In September I had the pleasure of attending the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers Assn. (IIABA) Fall Leadership Conference in San Francisco. Most of the time I was with the Education Convocation group (except for a fun evening with the Young Agent's Board at a burger joint). While there, I had the opportunity to make a presentation to the Directors of Education from nearly all 50 Big I state associations about how to deal with change, especially given the interesting times in which we live.

Related: Read Lisa Harrington's September column, “LIsten well to hire well.”

While the message was specific to the challenges facing every educational institution, the basic message is extremely valuable to managers in any area of business. We are all dealing with the particular challenge of an economy that is unpredictable at best and contracting at worst. All of us are trying to do more with less. Many are challenged by technology that was supposed to make things easier, faster and cheaper, but instead has made managing our people, files, customers and legal obligations even more difficult. Errors and omissions prevention alone is a tangle of technology, customer care and file management. More than once I've heard my clients say they feel like they are driving the car down the road while it is still being built. As the manager, you have to set an example in the attitude department, so perhaps this article will help you keep up the morale and motivation, internally and externally.