As a P&C insurance agency co-founder, I often apply lessons I learned while serving in the U.S. Army. Some lessons are general in nature, such as the need for discipline, personal accountability, orientation on team goals, a clearly defined mission and state-of-the-art tools. Others are more specific.

Here are six of the lessons I learned:

1. Identify your employees' strengths. When he was enrolled at West Point, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was one of the worst students in his class, yet he was also one of the finest horsemen ever graduated from the academy. As managers, we must identify employee strengths and weaknesses. We must help them leverage their strengths to generate maximum gain, while steering clear of areas for which they have little or no aptitude. Before recruiting new employees, first decide whether you are looking for a horseman or a scholar—and know how to recognize the difference.

Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader

Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.