Handling Difficult People & Employees

As a small business owner, you wear many "different hats" from strategic planner to bookkeeper. However one area may owners aren't prepared for is managing people. Although employees allow you to get more work done, they create a whole new series of problems from hiring issues to worker's compensation. And there is no way to tell if the people you hire today are going to be a good fit for your company. At a certain point, you might find you need a crash course in handling difficult people.

Many conflicts can arise between small business owners and their workers. These problems can range from salary disagreements to performance problems. A conflict with one of your employees, for example, can cost you a valuable client because he or she is misrepresenting you and your company. On the other hand, one of your workers may have attendance issues or may refuse to perform certain necessary tasks.

Whatever the issue, difficult employees all have one thing in common. They will negatively impact your business. So as a business owner, you must accept the realities of handling difficult people. Here are a few tips that will help you deal with such individuals.

Handling difficult employees? Here's what you must do before they destroy your business.

Everyone knows the importance of having a positive attitude, especially in the health insurance industry. Even negative people say that they have a positive attitude.

All agents have seen it one time or another. They are at a meeting, and in the hallway during one of those five minute breaks they notice a woman on the telephone. In fact, she’s on the phone on every break. Finally one agent says, "calling your husband, huh?" to which she quickly responds, "No! Setting appointments." She’s obviously protecting or insuring her ‘good attitude’. She’s making sure that the outside influence of a meeting will not affect her production goals or her ‘good attitude’.

Or, what about the guy who’s sitting at a table by himself at the Monday morning ‘turn-in’ meeting. He’s busy wrestling with a pile of papers and hasn’t said a word to anyone. Someone goes up to him and says something about the monsoons or scorching heat or earthquake in China last week and he barely acknowledges their presence. "All those papers must be apps", he mutters to the group in the hall.

An example of Attitude Insurance:

Sam, a new agent, rode with John, a seasoned pro, for a week. Monday, John finished setting up his week. He already had about eight appointments and added another 7 or 8. It didn’t look too difficult, people just seem to like him. On Tuesday, things started going bad. The first appointment wasn’t there so they just introduced themselves to a few other businesses. The next person didn’t qualify medically, but they did sell the NBA membership and a critical illness policy. Wednesday they encountered severed thunderstorms. Their first appointment was the owner of a tow trucking company and was a no-show. They went next door to a beauty shop and found five beauticians and a receptionist looking very bored because all their customers had canceled due to the weather. They took to them immediately, offering coffee and a place to dry off. During the three hours before their next appointment, they wrote up every one of those ladies.

Still raining something awful, they went to their next appointment. It was a mechanic shop on the other side of town. The rain was blowing completely horizontal with no signs of letting up, so they made a mad dash for the door. The ground was so soft that Sam lost one of his brand new shoes in the mud. The owner and one employee helped them in and long story short, was so impressed with John’s presentation that he quickly called his brother over. They ended up selling 3 families. Thursday, John’s car broke down on the way to their appointments. So they had to call Sam’s wife to pick them up and use his car the rest of the day. John had over $20,000 in AV that week. He never once let the elements get in his way. He was constantly thinking of positive solutions to every situation. It was John’s best week to date.

So, where does attitude insurance come from? Attitude insurance comes from the same place things like honor, discipline and integrity come from…inner self. An agent’s friends and co-workers surely help but for him to truly have the good attitude, he will have to be the one to get it and protect it. The agent is the only one who can give himself an Attitude Insurance Policy.

The really great news is that there is no cost associated with obtaining this policy. Not in terms of money anyway. The cost is the agent’s action and their discipline. Agents must discipline themselves to take action against all those outside forces that adversely affect their good attitude.

By not protecting his attitude, an agent’s focus and ability to perform sound reasoning will be destroyed. Failure to protect a good attitude will certainly feed a bad attitude.

If an agent wants to make $4,000 a week selling insurance, he can. But if he sets a goal to make $4,000 a week and doesn’t do his due diligence to gain the proper knowledge and discipline, it won’t happen. And what do happens next? Well, believe it or not, this person is now looking for ways to cancel their Attitude Insurance Policy. They actually seek out other unsuccessful people to confirm their lack of success is justified --- again, from another unsuccessful person.

Dropping attitude protection, even for a moment, can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Ironically, highly successful people who encounter great challenges have those really huge Attitude Insurance Policies.

About the author:
Dan Roberts is the VP Sales and Marketing for Insurance of America Agency, Inc. A marketing leader in the insurance industry, Dan has worked in operations and sales and marketing at some of the nation’s largest insurance marketing organizations. He is the recipient of over 85 industry awards including a coveted ‘Million Dollar’ gold ring from the agency’s founder. Insurance of America specializes in both operational and sales and marketing support for those individuals wishing to build their own successful insurance business or marketing organization.

Dan Roberts, VP Sales and Marketing
Build Your Own Insurance Business

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