10 Unique Perspectives On What Makes A Great Leader

All business owners and executives have varying experiences and perspectives on the approach and qualities necessary for effective leadership. And not all situations require the same type of leadership style. Great leaders adapt to their surrounding environments and empower the team to succeed together.

Many experts across countless leadership books and articles agree on certain principles required for leading a team to greatness, but when it comes down to it, the most important factor is whether or not the leader is getting the job done.

My philosophies on leadership have evolved over time through research, experiences in combat as a Navy SEAL and from my successes and failures running my own businesses. I believe that the best leaders are passionate about developing the emerging leaders around them, they constantly work to improve their emotional intelligence and know that a strong team culture is the foundation for accomplishing the mission. They are in a perpetual state of preparation and embrace the inevitable changes their businesses will face.

For the purposes of this article however, I wanted to get other business leaders’ perspectives by having them answer one question:

In your opinion, what makes a great leader?

Their responses were collected in partnership with the American Board of Experts™. Here they are!

1 - Have Faith in Their Beliefs

"It's a mix of a lot of things, but first and foremost it's about having faith in your beliefs. You can't expect others to consider you a leader unless you have solid faith in your ideas. And once it's there, you build on it by being a good communicator, listening to others, setting examples and by putting your best foot forward and not giving up. Leadership is all about being passionate about what you do, and having confidence in yourself and your followers whom you have to motivate and inspire."

Matei Gavril, CEO at PrMediaOnline

2 - Make the Hard Choice

“Great leaders make the hard choice, and self-sacrifice in order to enhance the lives of others around them. As a business owner, not only does your family rely on you - so too, do the families of those who work for you. Each employee has a family. Even if you're a small business owner with four employees, you're in essence potentially responsible for an additional ten or fifteen people.”

Joel Farar, Farar Law Group

3 - Earn the Respect of the Team

“Having the ability to show respect, empathy, and care to those that follow you, are all attributed to being a great leader. Earning respect is crucial to a successful relationship with someone, while also showing that you care about their work or ideas. Being empathetic allows a leader to tap into the emotions of that individual in order to connect in a way that lets that person know you understand what it means to be in their situation. Combining all three of these traits can definitely make someone a great leader. These are things I work on constantly with my own staff and myself, all in order to become a better leader to those I care about.”

Brandon Swenson, SEO Pros

4 - Know the Team

"Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of every individual to effectively manage the outcome of a team is imperative for success. Leaders have a great vision and use the resources at hand to solve problems. They take risks and make hard decisions, knowing they could sometimes be wrong. Those are the most important qualities of a real leader that work similarly in our professional and personal lives."

Alex Gerasimov, Insomnia Escape Room DC

5 - Know That the People are the Key to Success

“A great leader understands that it is the people they lead that ultimately determines the success or failure of any venture. They surround themselves with great people that they can cultivate into a team of competent, confident individuals who can work well as a team. They then have the ability to guide this team towards a well-defined vision by clearly communicating short and long terms goals, inspiring confidence and trust among colleagues, and influencing common efforts through character rather than by a position of authority. Ultimately, a great leader creates and nurtures other leaders.”

Randy Soderman, Founder of Soderman Marketing SEO

6 - Articulate a Clear Vision

“A great leader posses a clear vision, is courageous, has integrity, honesty, humility and clear focus. He or she is a strategic planner and believes in teamwork. Great leaders help people reach their goals, are not afraid to hire people that might be better than them and take pride in the accomplishments of those they help along the way.”

Bhagi Rath, Mattress Inquirer, Do Your Research to Find a Great Bed

7 - Push People to Be Their Best

"Great leaders have clarity of purpose and are great at articulating their beliefs. I aspire to be the kind of leader that pushes people to be the very best they can be but still make people feel safe because it starts with the heart."

Amas Tenumah, CEO BetterXperience

8 - Serve a Greater Cause

“Great leadership is determined by one’s periodical blend of personal humility and unparalleled will to lead others in service of a cause bigger than themselves. Great leaders are incredibly ambitious, but never for themselves. Rather, they are ambitious for the company and possess the will do do whatever is necessary in service of this greater cause.”

Jake Rheude, Director of Business Development for Red Stag Fulfillment

9 - Focus on Helping the Team

"Someone who leads by positive direction and builds agreement among its group members towards the accomplishment of a coordinated goal. Ultimately, leadership is not about who is in charge. It's about making sure your team stays focused on the goals, keeping them motivated and helping them be the best they can be to achieve those goals. This is especially true when the risks are high and the consequences matter."

Kara Kelly, Executive Director of CompleteContents.com

10 - Do Not Lead by Force

“A great leader does not lead by forcing people to follow. Instead, a great leader motivates people. They encourage others to follow them. They also lead by example, which few leaders do today.”

Mike Dan, SMS Marketing

Being an effective leader requires constant focus, perseverance and building a team that is accountable and designed get results. Without the team there can be no real leadership. These ten unique perspectives provide great insight while also validating certain commonalities.

Many of us in leadership or management positions know what we need to do to be better leaders, we just sometimes fail to act. Being a great leader requires constant personal and professional development, regular transparent feedback from the team, self-reflection and taking action on feedback received. Great leaders are rarely satisfied with their performance.

Source: Forbes

Keeping Sales Personal In Insurance And Avoiding Commoditization

Sales has historically been a business of relationship-building, learning about your shoppers’ challenges and needs, and using the right combination of products and messaging to make them customers. Selling on price alone is not preferred, as customers are less loyal to your brand and more likely to switch providers if they find a better deal.

In insurance, particularly property and casualty, product commoditization has become an issue as customers increasingly point to price as the reason they choose an insurer. And, as a growing number of sales are happening online, for simple products as well as those that have historically been too expensive or complex to bind digitally, insurers and agents face a dilemma.

Digitization can't be undone, but how can relatively consistent products, such as auto and homeowners insurance, be sold in a way that builds customer loyalty and maintains profitability?

Early Action Is Critical

The effects of technological developments have long been seen in auto insurance, where the proportion of policies purchased entirely directly has grown to 30%, according to a McKinsey industry survey. Products that are more expensive and complex have been somewhat shielded from this trend, but a growing number of “insurtech” startups and improvements in digitization have begun to change what can be done and what consumers are comfortable purchasing online.

Homeowners insurance, for instance, costs an average of $1,083 per year, and its purchase requires a significantly larger amount of information from a shopper, such as details of a home's structure and additions. Correspondingly, online purchasing has lagged behind auto insurance, with just 6% of purchases being direct in 2011 as compared to 27% for auto. Now startups like Lemonade (a Value Penguin partner) and Hippo are using technology to simplify the process. One way they do this is by automatically filling in home details based on your address, similar to early features seen when auto insurance quoting began to move online.

And small-business insurance, long seen as too complex to go entirely digital, is beginning to see direct adoption as well. Insurtechs such as Next Insurance are removing complexity barriers by targeting groups of shoppers with highly consistent risk profiles, such as personal trainers.

The Value Of A Personal Touch

The battle isn't lost for insurers and agents — a McKinsey survey showed that brand strength and creating a personal relationship are still two of the greatest differentiators for customers. While an increasing number of customers have gone the entirely digital route, the majority continue to use agents for the final product purchase. In addition, 46% work with agents post-purchase when they have questions or need services related to their policies.

Insurance has relatively few touch points, so maximizing the "personal touch" in each interaction can be incredibly important to building customer loyalty, something that can be done at all levels. Some insurers, for example, have begun to use phone number and voice recognition to immediately pull up information related to a client, without needing to ask their name and policy numbers at the beginning of each call. This reduces a client's hassles and shapes a more positive view of interactions with your company.

Building Product Loyalty

Given touch points are relatively limited in insurance, a newer approach to increasing customer loyalty has involved increasing touch points and offering a wider set of interconnected services. According to a Bain report, customers favor this "ecosystem" approach so strongly they would be willing to pay higher premiums or even switch insurers if another offered the right services.

Depending on your product and target customers, the right ecosystem to build will vary, but homeowners insurance companies are some of the first to test the waters. By partnering with startups that offer remote home monitoring or security products, and providing discounts to those customers that use them, insurers get multiple advantages. 

First, they meet the customer's desire for an ecosystem solution and provide a discount, both positive consumer experiences. In addition, by focusing on ecosystem solutions that reduce risks, such as notifying a client and authority immediately about a break-in, insurers may be able to reduce claim frequency and severity. Finally, customers with physical solutions integrated into their homes or businesses have greater barriers to switching if they want to maintain the discounts or other ecosystem benefits provided.

By combining highly personalized touch points, adjusting products to better fit clients needs and better integrating your services into their routines, loyalty can be built to fight the growing commoditization trend. It just needs to be done quickly, before consumer patterns have changed too significantly toward a price-switching model.

Source: Forbes

Change In The Insurance Industry Is Constant, But That Doesn't Make It Easy

The best advice I've had the pleasure of stumbling upon came from Tony Robbins, who said that progress equals happiness. He also said that our daily habits will determine our future and our desire to succeed must be stronger than our fear of failure.

If someone spends every day improving techniques, learning new technology and gaining authority in their industry, they will become successful. Progress requires change, and while change might not always be easy, it is required for success.

The only thing that never changes is that everything changes. Life isn’t about always getting what you want; it is about becoming more. Whether it is a business or a personal goal, when change happens, growth happens. No matter how the circumstances change, it is important to look at the benefits. Life doesn’t happen to us; it happens for us. To be successful, you need to be an industry innovator, always adapting to the changing market.

The Importance Of Change In Insurance

I can think of a time when an insurance agent would go to the home of a client to pick up the monthly premium. The practicality of door-to-door customer service just isn’t there anymore. The convenience of insurance today has made it more accessible to people -- even those in rural areas.

When the insurance industry advances with society, we can meet the needs of our clients more efficiently. It’s easier to adapt to the changing times than it is to fight the change.

Technology

The best thing about technological advances is that we can accomplish more work in less time. For the insurance industry, technology has made everything, from getting a policy started for a client to looking up insurance claims and coverage, easier.

The way we go about insurance today is much different than it was 60 years ago. Insurance agents do not need to go to a customer’s house to do paperwork, and the client doesn't have to worry about writing a check every month. In as little as a fifteen-minute phone call, you could have health, dental or life insurance. Many companies can even set up an automatic draft, allowing you to never have a lapse in coverage or a need to bust out the checkbook. Telesales in the insurance industry has allowed people who otherwise may not have enrolled in coverage to receive quality benefits and care. 

Drones are even becoming a part of claims processing. With the unending list of natural disasters, insurance companies are looking for tools to save time and money. The drones keep adjusters safe and, in some cases, save insurance companies millions of dollars in claim costs. 

With the seeming increase in disasters and rising cost of insurance, it’s important that all industries become experience-led and make their customers' lives better as technology advances. There are plenty of ways insurance companies can adopt technological advances into their companies, saving them time and, even more importantly, money.

Creating Processes

If you want to create lasting success, you need to build better processes. Transitioning from the day-to-day operations into a leadership role requires a system of repeatable processes that others can easily follow.

Planning for change is necessary. If you want to grow your business, plan for someone else to take on your position. As the business grows, where you are needed the most can shift. By having a process in place, additional tasks can be done without errors. When such organization is put into place, a legacy is created. It’s important that each task is documented to create an accurate process; do not assume that certain actions are obvious. Get the team involved, and you will be able to gather valuable insights and feedback. This will also allow you to hold them accountable for sticking to improvements.

When our tasks and our processes change, it’s important that we update the organization to show the adjustments. Change is always constant and never easy.

Marketing

There was a point in time when billboards were the thing, and everyone dreamed of having their face or business on a billboard. Then there were TV commercials and magazine advertisements that allowed companies to get their names out there. These methods of marketing failed to create lasting relationships between consumers and businesses, however.

Social media websites and applications benefit consumers as well as businesses. These platforms give consumers the chance to see who is running the company and what the company is doing for society, as well as give feedback to businesses on how to better improve quality or customer service. In today’s era of technology, you can get more views on a social media platform than you can with a drive-by billboard. Many companies have their own Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts. All of these platforms provide marketing opportunities that are essentially free.

And it’s no wonder that people are utilizing social media marketing opportunities: With the abilities to share, like and comment, users can connect to the products they already love and share those products or services with friends and family members who may have never heard of the company.

How To Be Successful In An Ever-Changing Environment

As technology advances and society adapts, the insurance companies that move swiftly and decisively are most likely to be the insurance companies that flourish. The top companies will be those that lead innovations in digital technologies.

Customer expectations are also rising with technology. Clients want simplicity, 24-hour access, quick delivery and relevant information. Digitizing business can remove significant cost across the board and increase customer lifetime value. It’s vital to the success of insurance companies that they constantly improve the accuracy of their pricing and underwriting to improve loss ratios.

The most successful companies will be the ones that let go of slow decision making processes and adopt a new talent base that is comfortable with experimentation, testing, learning -- and even comfortable with failing. The insurance companies that act decisively will be among the leaders in the industry.

Source: Forbes

Will The Power Of Blockchain Mean The End Of Title Insurance Companies In 20 Years?

Title companies are in the business of ensuring that property transfers and mortgages are processed correctly. A key component of this process involves providing insurance to guarantee rights. The insurance is necessary for many reasons, including the fundamental lack of accuracy and trust in record keeping. The chain of title to a parcel of land may be tampered with, become inaccurate or be breached due to many risks, not the least of which is fraud perpetrated against the property owner. Defects in title may include invalid powers of attorney, deeds by minors, improperly recorded documents, undisclosed heirs, gaps in the chain of title, false impersonations, incorrect legal descriptions, errors in the tax records, IRS or other tax liens and even forged documents.

Title companies also verify and then ensure that a buyer or lender is getting clean and marketable ownership or lien position in the land. Moreover, a title company prepares and moderates the execution of the closing documents and records any deed, mortgage, assignment or UCC in the county registrar’s office. In most states, title companies are also trusted to be the intermediary from an escrow, funding and disbursement perspective between the buyer and seller, possible bank and borrower, as well as all other parties to the transaction.

How will any of this change? It begins with the blockchain.

The Title Commitment And The Blockchain

More than 25% of title reports detail some type of defect to the title, according to the American Land Title Association. Blockchain enables real-time access to ownership information and will lower the costs to obtain an abstract of title. Once a global registry exists, downloading the entire chain of a property's ownership records will take a few seconds for very little cost. Sounds amazing, right?

• Closing Process And Blockchain

The real estate industry is finally embracing e-closings. Banks are starting to adopt technologies that harness their documentation into e-docs, states across the country are quickly enacting legislation to provide for e-notarization and more than 1,700 of the roughly 3,000 counties in the United States have created an e-recording platform. Once counties begin to accept digital signatures instead of wet signatures, the steps to acquire real estate can become amazingly fluid and simple.

Imagine: Executing a “smart contract” upon locating a home online, clicking a few buttons and automatically updating ownership and transferring funds between parties, all via the blockchain. The closing process could become effortless and frictionless and far superior to today’s standard closing.    

• Record Keeping And Blockchain

Blockchain technology will certainly eliminate most fraud and tampering that exists with ownership records located at a county clerk’s office and convert land records to a distributed ledger. Every record is stamped by the trusted parties when updated to the chain. Each subsequent entry stands upon the validity of the prior entry creating new records. There is true dependency from one record to the next record. The consensus algorithm of a blockchain will prevent bad information from disrupting the chain and make tampering of records more easily detectable and avoidable. A distributed “immutable” ledger equals little fear of fraud, and an increase in trust — a massive upgrade from our current county ledger.

Title Insurance Industry at Risk?

The inner blockchain world will convince you that the title insurance business is at risk of survival. Many believe that intermediary businesses are all on their last lifeline. Blockchain technology will inevitably connect the parties of a real estate transaction and eliminate many of the services a real estate agent or title officer provides. But to say that we in the profession are a dying breed is inaccurate and even absurd. Will the role of intermediary services be redefined? Absolutely. Consider the everlasting needs and remaining gaps:

• Title Commitment/Policy

A title blockchain will not be able to account for items that are not on the chain, such as bankruptcy, divorces, civil litigation, child support, IRS liens and more. These are all items that impact the marketability of title to a property. Non-recorded defects such as these are a major problem for those blockchain proponents who want to suggest title insurance will not be needed. What happens when a property is purchased and there is a prior IRS lien? Nuisance lien? Municipal code violation or utility violation? Guess who covers these items? That’s right, the title company.

• Record Keeping

Unfortunately, there are still over 1,200 counties not yet digitally recording. Only a handful of states have passed legislation to allow for electronic notarization. And even more importantly, only a handful of counties throughout the country are allowing digital stamps to represent signatures for a recordable document such as a deed or mortgage. Not to mention that the speed upon which local county clerks move to adopt new technology is frustratingly slow. So that frictionless closing that I described above? Yes, that is a long long way from now.

• The Closing

Certainly, a smart contract can create rules and procedures to finalize tax prorations, rent prorations and escrow holdbacks pursuant to final inspections. However, who is going to be at this “digital closing table” to mediate between parties in regards to disputes still pending, authenticate a payoff statement from a private creditor or lienholder, obtain a payoff from material men, pay-off all utility bills or verify a power of attorney? Sorry Mr. Blockchain, Title has you again.

Title companies are not like many other intermediaries that very well may face extinction. A title attorney or closer is needed in many different scenarios to complete the transaction. Our roles will change. The industry as a whole will be creative in its adaptation of the utilization of the blockchain, amending our services based on the clientele’s future needs. It is true that the fundamental trust in record keeping may be garnered by the blockchain, but today’s title insurance company is not going anywhere. We will remain necessary and serve in many different capacities. Blockchain will bring great efficiencies, cost reductions and simplicities to our industry, but it will only supplement the hands-on expertise of a title insurance company.

Source: Forbes

9 Ways To Pay For Long-Term Care Without Buying Insurance

When H. Frances Reaves, of Miami, had to place her parents in long-term care facilities in 2014 and 2015, she thought it would be a relative easy, at least financially. After all, her parents had bought long-term care insurance decades earlier.

But there were two unpleasant surprises: The policy had a 90-day elimination period, so it wouldn’t start paying until three months after Reaves’ parents were admitted to a facility. And it only paid for two years of care. The challenge then became how the family would manage to pay for any long-term care the policy didn’t cover.

“I knew Mom would outlive the policy,” said Reaves. She was right. Her mother, Charlotte, lived three years in a Marietta, Ga. nursing home for patients with dementia. Her father, Hal, passed away after 20 months in a nearby Woodstock, Ga. facility.

Reaves founded Parent Your Parents in Miami after her experience and now advises others to plan wisely for potential long-term care costs. That’s because about a third of people who enter a nursing home (median price: $97,455 for a private room) stay there for one to three years; roughly a quarter are there for more than three years. Meantime, according to Investment News, insurers are getting pickier about who qualifies for a long-term care policy. In 2017, 22% of 50- to 59-year-old applicants for traditional policies and 30% of 60- to 69-year-olds were turned down.

Reaves and other experts offer these nine tips to pay for long-term care beyond simply buying a traditional long-term care insurance policy:

1. Choose the appropriate long-term care: Other options aside from a nursing home include hiring a home health agency, adult day services and moving to a residential group home or an assisted living facility. Assisted living can be less expensive than a nursing home if the person doesn’t have medical needs. Choosing the right option can help save money in the long run.

2. Use Social Security or a pension to pay for care: “Most people use their Social Security check to first pay this bill. It is guaranteed income, and this, paired with other guaranteed monthly income such as a pension, can reduce the long-term care bill,” said Hans Scheil, a Certified Financial Planner and founder of Cardinal Retirement Planning in Cary, N.C.

3. Withdraw money from an Individual Retirement Account (IRA): The income received may qualify for a medical expense deduction. “Taking money from an IRA will raise a person’s taxable income, but the tax deduction from using this money only for long-term care costs basically turns one’s IRA into a tax-free health savings account.”

4. Look into the Veterans Aid and Attendance program: This little-known Veterans Administration offering provides up to $1,830 per month for anyone who has served as little as 90 days in the military during a time of war and  up to $1,176 for a surviving spouse. “There are other requirements such as income and asset maximums,” said Scheil. “We have helped many people qualify for this and it can significantly reduce the long-term care bill.”

5. Search for long-forgotten whole life insurance policies and savings bonds: Cashing in those old savings bonds sitting in a safety deposit box could help with long- term care expenses. And John Barnes with My Family Life Insurance in Andover, Mass., advises to forage for whole life policies bought years ago. If it has cash value that won’t be needed, Barnes said, the policy could be sold for as much as 50 to 75% of the death benefit.

6. Activate a chronic illness rider: If you or your parents own a term life or permanent life insurance policy with a chronic illness rider, you might be in luck. “The triggers for the chronic illness riders are the same as the triggers needed to qualify for a long-term care insurance claim; you can qualify if you can’t do two of six activities of daily living without assistance or if you need assistance for cognitive impairment,” said Gordon E. Conwell III, owner of Americanterm.com, based in Flourtown, Pa.

7. Sell a home or get a reverse mortgage: Reaves had to sell her parents’ home to help pay for their long-term care, but if one spouse is still living in a home, a reverse mortgage might be an option to help pay expenses for the other’s long-term care.

8. Apply for Medicaid: The rules for Medicaid assistance (limited to people with low incomes and assets) differ in every state and you or your parents may not qualify if substantial assets were transferred into someone else’s name during the past few years. Check with a financial adviser in your state.

9. Don’t discount your faith community: Reaves said some religious affiliations and congregations have foundations for members needing help paying for long-term care. Reaves cited a client whose family applied to a Jewish-affiliated foundation that awarded $1,000 per month to help offset the patient’s long-term care costs.

Source: Forbes

Seven Big Mistakes To Avoid When Purchasing Life Insurance

Life insurance is an often overlooked but incredibly important investment that anyone with assets and beneficiaries should investigate. Although it can be unpleasant to think about your death, planning ahead today can give you peace of mind, knowing that your family will be financially secure if the worst were to happen tomorrow.

The problem is that not all life insurance policies are created equal and, if you're unfamiliar with the available options, choosing the right one can be daunting. It's crucial to educate yourself on life insurance products and understand what's best for you and your family in the long run.

Below, seven members of Forbes Finance Council outline some of the most common mistakes people make when purchasing life insurance and how to avoid these errors.

1. Going With The First Agency You Find 

Take time to talk with a few agents. Yes, it's nice to save a buck, and you want to get it done, but the driving factors should be confidence in knowing your family is going to get the proceeds and choosing a company that best fits your objectives. Take your time to understand your options so you aren't stuck with expensive regrets. If an agent doesn't understand that, keep shopping. - Drew Gurley, Redbird Advisors

2. Making A Decision Without Proper Help 

If you make your decision in a vacuum or with the aid of someone who is motivated to sell one type of product only, you stand the risk of making a choice between options that don't serve you optimally. You need to know that term plans differ by carrier -- not only by price, but also in terms of what and how they cover you. By understanding these items, you can make a much better decision. - William Kohn, Florida Health Agency.

3. Incorrect Ownership And Beneficiary Setup 

The top error I see when people purchase life insurance is that they're not properly setting up ownership or arranging beneficiary status. To avoid making these common mistakes, make sure you name a primary beneficiary and a backup or contingent beneficiary. Most people don't change beneficiaries when a life event happens like death or divorce. Pay careful attention to details. - David Kleinhandler, VEST Financial Group, Inc.

4. Purchasing Life Insurance Without A Clear Plan 

The biggest mistake individuals make with life insurance policies is they are either under-insured, which potentially can open them and their families to financial disaster, or they are over-insured, in which case extra funds used to buy insurance could leave their retirement and other investments underfunded. Define your goals, determine your risk and implement your plan. - Alexander Koury, Values Quest

5. Failing To Understand Your Options 

There’s a slew of life insurance plans out there, and they are not all created equal. Annuities, for example, are often presented as life insurance, but generally speaking, they do very little for the client other than generating a handsome commission for a financial advisor. Make sure you understand all of the terms, the cost, the benefits and what it would cost you to sell or cancel the plan. - Shane Hurley, RedFynn Technologies

6. Not Looking Far Enough Ahead When Purchasing 

Most people purchase life insurance with the next 15 years in mind. The more prudent thing to do is purchase with the next 30 years in mind. Make sure your spouse, children and loved ones are covered in the event something unfortunate happens to you. Consider whole/universal life versus a term policy. Consider term policies that allow you to convert into a whole/universal life policy as well. - Jared Weitz, United Capital Source

7. Waiting Too Long To Buy 

The single biggest mistake people make when purchasing life insurance is thinking they buy it with their money. You buy life insurance with your age and health. The longer you wait, the more you will pay for the same thing. - David Haass, Elite Insurance Partners, LLC

Forbes Finance Council is an invitation-only, fee-based organization for executives in successful accounting, financial planning and wealth management firms.

Source: Forbes