Acting with Integrity, Encouraging the Quality

Listen with curiosity. Speak with honesty. Act with integrity. The greatest problem with communication is we don’t listen to understand. We listen to reply. When we listen with curiosity, we don’t listen with the intent to reply. We listen for what’s behind the words. ~ Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

Peacocks are one of the many symbols for integrity. That isn’t just a pretty face up there.

There’s a fair amount of wisdom in Bennett’s quote. I will focus on one aspect – acting with integrity. I cannot think of that word without also thinking of a Naples, Florida, agent I worked with a few decades ago. So let me tell you a story.

Between the summers of 2001 and 2009, I had the great fortune to work with a wonderful underwriting team. Our desks were in a suburb of Atlanta, but we spent our days talking with producers, account managers, and customer service representatives in Florida. Not only was I lucky to be on a team that felt like family, but I also had a number of highly-quality agencies. I didn’t realize the degree of one agent’s professional dedication until I received a phone call that I still remember. Here’s how it came about.

Given the geographic territory, my ability to write property was more limited than it would have been in, say, Tennessee. I won’t bore you with all the reasons, since this isn’t an insurance post. I will say that I wrote a lot of golf clubs in that state, and those risks almost always had many buildings. This particular story is about one of those very risks that had acceptable property. If memory serves, the producer, Steve, had submitted and bound the risk some months before an issue arose.

I was surprised when his account manager called me to make a change on the construction of one of the buildings. No, they weren’t remodeling or razing and re-building a structure I had already approved. She was calling to tell me that Steve wanted me to know that one of the structures I had rated as joisted masonry (JM) was actually frame.

CHARACTERISTICS OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE INTEGRITY (per Power of Positivity)

Open to correction – able to admit mistakes
Respectful – values other people and their time (avoiding tardiness)
Honest – when speaking to others and also in self-assessment
Humble – recognizing that everyone makes a contribution.
Kind – gives others the benefit of the doubt

Responsible – maintains a high level of accountability
Reliable – consistently exhibiting behavior that proves you’ll do what you say
Helpful – anticipates opportunities to offer a hand when needed
Selfless – putting the needs of others before your own.

If you know anything about property insurance, you’ll grasp the significance of the change. The rate for JM was much better than for frame, at least for the coverages we were providing. And the agent was calling me mid-term to tell me to fix it. He knew the price would go up once I endorsed the policy. And I would have to endorse once I knew the facts. To say that I was surprised would be an understatement.

Here’s the thing. We had a decent relationship before that call, but after it, I never questioned anything Steve sent me. Yes, I still had to request loss control reports on large accounts and run MVRs to check drivers’ records. But I always knew that whatever was on the application would exactly match the risk as Steve knew it to be.

If you have ever had an experience like that, you’ll understand when I tell you I felt like he had my back. His notification to me signaled a need to make sure the insured wouldn’t have a problem in case of a loss, and that I wouldn’t have a problem in case of an underwriting audit.

I don’t remember the name of the risk or the total premium, or even whether the risk was always profitable. I only remember that phone call and the immediate strong-as-gorilla-glue trust it engendered.

That experience stood in strong contrast to conversations with another agent who was ever so likable, but sometimes told me only what he thought I wanted to hear.

And that brings me to the other side of this. Integrity isn’t just for business behavior and it isn’t just about others. It’s all well and good to expect people to be there when they say they will. To carry their part of the load. To make that necessary call to a client. However, in the same way we want to rely on a promise made by a teammate, we also want family members to treat us at least as well as business associates. To fill the gas tank, to pick up the groceries or to take the clothes out of the dryer when they said they would. They do love us, right? 😉 Seriously, though, that integrity thing is a two-way street. We have a part in this, too, don’t we? We should demand as much from ourselves as we hope for from others. I try to do the right thing, but I know there’s room for improvement. I’ll be working on that.

You?

Being trustworthy is an integral part of having integrity. Whether or not you have it, you will impact those around you. You can pull a team/family together or you can tear it apart.