask the agency leaders what has been the most fundamental, important part of a partnership with us, and of course, their growth as an agency overall, they will talk most times almost every time about alignment, about the fact that they're on a path now where their team is on the same page, that they have a common language and culture. We know there's always flexibility because we're human beings, but their agency has key foundational principles with the common language and common culture. So that's what we're going to be talking about today. I can't wait to dive in. And really, the key to this topic starts with one of the words that we don't love to hear that most people talk about all the time. In fact, I'll just throw something out there. I know I'm speaking to the wind here to a degree, but as a listener, just respond on your own if I ask you, how are things going in your agency today? Or what's happening in your agency today? Now, there could be multiple answers here, but oftentimes, somewhere in your answer there's some form of we're really busy, really busy and busy. And busyness is not a badge of honor so often. And by the way, I'm raising my hand, but I've been guilty of this too, is that if I'm really busy and I'm moving a million miles an hour, all my effort and creating messes everywhere, possibly that's a badge of honor. You think you're busy, you should see how busy I am. It's almost becomes this comparison game and again, I'm being a bit silly. But it's true. So here's my question to you, or statement to you. You're so busy, so what? You're so busy, so what? Busy doing what? So let's talk about some of these foundational things around busyness and most importantly, leading to agency alignment. Because being busy and having more meetings, doing more activities, having more things on your calendar does not necessarily equal clarity and it certainly doesn't often equal alignment in what we're trying to do, either internally with our team or externally with our clients, or certainly just in the community. So let me start off by giving you a framework that has been very foundational, certainly not only just from an overall perspective, but if you're having a meeting or if you're having an event or you're going somewhere, you're doing anything, here's three things to think about, anything you're going to do. You ready? They're the three Ps. You can write these down. Number one, the purpose. Why are you doing what you're doing? You know, a great example of this is, have you ever been to a meeting and you got to the end of the meeting and no one really knew why they were there? You know, not only have I been to those, I think I've led a few, admittedly. Right. You learn from it, like, what is the purpose of why we're doing this thing? So purpose is number one. Number two, what's the process? Meaning, like what are we doing and what's next? You know, just to have a meeting, to have a meeting or to, you know, have something, to do something and go, that was great. What's the next step? We think oftentimes in terms of producers, right? In a, in a meeting with a client, you know, what is the next step in that process? We need to find what that is. The purpose of this meeting, of this event is blank. The process that we're going to walk through and what's next is blank. And then lastly, the final P is the payoff. Why does it matter? Where are we going? Right. So purpose, process and payoff. If you keep those three in mind when you're doing something, it'll give you clarity, which also gives alignment. Because sometimes you might have a meeting, for example, even a one on one meeting, and one person thinks they're there for this reason and the process is this, and the other person thinks it's something else. So you can do this in anything. The purpose of this meeting is blank. Here's the process we're going to walk through and at the end of the day the payoff is blank, here's what we can expect, right? That gets everyone aligned and centralized in what we're trying to do. Here's another area that I see. Teams often work really hard, but they work in different directions. Right. They're not together in what they're doing. And one of the principles that we teach and preach all the time in our programs and our coaching is same goal, but we have an appreciation and respect and a trust for the different roles. So oftentimes when we're busy and we're not aligned, it results in replication, duplication, mistakes being made. So same goal. Hey, here's the thing we're doing, but we're going to have an appreciation. What you do is important. We're going to have respect. It's different but valuable. And we're going to have trust. I'm going to do what I need to do, you're going to do what you need to do. We'll communicate that and come together. One of the foundational principles that we've learned from Dan Sullivan and Roger Sitkins, our CEO has been a Dan Sullivan follower for years and years. Very well known as former strategic coaches, his company is that we have to understand our unique abilities, that there are certain things that we're wired to do really well and certain things we're not wired to do. One of the exercises that we perform with agency teams is we talk to producers and we talk to the service team members. We have programs for both and we want to get those joined. But understanding what are the things that they love to do that they do well, that bring energy and one of the things that they do, quite frankly, that they can't stand. Their basically incompetent. Very basic example, but important example, producers who like to get involved in service usually really stink at it. No, I don't, Brent. Well, here's a question I'll ask the teams again. This is one example of many. If you were brought a service change, right. Of some kind in your agency as a producer, and I asked this to teams as a whole, how many times out of 10 would that change have 100% complete, total and accurate information done right. The first time? And usually it's somewhere between zero and two. Right. So it is important that we understand and appreciate these different roles. So what does alignment actually mean? Right. Talking about the important. What, what does it mean? Well, clear directions and priorities. Right. That we're walking the same path together. And I think it also involves a shared language and definitions. I mentioned earlier that the agencies that Are part of our group often talk about this common language and culture. Well, culture is the language and behaviors that are normal in your agency. Culture is the language and behaviors that are normal, not exceptions that they're normal in your agency. So it's really important that we have shared language and definitions. And by the way, having a similar name makes a difference if Your agency has 12 different names or variations of a selling process. Not a very common culture or a renewal process or how we use the system. Again, we're not robots. But having that shared language and definitions is critically important. It's also important that we have visible standards and expectations. Now, when I say visible, it could be on your computer, it could be on a wall, it could be somewhere. It certainly could be communicated in different ways. And we can share it in a lot of different ways, but we've gotta have visible standards and expectations that are not only just mentioned once, but they're continually reinforced. An example of this and one of the tools that we have for our agencies is a relationship management calendar. Right? And this would be a great example of sales and service. Again, that we have a client relationship management calendar. We could have a center of influence relationship management calendar. We could have a future ideal client relationship management calendar. Why is that important? Well, because if we agree on the calendar of when we're going to have these touch points, then we just simply need to show up and do them. It's a visible standard and expectation. And the last thing that I want to share around what alignment really means is we've got to have consistency in leadership. Consistency beats intensity every time. Now as I record this, it's the beginning of a new year. This is the most typical time when agencies and people are like, oh my gosh, here's the big things for the year. We're going to change the world. Look at this. We're going to do X, Y and Z. It's going to be amazing. And then by February, March. Yeah, by June, we have forgotten what was even mentioned. Right? Consistency beats intensity. And too often agencies get caught in the gimmick of the month club. I read this, I saw this, I heard this, let's do that next week. I read this, I heard this, I saw this, let's do that. Consistency beats intensity. So here's what I'll share here. If there is something that you want to reinforce or begin new in your agency that you believe is really, really important, ask yourself honestly, is this something we are truly committed to doing a year from now? Now, that doesn't mean that if Something is failing miserably, you should do it forever. But it does mean if something's important enough to start, it's important enough to finish. And most times, while people will stop is often not because it's not working. That could be the case. It's usually because it gets boring, it gets mundane, it's not new and exciting anymore. And here's the big one. When you actually get to the execution, it gets hard. Ideas are easy. I'm going to lose 50 pounds this year. That's a great idea. If you want. Execution is hard. I mean I got to show up every day. I can't have that anymore. And that's often what happens with agencies is that we have this hesitations because it gets hard. And versus saying no, we're committed to this, it's okay, well let's just change course because I don't want to ruffle any feathers. So what are some practical leadership shifts we can have in the area of alignment? Well, here's one for you to consider. Clarify the thing that matters the most. I can almost guarantee, I feel very confident in this, that every agency leader or high level insurance professionals listening to this right now, listen to my voice. You've got more than one objective or priority you're working on and that's pretty fair and normal. But what is the one thing that matters most? And one of my absolute favorite books is called the One Thing. In fact, there's a focusing question in the One Thing book that we share and use all the time. And it is a really powerful and also a really difficult question. What's the One thing? So that by doing it would make everything else either easier or unnecessary. I mean, what a great question. I'll say it again. What's the one thing? So that by doing it will make everything else either easier or unnecessary. And the visual they use in the book is dominoes. Like what is the first domino? So take some time to slow down and think about what is the one thing above all. In fact, I'm not going to get into the nuances of this because I haven't done the studies. I'll be very honest. But I know if you look at the word priorities, it actually doesn't really exist. Priority is really one. What is your high level priority? Yeah, we've got 15 priorities. That's not a priority, that's a to do list. Right. So what is the One thing? And we also want to reduce all of those competing priorities. And again, just use examples of what I mentioned. You know, we're going to Get a new ams, we're going to have a new sales process. We're going to update our renewal process. We're going to do this, we're going to add to this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. You can't do it all. And I know for high level leaders that's a really hard thing to hear. Yeah, but we got so much to accomplish. Ask yourself, how many times have I had too many competing priorities and because of it I didn't do anything very well. Right. I didn't do anything very well. And when you have clear direction and priority alignment on what matters most, you can make those expectations very visible. That's the one thing I mean, I can tell you. And I know I mentioned Roger a few times, but I learned so much. I mean, he's head above his desk. The one thing, keep that visible. Here's another example and I've shared this in prior podcasts, if you're a longtime listener. But. And we've other agencies do this. But I'll never forget, years ago, one of our newer agencies put up a top 100 future ideal client board, like the one thing that we're going to do this year. And it said Future Ideal clients of X Agency. And they looked at it and they talked about it all the time and they wrote $751,000 in new business revenue just based on that board. That wasn't even by the end of the year. And that wasn't all they wrote. The point was it was focused, it was visible and it was consistent. Right. And then here's one more principle I want to share around leadership shifts to think about. Communicate more than feels necessary. Communicate more than feels necessary. It is very easy and I get it as a leader that you want to say, gosh, I just said that last month. They're getting tired of hearing it. And I'll never forget, I had a great leadership mentor. This has been many years ago now. And he looked me right in the eye. He said, brent, the minute you think you've over communicated something highly important to your goals, you're finally getting close. You're finally getting close. In fact, just before I started recording this, I was talking to Dana, who helps run some of the behind the scenes things and gets this podcast launched and organized. And I was telling her, I said, it's amazing when we'd run our producer camps in person. Now we do different. We do most of ours virtual now and they're over a sequence, a period of time which has Been highly effective. But years ago we'd have one in the spring and then we'd run another session in the fall. And I said, you know, oftentimes I would look at the fall session. I'm like, there's nothing much new here. And I realized there was a reason why, because it was way more important to reinforce what wasn't being executed in session one than add new things, more things that they weren't going to do that they didn't do from session one. Right. So again, over communicate when possible on the things that matter most. The minute you think you've over communicated is the minute you're finally getting close. And the overall principle of this is you as a leader need to be the guide or navigator for your team. If you're going to align your team and get clarity, you need to be the navigator. Because great leaders, elite leaders, best version possible, leaders see more and they see before others. Great leaders see more. I can see more than you can see. Not because I'm better than you, but there's a reason you're a leader. There's a reason by the people, don't think like you. Have you ever thought yourself as a leader, why don't they think like me? Because they're not you. But great leaders see more. They see more potential, they see more opportunities. They've got a deeper vision of things now again, you've got to communicate that and they see it before. I almost guarantee that someone in your life at some point saw before and more than you saw in yourself. And because they're able to paint that picture and help guide and navigate, you are able to achieve higher levels of success. That's your job as a leader. Help your team see more and see before others. All right, so what I want to do now, if you got a pen and paper, take some notes if you haven't already. I'm going to give you a few questions. And one of my goals this year on this podcast is not only share some ideas and principles that get you thinking, maybe give you a tool or an idea that you can go out and use right away, but also give you some reflection questions, right? Reflection questions that allow you to pause and think and make some necessary adjustments in your level of awareness and then, of course, your actions. So here's some questions. Number one, ask yourself as an agency leader in team or if you're an insurance professional working with a team, where are we misaligned right now? Where is there some areas of mis alignment right now in our agency that we've got People on different playbooks. We're not on the same page. In fact, one of the things that we work with our agency leaders on our agency executive edge program is a one page business plan. And years ago we talked about this. If we're going to have all of our team on the same page, we should probably have everything that we need to talk about on one page. Keep it simple. So where are we misaligned right now? Question 2. This is a big one. What are we assuming instead of clarifying? What are we assuming instead of clarifying? There is likely a number of things in your agency that why assume he's doing this? I assume they're doing this. I assume we're right here in this direction. I assume this is happening versus clarifying. Now, that does not mean you need to do every single thing as a leader. I talked about that in a previous episode. But what it means is you are clarifying and leading that area, whether it's delegating, whether it's reinforcing, whether it's communication. Right. Maybe taking a bunch of ideas and trying to help people simplify so you can help them execute. But what are we assuming instead of clarifying? And then here's the last question that I want you to think about. Where does leadership need to slow down to speed up? Sounds counterintuitive, doesn't it? Where does leadership need to slow down to speed up? Strategy is as important or if not more important than tactics. And we often, as I said the beginning of this episode, we're so busy being busy and we feel that it's a badge of honor. But one of my favorite quotes of all time comes from the book the Road Less Stupid author Keith Cunningham. And here's what Keith says. Running the wrong direction enthusiastically. Running the wrong direction enthusiastically is stupid. So where does leadership need to slow down? Hold on a second here before we just keep doing more stuff. Are we on the same page? Are we going in the right direction? What have we learned? What are some slight improvements we could make? Because there's nothing more frustrating than climbing the ladder, getting to the top, and realizes I'm on the wrong ladder. So where does leadership need to slow down to speed up? Okay, by the way, if some of these questions and this conversation feels a bit uncomfortable, or maybe you're like, gosh, we got some area to work, well, that usually means there's an opportunity on the other side. A big part of this podcast is to create awareness. Awareness creates the best actions because sometimes alignment starts with an outside perspective and clarity for a conversation I do want to mention this. If you're an agency leader of a high growth agency or at least looking to be a high growth agency, a high leadership agency, an agency with enhanced culture and experiences and your focus, the leaders, how can I help my team be a better version of themselves so that our agency all grows and expand those the type of agencies that we love to have conversations with. So if you want to learn more, and again, this is not about pressure, it's about perspective and some awareness and clarity. Simply go to sitkins.com bookacall that's it. Sitkins.com bookacall and we'll have an introductory call with you and your agency, learn more about you, see if there's a potential fit down the road. Now we're only working with a limited number of agencies, so we are very selective in who we work with and why we work with these agencies. But we love to have initial conversation, learn more about you and your agency. So here's some final comments as I close this session today. Alignment doesn't happen by accident. It doesn't just magically get better. If you've ever driven a car down the road or truck or whatever vehicle you're in and you had a wheel out of alignment and it starts to shake, right. And cause annoyance or veer off to one side, it doesn't matter. Magically get better, maybe. Unless all the wheels are misaligned and maybe it somehow works itself out. I'm kidding. It doesn't, right? It usually gets worse. And the longer you wait, the worse it gets, the more expensive and the worse things could happen, right? So alignment doesn't happen by accident. So if you're struggling with this area of alignment, why aren't people communicating on the same page? Why aren't we seeing things clearly? Right? That's an alignment issue. And by the way, it's not easy, but it's worth it. It's worth it to have those conversations. And it happens when leaders decide that it matters. That's the bottom line. Some leaders, it doesn't really matter. I'm not worried about it. You know, I talk so often about the good results trap or the good enough traps. Yeah, we're good enough. Okay. But if you realize that it's important, you've got to make a decision, right? There's something that we need to do because great agencies, elite agencies, best version possible agencies don't happen by accident. They happen by purpose. They happen by intention. They happen by consistency. Right? So that's where I'm going to challenge you. All to go as the best version possible Agency. I appreciate the time to be able to share this area of leadership and alignment with you today. I wish you and your agency all the best in your success and I can't wait to see you back for the next episode. Thanks for listening. Hey there, Agent Leader Brent Kelly here want to take just a few seconds to remind you that now is the time to create your true best version possible agency. If you go to sitkins.com bookacall sitkins.com bookacall we'll get to know more about your agency, conduct an agency assessment, and provide your agency with a customized plan to help you avoid some of the pitfalls, frustrations, challenges and roadblocks to get your agency to true ultimate freedom and become its best version possible. It all starts by going to sitkins.com bookacall.