Your insurance agency is most likely made up of a group of professionals who range in age. When training and communicating with younger and older employees, it is important to understand that each individual learns and listens at their own pace. Taking the time to get to know your agents as well as establishing a clear mission can help you build effective communication across all generations.
Whether you are speaking to an 80 or a 25 year old agent, make sure to never dumb down the message. The last thing you want to do is show disrespect to a colleague. In order to recognize how to change your approach when communicating with certain team members, here are some tips to follow:
- When sharing innovative ideas, such as adjusting your insurance marketing strategy, you should tailor your message in order to help your old and young understand how to reach out to customers in an authentic way.
- Be direct and straightforward about the instructions or advice you are giving.
- Show respect for the person and their time.
- When in a conversation, ask the person how they can best learn new skills or understand a message better moving forward.
- When giving presentations, make them more of a conversation and less of a speech.
- Work with your team to establish a mission that impacts people of all ages.
- Always be open to questions and collaboration.
- Encourage different opinions and ask for input.
- Use all forms of communication with your employees, ranging from face-to-face, phone, email, instant message, and texting.
- Individualize your approach and figure out what works with each person. Do not assume based on age that a person prefers one form of communication over another.
What is most important to remember is that each generation can learn from each other. Staying true to your agency’s mission and reaching out to offer help through effective communication is the best way to build a stronger connection between yourself and your team. This way, everyone can gain great industry knowledge, experience, and skills in technology trends!
I think these are often overlooked by mamangement and employees. As the internet makes it easier and easier to communicate, the more and more difficult itis to stand out from the crowd. Hence why I think we all need to evaluate how effective we are in communicating and adjust as your staff see fit.
Great post!
Ash
Hi Ash,
You are right on point. Managing employees can be a difficult task, but focusing on communication can really help a team grow stronger and achieve more goals. Thanks for the comment 🙂
-Elizabeth