Sales Column | Your step-by-step guide to becoming a best-in-class brokerage

This past spring, Intact Financial Corporation CEO Charles Brindamour posted on LinkedIn about Canada’s productivity problem and urged business leaders to be more ambitious and benchmark against the top companies in the world – not just their local competition.

That resonated with me. I’m passionate about benchmarking, and while we certainly compare our business to other insurance brokerages, we want to be more than just a great brokerage. Our goal is to be a leading company across all industries. To have any shot at achieving this, we need to measure ourselves against the best and invest accordingly.

Measuring how you stack up and creating a strategy to get where you need to be is only part of the equation. You also need to figure out how to move mountains without making enemies.

This matters for anyone looking to push themselves and their teams to higher performance, regardless of their role. Vision and execution are key to driving change and accelerating growth, but so are people skills.

If your approach is to charge in with wide elbows and brute force, you might manage to get things done in the short term, but you’ll lose your teammates along the way. Operating with this mentality often creates more problems than it solves, and negatively impacts morale across your business.

Related: How data accuracy strengthens client relationships

A proverb worth remembering is: ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with many.’ Sustainable growth and long-term success require an effective team that’s inspired and motivated. Bulldozing people is a quick way to burn through teammates and create resentment against you and what you’re trying to accomplish.

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Resistance to change is natural and your team may question why you’re taking a specific path. That’s why communication is vital. Prioritizing team discussions to explain the ‘why’ behind a decision and how it’s connected to your company’s broader strategy helps build alignment.

This isn’t a one-and-done activity. It needs to be an ongoing conversation with your teammates. Be accountable and embrace these opportunities to address concerns and challenges with empathy and honesty. Encouraging everyone to contribute ideas and to focus on solutions will help them feel like they’re part of the journey.

Based on feedback from our teammates, we’ve put a greater emphasis on internal communication at our brokerage. We’ve increased team touchpoints and earlier this year launched an intranet to share information more frequently and easily.

We also created a playbook to help our people leaders be more effective in their roles. It includes a scorecard so they can benchmark their abilities and identify areas where they feel they can grow as our brokerage works to become a best-in-class organization.

Learning how to move mountains without making enemies creates a competitive advantage. It enables you to aim higher and move faster while keeping your team engaged and excited about the opportunities ahead.

Adam Mitchell is CEO of Mitch Insurance, a Whitby, Ont.-based insurance brokerage.