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The information Pat provides during her presentations comes from years of experience in the trenches of the insurance industry. She is able to speak authoritatively about the changes agency staff goes...
by Steve Anderson, Executive Editor, The Anderson Agency Report
Advisor To:
Thomas Nelson Book Review Bloggers
solutions to challenges with innovative ideas
Pat Alexander, CIC
consultant - coach - mentor
Pat enables insurance agents and brokers to grow and meet their goals. Pat provides information and experience to help turn threatening or unfamiliar situations into opportunities to enhance the client experience leading to better client retention and referrals.
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Best Practices Documentation
January 25th, 2010
I write a lot about how to define, train, implement and monitor best practices. In talking with agencies that I have worked with I find that one of their biggest challenges is determining the best way to publish their documentation and another is how to keep the information current. This article will discuss the following three topics which I believe address these issues:
1. What is the best way to publish our best practices?
2. How and when do we review and update our best practices?
3. Who edits our best practices?
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Insurance Ecosystem Blog Launch
January 11th, 2010
I am pleased to announce the launch today of a new blog Insurance Ecosystem.Com. My vision for this blog is to provide you with communicators that don’t normally blog but have great views and information to share. Each of these individuals has been wooed to blog here because I think they have so much to contribute in their area of expertise. PatAlexander.Com will remain the home base for my voice. I will contribute to this site from time-to-time or enter into the conversation via comments on a particular post.
I am inviting you to sign up to subscription to this new blog. Currently I plan to have new posts for you on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of each week. I have several committed communicators and some thinking about it. If you know of someone that does not regularly blog that you would like to hear, let me know and I will see if I can entice them to join us. If you are a regular blogger, but would like to join in the conversation here with guest posts, let me know.
I believe that the more we have involved in the conversation the better.
Technorati Tags:
Insurance Ecosystem, insurance technology, twitter, blogging, wordpress, intensedebate, insurance technology
My Most Important Noticer & Mentor
December 29th, 2009
I have been reading The Noticer and it has caused me to think a lot about mentoring. By the time I was 21 years old I had been in the insurance business 3 years, but I had no idea where I was going or what a career was. I was so very fortunate while looking for a new job to find Mr. Russell Grace, owner of Russell Grace Insurance.
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My Love Affair with New York City
December 23rd, 2009
I first visited Manhattan in 1994. A little late to the party I know, but it was my first chance to get there. I was in love the moment we turned onto 5th Avenue. I am always ready to plan a trip to New York. By the time the plane is over Philadelphia, I am patting my foot impatiently on the floor wanting to know how soon we will be landing. Flying over the city and seeing the skyline from LaGuardia just makes me smile. So how do I feed my need when I am not there?
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Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t – by Jim Collins – Book Review
November 25th, 2009
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t
I first read Good to Great several years ago. When I was an employee of IBTX Risk Services the entire staff was required to read the book. The agency’s culture was based on many of the principles of this book. I return to this book as reference material often.
The portions of the book that I continue to use with my clients are:
1. Good is the enemy of great.
2. Have the right people in the right seat on the bus.
3. Disciplined People, Disciplined Thought & Disciplined Action create “A Culture of Discipline.”
This is another book that I often request that the management of an agency read when they are my client. It contains many valuable lessons. If you have read Good to Great would you please share what you believe are the top lessons of this book. I am always looking for other’s points-of-view.
Technorati Tags:
Good to Great, Jim Collins, insurance agency culture, book review, insurance agency values
Providence in Nashville
November 23rd, 2009
Last week Gene, Jessica(our granddaughter) and I went to Nashville. Jessica and I were attending the Lifework 2.0 Seminar on Thursday. Gene was able to find an old high school friend that everyone said they couldn’t find in Franklin. Thursday night we went to downtown Nashville for dinner and a little karaoke. Now we didn’t know anything about any of the bars in downtown. Jessica got on her iphone and read the reviews and chose Lonnie’s Western Room.
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You Never Know Who Is Watching and Listening
November 16th, 2009
Agencies tell me that they don’t know what to blog about and who would be listening to them anyway. It is always interesting to me after I post a blog to watch for comments. Even when I ask an interesting question there are not always comments. Other times when I don’t expect a response, I receive several.
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