Failure is not necessarily a comfortable thing to think about. However, missteps and setbacks are inevitable when leading an agency. Failure can cause stagnation or be used as fuel to drive future success in your agency. It comes down to leadership and your ability to recognize how you can leverage failure and lead your agency through it.
When it comes to using failure as a tool, here are some things to consider.
Be Honest & Transparent –
When mistakes happen and failure results, be willing to accept responsibility, and take ownership. Covering up mistakes or blaming others will cost you respect from those that you should be leading through tough situations. Honesty and transparency, on the other hand, will be recognized and appreciated by your team.
Get Neutral About Failure –
To completely understand failure, you must be willing to release the emotion associated with it. Emotion will prevent you from being able to look at all parts of the issue and will hinder forward progress. Getting neutral gives you the power to evaluate failure objectively and wholly.
Examine Failure –
Examining failure can be a bit uncomfortable. No one enjoys putting mistakes under a microscope. It may seem easier to move past the issue and onto the next thing. However, there is so much that can be learned by taking the time to assess failure properly. When goals are missed, when success is not reached, it’s essential to understand all the contributing factors. When you spend time to understand what caused the failure, you can take stock of what worked and what didn’t and make educated decisions on how to move forward.
Redefine the Process –
Once you’ve taken the time to evaluate the actions that prevented success, you are in a position to think through the corrections and improvements that need to be made. This may take some time, so be patient through the process building phase. Asking questions like, “What does success look like?” “Have the goals or objectives changed?” Ensure that all activity in the action plan supports the goal.
Continuously Reevaluate –
Defining goals and executing an action plan is not once and done. You will want to make sure you are tracking progress and reviewing what is working and moving you closer to the goal and what may be pulling you in the wrong direction. Spending time to evaluate continuously will provide a way for you to eliminate steps of the process that are not working. You can then see where you need to pivot and invest energy into those action items that are moving the agency closer to the goal.
Taking the time to learn lessons from failure is the best way to ensure that the same mistakes are not repeated. When you can leverage those lessons, you and your agency are in a position to turn failure into success.
About the Author
Justin Goodman has spent the past 20 years in insurance. He is the co-founder and CEO of Total CSR and co-founder and Managing Director of Project 55. By the age of 29, he was recognized as one of the top five construction insurance experts nationwide by Risk and Insurance Magazine. He also was named to Insurance Business Magazine’s Hot 100 and most recently the 2024 Insurance Journal Agent of the Year. Justin has trained over 50,000 CSR’s, account managers and producers through his work at Total CSR. He has a passion for developing the next generation of insurance professionals. When not with his family, he devotes his free time to speaking engagements and advising agency owners across the country.
