C-Suite - Broker: Power to the people

Often, my family is amazed at what I’ve achieved in life. That isn’t because they don’t love me or aren’t proud of me, it’s just that they can’t equate the person they know and love – who has to replace her credit card once a year because she’s lost her purse, or who regularly leaves her suitcase on the train – with someone who manages to hold down a fairly big job. There are times when I can see their point.

So what is it that makes us what we are? For me, there is only one thing that matters and that is the way people treat others. Caring about people, our leadership skills and our behaviour is what we carry from our personal to our professional life.

Over the past two months, I have begun travelling up and down the country meeting 1000 members of the Towergate team and getting to know the people behind the business.

They are all wonderfully different but what ties us together is that we are driven by doing our best by the people we encounter in our professional lives. Whether they deal with clients in person, over the phone or online, a broker’s motivating force is to protect what their client holds dear, be it a classic car or their own business.

Indeed, this is reflected in the British Insurance Brokers’ Association’s 2016 conference theme, The go-to place, because brokers are the go-to place for advice, choice and expertise.

Our clients love it when their broker understands or even shares their enthusiasm. Knowing that their broker is listening to them as an individual can be the most important part of their interaction. More than a logo or a strapline, our people are our brand.
 

Brokers know their clients better than anyone and they want to spend as much time as possible talking to them. As leaders, it is critical to ask what would help them do their job better and then to take action to support them.

In a regional business, we must empower and help people at the front end to do their jobs. That is the path to organic growth, as well as happy people who would recommend their employer to their friends.

I sit in front of investors who ask what Towergate is all about and I tell them that it’s all about the people. Sometimes they look at me as if to say it can’t be that simple. Well, it is.

Janice Deakin
CEO, Towergate Insurance Broking

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