Over the years, I have made so many life changing skills and have learned or been taught many lessons. Probably the most important lesson that I have learned is the importance of process. This skill can be related to habits, both in life and in business.
It would be very easy to say that I have developed so many bad habits during my younger years that it became very difficult to learn the value of developing process in my business life. Going back to being a young person, it was easy just to always fly by the seat of my pants and usually try and wing it through life. Early in my Prudential years, it became apparent that, with so many responsibilities of service, sales, paperwork, premium collections as well as many other daily tasks, that I needed a system. With so many senior advisors in the office, I turned to them for advice.
I started seeing different habits that were actually processes, and that the repeatability of a task, sales meeting and paperwork became invaluable. Fast forward 10 years, and those processes along with bringing my associate, Laura Haggith on board as marketing support, have brought me to a higher level of success in growing our practice.
This brings us to today. The whole team is focused on looking at creating, changing and improving every process that we use for the success of our clients’ short and long term needs. Below are a few tips to incorporate process in everyone’s life:
- Everyday – when you have things to do
- Create a list and prioritize it
- Check off tasks as they’re completed
- Start a future/tomorrow list
- 80% is okay – don’t get frustrated with not getting something 100% completed. The goal is to focus, not to be perfect.
- When you are trying to gather information from someone:
- Ask open ended questions
- Don’t assume the answers
- 70% listening and 30% talking is best
- Remember the golden rule – treat others as you would like them to treat you.
- Be grateful for what you have and remember that every day is a gift.
My mother always says “Life is great as long as you don’t weaken”. So remember, life is easier with process.