Diary of an Insurer: LV’s Michael Lawrence

Monday

This morning I start my day with a hearty breakfast of toast with peanut butter or marmite (spoilt for choice) and a bowl of muesli.

It’s 6.30am, pitch black outside in the country, so I gear up to take our dogs Kratos and Zeus outside for their morning run around the garden.

Once that is done, it is time for round two as I take our three little pugs for their turn. We actually have four little pugs, but Mishka our new puppy is only 10-weeks-old so isn’t allowed out yet.

Once the dogs have been walked, it is now time to feed the chickens and let them out the coop. In total, we have 23 hens who all have their own personality and names, with three cockerels: Arn, Jax and Blizzard.

I’m working from home today, and start the week off by catching up with my team. We have a team session later on to review our employee engagement results. It’s an extremely important aspect of what we do and having an engaged workforce means we can service our customers in the best way, which I’m really passionate about.

The rest of the day is spent focusing on a mix of project work, regulatory governance and conversations with our business partners.

Tuesday

I start this morning again taking the dogs out for their walks and tending to the chickens.

It’s a quieter morning at work as I have fewer meetings in the diary, so spent the time catching up on emails, before an afternoon of revenue planning. We have a wide range of products and distribution channels, so need to use the best data we have to ensure we split the targets as accurately as possible; the volatility in the market place and macro environment makes the process harder than usual! I typically finish work around 6pm which then gives me a chance to let the dogs run free in the garden after work.

I am looking forward to cooking tonight’s dinner, on the menu is homemade stir-fry using vegetables sourced from our garden. The growing season has been so long so we were still able to pick fresh chillies, carrots and peppers to include in our meal.

Wednesday

I’m up before 6am today, as I’m heading into the London office.

I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone. It’s been great catching up with colleagues face-to-face, and so important to spend time together to develop relationships. We spent the day working together and discussing opportunities and activities for the next year. In the afternoon we had our Christmas lunch and reconvened in the evening for a few more drinks.

Luckily, I am staying in our London flat today rather than travelling back to the country. It’s always nice to have a change of scenery.

Thursday

I woke up in London today so no responsibilities for this morning. As I enjoy my cheeky lie-in, I get up for the day at 7.30am.

Today we have a four-hour session with our senior leadership group, which consists of leaders across our business functions. It has been a superb morning, we have talked about our plans and activities with a key focus on the next 12 months.

Some of the key areas of focus we talked about were better service and continuing to develop our proposition and products for our customers and brokers. By the end of the session I came out energised and excited for the year ahead.

Tonight, I am taking home a vegan takeaway. London is so good for food, some of the vegan food is incredible – you must try it. As I take my train back home with the takeaway next to me, I contemplate whether these chips stand a chance of lasting the journey home.

Friday

It is good to be back in the country with our animals this morning, and I can confirm the chips were still there by the time I reached home.

Once a month we have a morning with no business meetings, so today has allowed me to clear down on emails and have personal development time. It’s really important to give everyone a break from teams calls for wellbeing so this morning I was able to spend time on learning.

Lunchtime today I will be taking my car for a windscreen repair as a deer decided to run in front of my car a couple of weeks ago. This is a great chance to try the services of one of our providers – which I can confirm was really helpful and provided an excellent service.

The afternoon is spent with the team working on an exciting new proposition to brainstorm ideas. It’s important to think ‘outside the box’ to gather new approaches and it is my role to always encourage the team to think differently about how we do things, starting with the opportunity and customer, then working around our existing solutions to get a great outcome. In that way we are able to generate as many diverse thoughts as possible which is so valuable.

I finish the working week with a key business partner and then it’s time to sit back and enjoy the weekend. This weekend I’ll be helping my friend cut down his large chestnut tree which will be coming down any day - so I am looking forward to that.