Why Only 1% of Insurance Agencies Reach This Level

Is your agency focused on maintenance or multiplication? On today's Agent Leader podcast, I'm going to discuss the five stages of agency growth, from maintenance all the way to multiplication. How you can be an agency of explosive growth. This episode of the Agent Leader podcast is brought to you by the Becoming a Person of Influence masterclass. Go to Brent M. Kelly.com masterclass well, hello there, friends. My name is Brent Kelly, and welcome to another episode of the Agent Leader podcast, the podcast dedicated to agency leadership, growth and development. Now, several years ago, I was speaking with an insurance agency principal and we were talking about the future of their agency. And this is a profitable agency with a solid history, equipped with tools and resources that they could use certainly to surge ahead. And I asked the principal, I said, hey, what are some of the goals you have over the next five, maybe even 10 years? And it's a long ways out, but what do you vision? What's your vision for the agency? And his answer really surprised me because instead of talking about growth and expansion and big things ahead, he was talking about just getting by, how we're going to maintain things, how we're going to survive through all this disruption, all the stuff going on, right? And as I travel the country speaking with other agency leaders and company reps and thought leaders, I've come to realize that unfortunately, this mindset is all too common. In fact, I believe that a high percentage of insurance agencies, really, well, more than half, are not focused on growth, let alone explosive growth, but they're simply trying to keep their head above water. So the question that I ask myself, and I've had other people ask me, is why do you think that so many insurance agencies are stuck? Now, when I say stuck, stuck's a kind of a broad term, right? Because you can be stuck in a lot of different places. You could be stuck at a very low level just trying to get by, and you could be stuck for a large agency, just kind of plateauing. But why just in general, so many insurance agencies stuck? And I think there could be countless reasons, right? Every agency is unique and different, have their own challenges and problems. But I do believe one stands out, one kind of is consistent that I see in the industry, and this is it, that insurance agencies in particular have spent too much time just adding followers and not enough time developing leaders. There's a big difference in. There's a big difference in just adding followers and spending time and developing leaders. So the question I always ask is, are you in maintenance mode? Are you in multiplication mode? And I believe that a high Number of agencies certainly live in the maintenance mode. Instead of trying to make progress, the goal is simply to avoid losing ground. Instead of climbing up the mountains, they're just kind of hanging on like, I'm right here. I'm not going to go anywhere. It's good so far. And that really is the lowest level of agency leadership. To gain influence and move from maintenance to multiplication, you've got to learn to develop your people. Now, there's five stages that I believe that exist between maintenance. Right. The very bottom level, and multiplication, which is the explosive growth. And I want to go through each one of these five, then kind of give some ideas of what you can do to kind of take the next step wherever you're at in your agency. And this goes again, for small agencies, large agencies, it doesn't really matter. The lowest level is this scramble. These are all S's, by the way. Scramble. One of the most common phrases I hear when speaking with agency leaders across the country is this is we just can't seem to find and keep good people. Which is true. I get that. And typically, the rationale is this, is that people today, AKA millennials, they don't say that sometimes, but they're saying millennials, that people today don't want to work as hard as they used to, or that young people just don't like insurance. Now, let me just take a step back. Both of those reasons do carry some level of validity. I'm not completely pooh, poohing that, but the truth is, is that they're not doing anything to develop their people, not understanding their people where they're at. Right. And as a result, the attrition rate is often off the charts. I would guess around 20%. This is general in business, but about 20% of agency leaders live on this low, lowest level of leadership development. These are the agencies that are typically scrambling to find people to compensate for the ones that they're losing, or scrambling to find anyone to come work at their agency. This level of leadership causes extreme frustration, low morale, and exhaustion. Right. It just takes up a lot of effort and energy, and it's frustrating. And so that's the first level of scramble. The next level up, not much better, but a little bit better, is survival. This accounts for probably about half, in general, of current insurance agencies. Now, the survival stage is often due to a level of complacency. I talk a lot about complacency and how much I can't stand that word. In fact, I believe it's the most toxic word in insurance. But I believe that the survival stage is a form of complacency from leadership that migrates throughout the agency. These are the agencies where people just show up to collect a paycheck, right? Just gonna be here because I get a check. The agencies may have employees who have been part of the agency for many, many years, but there's been little to no growth and development. You know, people just kind of show up and just there to get through the day, right? It's the old, oh God, it's Monday and thank God it's Friday, right? Where you can just see the morale. Monday, everyone's down Friday with like, yes, weekend. The agency is average at best. Never get above average. These agencies and their employees are generally apathetic. The leadership approach oftentimes in survival type of agencies is if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The problem is that this stage of agency leadership is broke and does need to be fixed. They just often don't want to. There's little hope or optimism in their survival mode. And the focus is generally on analyzing problems versus creating proactive solutions. Again, that's the stage of survival. The next stage is siphon. And siphon is often the leadership development, one of the most frustrating because it's the stage where agencies have done some work, they start to do some work to develop their leaders, their sales producers, their customer service reps, their managers. But they started the process and have neglected to build ongoing relationships with them, right? They've done a few things, but they aren't building the relationship moving forward. And therefore what happens oftentimes is these emerging leaders, these people that start to grow a little bit or sense the opportunity for growth, leave the organization to pursue other opportunities. Now, although emerging leaders can and do leave any agency, right? It doesn't matter what you do, sometimes people leave. That's just the nature of the beast. But this level of leadership often misses an opportunity to build upon those rock solid relationships, right? They miss on opportunities because people don't maybe feel loved or cared for or needed or valued as much as maybe they should. They don't feel appreciated. And most importantly, oftentimes they don't feel empowered. Such an important word. So siphon is the next stage, the fourth stage. And this is when the good stuff starts to happen, right? And we do see a good number of agencies at this level. It's called synergy. It's not as big as the other three that I just mentioned, but there's a good level of agencies that do reach the level of synergy. You can see it you can feel, feel it. When you walk into an agency, you just know, I walk in agency, I'm going, you know, no agency is perfect. But like, you could tell there's something different here. You can feel positive synergy the minute that you walk into those agencies. If you're one of those agencies and you've got that culture, you know what I'm talking about. Synergy occurs when the agency leaders build strong relationships. They develop their people and they empower them to reach their true potential. There's that word again, right? Empower them. This is the level that the high performing agencies function at. Synergy. Agencies have people who get excited to come to work because there's great morale, there's great energy, there's great progress, and most of all, there's great momentum, right? The big mo. They know they're going together in a direction to do good things. Personal egos are pushed aside for team growth and development. Therefore, everyone wins. Now, it seems like synergy is kind of the top level, but there's one more. And it's been stated that only about 1 to 2% of agencies or any business gets to this level. The final level is significance. The very top level of agency leadership is significance. My leadership mentor believes again that only about 1% of organizations reach this level. After senergy, many agencies feel they've accomplished their mission, right? We're working together, we're empowering. But significance truly is the last step. And here's why significance is so magical, right? And this is a process to get there. Significance is where multiplication occurs. Remember maintenance to multiplication. This is where multiplication occurs. Leaders of significance develop and reproduce. Leaders who stay with the agency help them reach their potential. But there's one more critical area that occurs when agencies reach significance. See, agencies that reach significance and multiply develop leaders who develop more leaders. They don't just develop followers. They develop more leaders. They leave a legacy. When you attain this level, you can tap into almost limitless growth of influence potential. More importantly, you can change the lives of your team members, your community, and the clients you serve. So here's the big question on today's podcast. How do you move from maintenance to multiplication, regardless of where you're at? I've done other podcasts about your leadership lid right, that your leadership ability determines your effectiveness. This is all part of that process. How do you move from maintenance to multiplication? Well, if you're an agency leader that you're that's stuck, maybe you're in the scramble, survival or even the siphoning stage. How can you Begin to move forward in your leadership development. Well, I believe the first step is. This seems very simple, but the first step is mindset. Mindset. When I work with leaders, it starts with mindset. Begin to commit to develop leaders, not followers. Think beyond yourself. Every organization needs followers, right? There's always going to be followers. But agencies desperately seek leaders. It's been said the function of a leader is to produce more leaders, not more followers. Next, after your mindset, you must commit to developing yourself. I often say you can't give what you don't have. I have agency leaders who want to give, but they haven't invested in themselves. And if you haven't invested in yourself, you can't give out what you don't have. So my question is, do you have a personal, professional growth plan? Are you getting better? Are you a leader in development? Or are you a leader that think you thinks you've already arrived. And if you've already arrived, I can guarantee you'll never get to the stages of growth and multiplication. Now lastly, you've got to become a mentor if you want to develop more leaders. Grow your agency, become an agency of significance. You need to mentor others, pour yourself into others, empower them, share your experiences, and then release them to go out and raise up other leaders. Every day is a chance to sow seeds in those around you. This process, and by the way, this is a process, it takes time. Nothing happens overnight. Robert Louis Stevenson said this. Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant. What seeds are you planting every single day to develop leaders in your agency? Every person has the opportunity to grow and develop and be a leader. You just got to equip them. If you're ready to take your agency from maintenance and multiplication, there's one option that I have. This is a shameless self plug. But I don't mind because it's important. Go check out my agency leadership Catalyst program. We get 6 to 12 of your key employers around a table. We spend a couple hours, we have fun, we ask important questions, and I take an agency leadership assessment. It's powerful. Go to brent mkelley.com catalyst brentmkelly.com catalyst now I want to leave you with one last thought that I learned from my mentor on today's podcast. And it comes from the number one leadership mentor that many of you know is my personal mentor, John C. Maxwell. He says this. Everything rises and falls on leadership. When you raise up and empower leaders, you positively impact yourself, your organization, the people you develop and all the people that their lives touch. Reproducing leaders is the most important task of any person of influence. If you want to make an impact, you've got to be committed to developing leaders. You want to move from maintenance to multiplication. Develop leaders today. Thanks for listening to today's Agent Leader podcast again. My name is Brent Kelly and if you want to access all my resources, my blog post, sign up for my newsletter and more, Visit me@brentmkelly.com that's brentmkelly.com Sam.