When asked to discuss agency management issues, my first thought was, “What can I tell managers and principals that they don't already know?” Even if you have plenty of experience, there may be something included here that you haven't thought about recently or have put off for awhile. If you're a new manager or just now getting involved in certain aspects of management, this information may give you one or more ideas to consider.

As much as possible, meet with principals and managers from all facets of the insurance industry and share ideas and challenges. In every segment of this industry, we have more in common than we have as differences. It seems that there are a few universal issues for managers and they almost invariably touch on or relate to personnel. That certainly makes sense given the fact that most of the resources of any small- to mid-size organization are related to personnel (and when you think of resources think about time, not just money).

Every manager I've spoken with recently has expressed the same concern as to how they are allocating their resources. Regardless of which part of the business they're in or what geographical location, hiring of experienced, quality people is a significant challenge, one that managers must be prepared to consistently devote time to each week.