Good agency operations include processes, communication, client relationships, employee attitudes and training. But explore an underlying question:  What is the culture within the agency? What hidden attitudes exist under the patina of daily routine operations?  

It can appear to the agency owner that everything is humming along. You hold team meetings and pull renewals in sufficient time. Overall business results track with the swings of the general marketplace. But the owner may not get to see the underlying attitudes of his staff—attitudes that are part of, and define, the ongoing office culture. 

When these attitudes are negative, they undercut the results of what an experienced staff can achieve. Some symptoms are: 

• Failure to anticipate renewal problems in sufficient time to find effective solutions, resulting in last-minute heroics by the boss, producer or others
• A “silo” mentality where each person or team is focused only on its function, with no concern about how functions have to fit together to achieve outstanding customer satisfaction 
• Crises that can be traced to frequent lapses of communication, either with clients or about their coverages
• Office “whispering” between people that ceasees when a manager or owner appears.

General discontent can be reflected in the perception of what others are getting—or getting away with. Instead of focusing on whether an important account receives timely service or competitive renewal pricing, the attention centers on workplace minutiae—complaints to each other about why Mary seems to be allowed to come in later or why John never goes out to lunch with certain people.

Related: Read another column by Philip Lieberman "Doctor's Orders."

Evaluate whether these complainers are born malcontents whose personalities are that way no matter what the environment; or whether a different, more positive environment would result in a behavioral change. Let’s look at the first situation. 

There are people who seem to be born malcontents; nothing really pleases them but there are a multitude of things that displease them. Whether the perceived problems are co-workers, company regulations, the boss or imagined affronts, there is an endless variety of conditions to complain about. Underlying these attitudes is often a mindset that the defenseless little people are at the mercy of the powerful, whether the agency owners, the government or other institutions. 

Some amount of valuable work time is consumed by these discussions with colleagues and a “gossip” atmosphere results. That is not to say that many of such people might not be good workers, but their attitudes contaminate an overall productive environment.  

As an agency principal, use three ways to deal with this situation: 

1. Put the blinders on, pretend you don’t know and don’t see, and just let things roll along. Express anger or disappointment when people fall short in their service to clients, but don’t say anything about the toxic atmosphere. This won’t alleviate conditions.   
2. Bring up the subject at an agency or team meeting, expressing your displeasure, but be careful not to mention anyone by name in such a public forum. This does little to help alleviate conditions. 
3. Have an open and honest private discussion with the individual (we’ll call her Sally) that you believe has displayed this behavior, letting her know how counterproductive it is, not only for the agency, but for all individuals involved. Ask Sally if there is any particular thing in the office that she is unhappy about, something you might not even be aware of, as you would like to improve things if possible. Tell Sally:

• You cannot let this kind of behavior continue
• While her work might have been adequate, she is on probation and another conversation will take place in 3 months
• If her attitude hasn’t changed at that time, she is subject to termination. Make sure you have such a conversation with every malcontent in the office. And, if it doesn’t improve, you should be ready to replace Sally. 

This approach will have a beneficial effect on the office environment, especially among those employees who do not participate in those behaviors but who know what goes on. They also know if the employer is being overly tolerant by not addressing the problem. You cannot control what is said outside of the office, but you can set an overall tone during work hours. 

Related: Read the article "Building a Winning Team? Don't Forget the O-Line" by Laura Mazucca Toops.

Let’s now assume there aren’t any (or many) malcontents, but the office environment is nevertheless problematic. This is the second possibility mentioned above, where a different, more positive environment might result in a behavioral change. As an agency principal, it’s time to look at yourself and your style of governing.

The traditional “command and control” style is reflected by the following patterns: 

• The boss is the primary source of ideas and procedures which are handed down through the chain of command
• Upward communication to the boss is either meager or non-existent
• Meetings of different groups are focused on nuts-and-bolts procedures and are seldom attended by the principal 
• A dictatorial style discourages ideas for improvement from others. 

Related: Read the article by Philip Lieberman "Training is the PITS."

If your agency has all or some of these characteristics, perhaps in varying degrees, we suggest you concentrate on making some changes that will create a more positive environment. Engage the principal with these activities: 

• Attend meetings of underwriters, teams or account executives periodically to specifically solicit ideas about how to improve processes, communication, client relationships and, yes, even how to improve employee enthusiasm. But beware: the benefit of this interaction will erode unless you directly communicate what has been done with the ideas suggested once the meetings are over. 
• Share with employees the agency results each quarter. They can be focused on top-line revenues, not necessarily bottom-line profitability. Talk about the causes and, if results are positive (and try to find the positive components even if overall results are disappointing), emphasize the contributions people have made to make it happen. Even monthly results can be posted on the wall or shared by email. 
• Celebrate great effort and/or sales success stories by agency-wide email, naming and congratulating the individuals involved. A token reward, such as a gift card, can accompany the recognition. Don’t limit such recognition to producers; very often, the CSR is the key to an outstanding result. 
• Introduce a goal-setting process where you reward the achievement of measurable goals. Goals should be attainable but not without a stretch, and employees can help create both individual and team goals. (See my article “Enabling Enthusiasm” in the August  2012 AA&B for other ideas.)

In general, get involved with your employees on as personal a level as you can manage. Solicit their ideas and input. Let them know you’re interested in their success and that they are a key component of how the agency can achieve the results that will benefit everyone. This can be difficult because agency principals are busy grappling with retaining larger accounts, fighting for the financial welfare of the agency, riding herd on producers, beating the bushes for new business, staying on top of carrier relationships and a million and one other things. 

But if you don’t take the time and make the effort to relate to your people, you will never create the kind of culture and esprit de corps that is characteristic of top-performing agencies. If you really try to find out what is wrong with office morale in an open and sincere way, your staff will tell you. And they even might tell you how to fix it.