Is Accountability Ruining Your Agency's Strategy?

Great organizations, Best Version Possible organizations all have one thing in common. They have a clear culture of accountability. On today's Agent Leader podcast episode, I'm going to unpack Good Results Trap #5 in a series of seven. This is number five. In today's episode, I'm not only going to talk about the key areas of a culture of accountability for your agency, but also what Dennis Rodman has to do. Yes, Dennis Rodman has to do with a culture of accountability. Enjoy the episode.

Welcome in to the Agent Leader podcast. My name is Brent Kelly, I am your host. And yes, this is the place for insurance agency leaders to grow, to learn, to develop and ultimately become their Best Version Possible. So if that's you, an agency leader or part of a leadership team, you're an insurance agency professionals seeking the highest level, guess what? You are absolutely in the right place.

And on today's episode, this is going to be part number five of a seven part series that I've been doing on this podcast based around avoiding the good results traps. Yes, the good results traps. If you haven't taken a listen to the first four episodes in the series, they're all out there on the podcast platforms. Go take a listen. But a reminder of what are the good results traps, and why is this series so important? Well, bottom line is this. There are certain good results that agencies are getting, and because they're not terrible results, they're good results, they oftentimes can become a trap that prevents agencies to truly seeing the bigger picture or bigger opportunities in front of them. In many cases, these traps may be some form of blind spots that maybe you didn't even realize they existed. So I want to take the time on these podcasts to unpack each trap one by one to help you as an agency leader address these traps.

Is this a blind spot for you and your agency? Is this something we've taken for granted? Is this a potential problem or a current problem in our agency? Or maybe you're doing things really well in this area, which that's a good thing to know as well. So as a review, I have so far gone through the first four traps I've talked about trap number one being no strategic or a lack of a strategic and financial model. Trap number two was a lack of a unique selling proposition trap. Number three was part-time producers, which I've talked about, producers not doing the things they should be doing, enough of, which by the way is production. And trap number four that I did last episode was around part-time clients and deepening the relationships in different ways with their clients. Again, all of these are areas that agencies oftentimes are getting what they think are good results.

And today's episode, I'm going to take it a step further. We're going to talk about trap number five, which is no or a limited culture of accountability, no culture of accountability or a limited culture of accountability. I'm going to take you deep in a few of these areas. Now, before I get into today's episode on the Culture of Accountability, I want to remind you that we are doing something very special for all of our agents, agent leader podcast listeners, I'll get the word out, Agent Leader Podcast listeners, if you are looking to receive or would like to receive a Best Version Possible plan, a customized plan for your insurance agency, it all starts by booking a phone call. Super simple, no risk, no obligation. Go to sitkins.com/bookacall. You'll find a time, a date that works best for you, very short phone call.

We'll qualify you and your agency, then conduct an assessment if it makes sense, and most importantly, deliver your customized plan that's convenient for you. So we're excited to be able to do that. We know that by being able to provide this service opportunity for you, there are some agencies that'll want to continue that journey with us. There are some agencies that may not, but we're going to provide every agency that seeks Best Version Possible, an opportunity to take that first step, which again is going to sit sitkins.com/bookacall. Alright, let's get into the content today. Trap number five, again, no or a limited culture of accountability, right? There's a limited culture or no culture of accountability. Now, I want to start with the word culture, and I've talked about this in some prior episodes, but important reminders if you haven't heard it before. What is culture?

Because culture is a buzzword. I mean, we talk about culture all the time, or if you just turn on anything business related, you're going to hear culture, culture, culture. And I don't want to minimize it because it is certainly important, but I do think sometimes it may get misrepresented or at least misunderstood At a very basic level, we define culture at the Sitkins Group of the language and behaviors that are normal in your agency, the language and behaviors that are normal in your agency. So what are people saying? What are people doing? That's the culture, that's the way your agency operates. And of course, accountability is simply doing the things you agreed to do. So a culture of accountability is the normal language and behaviors based on the things that we agreed we were going to do. That's a culture of accountability and I believe that a culture accountability and like anything with agency operations and agency leadership, guess what?

It starts with you. It starts with agency leadership. It starts at the top. Listen, I have been guilty of this and I have to be careful not to do this in the future, but it happens as agency leaders, as leaders in general. It's fun to come up with new ideas, new strategies, new things to try, new things to do. I read this, I saw this, I heard this. Let's do it. And what can happen if you're not careful? What's happened with me in certain occasions, I'll be very transparent, is that again, you read a book, you watch a video, you have a conversation, and you come to a team meeting and maybe this is Monday or some part of the week, and you say, listen, team, I'm so excited. I've got this brand new idea, this new thing that I saw, that I heard that I read, and we're going to start doing it.

And your team's like, wow, here's another idea. Because guess what? You probably did this a week or month prior, and they wait for you as an agency leader to leave the room. They look at each other, turn their heads back and forth and say to each other, don't worry, this too shall pass thinking that eventually you and or the leadership team will forget about this idea or move on to the next thing. So don't worry about it. We don't have to do anything, right? This is the problem that happens from agency leadership at the top in terms of a culture of accountability. It's hard to build culture. It's hard to be accountable to things that don't get executed. Or if they get started, they don't get finished. Why worry about it? Why try it? Why do it? They're going to forget about it or move on to something else.

Anyway, so here's a few things to think about. As an agency leader, if something is a big deal, make it a big deal. I don't mean make it a big deal just by having one big announcement on Monday. Make it a big deal and repeat it and repeat it and repeat it. One of the things that I try to tell myself, and certainly when I'm coaching agency leaders, if something is a big enough deal to make it a big deal at a Monday meeting or a quarterly kickoff meeting or a year kickoff, meaning whatever it is, something you want to start in your agency, you should already be thinking about it, what it's going to look like one year from now. That's the important thing. It's really easy to start stuff. It is. I mean, as far as here's an idea and here's the thing, and we're excited we haven't run into the pain.

It's really easy to start a new workout plan. It's really hard to continue it. So if you're going to start something, think about it already, at least a year into the future, what is it looking like? What are we doing? How is, what's the process look like? All these things that go into it, and you've got to repeat it and repeat it and repeat it and repeat it. And did I mention you need to repeat it? One of my best business mentors said something to me on leadership. I'll never forget, he said, the minute you think you've said something too much or too often as a leader, you're finally getting close. The minute that you think you've said something too much, oh gosh, we've been saying this for weeks now. Good, say it again. Well, now we've been saying it for months. Good. Say it again.

Gosh, I think we've been saying this all year. Good. Say it again. Listen, we need to repeat things. There's power in consistency. There's power in messaging. At some point they're going to say, wow, this is kind of a big deal. Not because they said it to kick off the meeting or the event because they continue to say it week after week after week after week after week. One thing that I'm very proud of the Sitkins Group is that our key principles do not change. Yes, we have new ideas. Yes, we try new things. I just talked about that. But overall, the overall strategies and key principles really don't change. Why? Because they work. And sometimes you have agencies that are going, gosh, I don't know. We've been doing this for a while. And I mean, I don't know. Do we keep doing it? Is it working?

Yes. Yeah, it's working. We're getting great results. Good. Keep doing it. Again, there's always modifications to things, but I'm saying in the general practice, keep doing it. What typically happens, the problem that most agencies run into isn't that they keep doing something so well. The problem is they never have consistency on something that's starting to gain traction, and maybe you've had that in your agency. Is this potentially a good results trap? This aspect of accountability, a culture of accountability that from a leadership perspective, we never give it enough time to have a culture built around that with accountability because we're onto the next thing.

Next area I want to talk about in this good results trap of a culture or a low culture or no culture of accountability is that we don't have accountability in our systems and our processes. Now, just let me ask you a question here for something to think about.

How much money do you currently invest into people and systems or technology in your agency? Now that you're laying on the floor, I'll pick you back up. We know we invest a lot of money in our people, and I'm guessing you invest a lot of money in technology and systems. You're investing in tools and resources and people, and think about this. Not only are you investing in those systems, but are you investing for the people and the systems to actually work well, that requires accountability. One of the things I know that agencies often get frustrated for good reason is the fact that they do invest a lot of money in systems and processes and technology and to only realize that their people may or may not even use those systems or resources or technology. Yeah, I know we've just invested a hundred thousand dollars into this thing, but I kind of like the way that I do it, so I'm just not going to do it.

Now, there are much bigger questions and areas to discuss on something like that, but in general terms, just ask yourself the question, are the people that we have on our team utilizing the tools and resources and processes that we currently are investing in? And if not, why not? Should they be accountable to that? I know there are exceptions. I know there's some gray area, but bigger picture is do we as an agency have non-optional behaviors and strategies based on key areas that we've installed or implemented in our agency? Do we have non-optionals? Not, well, if you feel like it, do it. If you don't, don't. But this is part of our culture. This is what we do, this is how we do it. There's some great examples. I think some of the greatest examples of an agency and in turns an organization being very clear on who they are, what they represent, how they do things, what they stand for, and the accountability behind it is some professional organizations, I find it really interesting in the history of sports that there are some people who have been, let's just say lone wolfs out in the marketplace in sports.

They did things their own way. They were a bit crazy maybe to some degree, however you want to define them. I'll give you a couple examples. I'll go way back to the mid 1990s. There was this guy that the Chicago Bulls picked up in free agency by the name of Dennis Rodman. Now, if you don't know Dennis Rodman, you probably do. Maybe you don't know him from basketball. Maybe you know him from some weird reality show, but he was a bit out there. Dennis was a bit out there. I mean, in fact, prior to the Bulls, he spent a time with the San Antonio Spurs where he would literally just not go into the game. He would sit on the floor, he would pout. He wasn't a good guy sometimes, let's just face it. Yet he was really talented and when he came to the Chicago Bulls, he was still a bit crazy.

I'm not going to doubt that or not deny that, but you know what he was, he was accountable to doing some of the basic things Chicago Bulls were all about. There was also a coach by the name of Phil Jackson. There was also a player by the name of Michael Jordan. The point of it is this, if you want to be crazy on your own time or do the things you want to do, fine, but when you're on this team and when you're with us, you do things our way. And guess what? When Dennis Rodman was on the floor, he balled out. He played hard, he did the things he needed to do. He didn't do that with other organizations, but he did it with the Chicago Bulls. Why? It's not optional. It's who we are. We're about excellence, we're about greatness. Not every organization has that.

Here's another example, not quite as significant, not as severe, I should say maybe significant, not the right word, not as severe, but Randy Moss, extreme talent, extreme talent. I remember he played for a few different teams. I mean just, they call him the freak, right? He was so good. He goes to the New England Patriots with Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. Similar example. And guess what? There's certain things that Randy Moss did with other teams that he no longer did with the New England Patriots. Why? Because the culture of the Patriots was different. It was about excellence. We do things the right way here and if you're going to be part of an organization as talented as you are, you've got to do things our way and guess what? He was really good there. He was really good there. Now, again, these guys were good in lots of places, but as far as the organization, the agency in the agency world terms that I'm talking about is there's certain standards of how we do things.

I say all that to say this, does your agency, have that type of standard of excellence, are you willing to stand for something that other people must be accountable to? Because it's the way that we do things. And here's something to think about too. When you tolerate poor performance or poor behavior in your agency, and I know this is a challenge, but when you tolerate poor performance, poor behavior in your agency, what message does this send to your best performers? This happens all the time. I'll talk to agency leaders. Yeah, I don't really what to do. I mean, this person really isn't doing the things they need to do. I don't really want to deal with it, and it's been going on for a while, and I would just stop and say, listen, taking that person out of the equation for a second, what message does that send to your top performers and other teammates?

See, I believe a culture of accountability not only of course helps performance and results, but it helps you attract and retain the best talent, the best talent. Guess what? They do want accountability. Now, they may have their own things that they do that might be a bit off or whatever, maybe they don't, but people, the best performers desire accountability. They do. They may not want to be micromanaged. That's not what I'm talking about. Accountability. I'm talking about they want to be held to a higher standard. They want to perform at their highest level, and also the people on your team want to be part of an organization that has this higher level of accountability. Guess what? Because they're probably going to achieve the results, but they expect that everyone else should too, right? That's part of a culture, a dynamic culture in an organization. And by the way, the other thing I would say on this is that the best performers want to be developed and the best way to develop, to grow to become the best version possibly to talk about is that we have accountability.

Accountability is not a cuss word. It's not. It shouldn't be. If the word accountability causes you to kind of whiplash or take a step back or you kind of have a squeamish look on your face, then there's a problem, and this is why I talk about the good results trap so much is because you could not have much accountability in place in your agency. You could say, well, you know what? We'll figure it out. They'll figure it out. It'll be okay. The problem will go away. You could not have much accountability in your agency. You may not have a culture of accountability in your agency, and you can still do okay and maybe even good, good enough. That's why these traps are significant, because foundationally, we can address the fact that we will be a culture, our language and behaviors that are normal, there are certain standards that we have and we will be accountable to these things.

It doesn't mean we're accountable to every single little thing in the world, but they are core components that we will absolutely be accountable for. Guess what? You will move through and escape the good results trap, right? You'll escape into the good results trap, right? And this is about investing in talent. Bottom line is this, and I'll wrap this particular trap up into this, no system, no matter how good it is in your agency, no process, no matter how good in your agency, no strategy, no matter how good in your agency will ever work efficiently and effectively and be a best version without accountability. It doesn't matter how good the other stuff is. It's why it's so foundational. I just had a conversation with one of our agency members, and I had these all the time, and it's reminders, the fact that we're trying to install this specific strategy, but we realize that as good as the strategy is, and when we do it, it works.

We don't have accountability or agreements upfront around this particular strategy. Again, this could be anything. It's like, let's just peel this back a little bit because no matter how good that strategy is, if we don't come back and talk about defining the expectations, having things documented between agreements, in fact, one of the tools that we use for agencies a is a two-way promise. There's certain things that we as a leaders need to be accountable for, and there are certain things you as team members need to be accountable for, so let's agree on this two-way promise, because we're not perfect. We're human. We're going to fall short, we're going to make mistakes, so let's find ways that we can encourage and challenge each other and say, Hey, I thought we agreed. I thought we agreed this was important for us, so we have to define, we need to document and of course, deliver upon that.

Do our behaviors align with the agreements? This goes back to some many episodes that we had on the Agent Leader podcast and whether it was a solo podcast or I had Roger Sitkins on with me, we talk often about beliefs, behaviors, results, beliefs, behaviors, results. This trap is another great example of that. If you want great results, we have to look at the behaviors. What are the behaviors that are going to drive the results? You can't manage numbers, you only manage behaviors, and to take it a step further or to go back further is do we believe that there should be accountability based around these behaviors? Do the beliefs and behaviors align and if we say that we want to do different things or improve things or have improved behaviors, but we don't believe in accountability based around those behaviors, then what are we really talking about? Just a bunch of words, so this is so critically important.

Again, I want to remind you as a listener if you would like to get a copy or receive your own customized, customized Best Version Possible plan, and we're going to go through all these traps with your agency. We're going to diagnose, we're going to provide them solutions. It all starts by booking a call. Super simple, super easy, no obligation. There's no reason why if you're an agency that aspires to be the Best Version Possible that you shouldn't go ahead and do this, just go to sitkins.com/bookacall. You'll have a very short call with one of our members of our staff, learn more about your agency, and then from there if it makes sense, we'll do an assessment with your agency, a comprehensive assessment so that we can deliver a Best Version Possible plan to you and your agency. That's our mission. You as an agency leader, your role is not easy. You've got a lot of very difficult decisions to make. You have a lot of people to manage and lead. You've got systems and tools and carrier relationships and all the things that go on with agency leadership.

We want to help you unpack and filter down to what's most important so that you can make the best decision for your agency moving forward. You can be one of the few agencies that hits levels that no one else is or willing to. That's what Best Version Possible is all about. So again, go to sitkins.com/bookacall. Well, that's the podcast episode for today. There's only two traps left. I know you are chomping at the bit. You're saying what are the last two traps? But we're going to talk about that over the next few episodes. I appreciate you as always, and if this episode, other episodes had provided value to you, whatever platform you're listen on, we certainly would appreciate a rating, a review, share the episode, tell other people about it. We want to help you get great results, not good results, Best Version Possible type of results. We'll talk to you again soon. Thanks so much for listening. I wish you all the best and your success. Take care.