Recruit your way out of any problem

Recruit Your Way Out of Any Problem

I’ve been a general manager for 22 years. The mistake that I made as a new manager is that I thought I had to solve everything myself—address the negativism and the problems and pay attention to the troublemakers continuously. That can consume 99 percent of your time. Early on in my career, a senior VP of the company made a statement, and I’m quoting: “There is not a problem that you cannot recruit yourself out of.” It took a while for me to grasp what that meant. Like any manager, I did focus on recruiting, but I did it just because it was part of the job. I didn’t realize how it could be the solution to all of these problems. I dug into what he said and dissected it. I’d say, “I have this problem, Could recruiting help me solve this? Absolutely yes!” Then I’d look at the next problem, and the next and I found that recruiting was the answer every time, whether it was an issue with profitability, productivity, retention, customer service, or anything else. Basically, I barreled ahead in the recruiting area and changed the face of the agency. As I kept bringing more and more and more successful people on board, the negative people and complainers became the minority. As a result, their influence was minimal. It’s not something that can happen overnight. It took me five years. Soon I began to realize just how true this guy’s statement really was. For example, morale. If you recruit highly motivated, successful people and you constantly improve your level of recruits, you’ll be improving the organization year after year, and that automatically solves the morale problem. Another example is productivity. When you have successful recruits who do better and better each and every year, it solves a lot of productivity problems. They become the rabbits of the organization. As a veteran manager, I pass this revelation on to rookie managers, that recruiting can be the solution to all kinds of problems they face. The problems will probably never go away, but the success you can achieve with really high-caliber recruits will overcome the problem. I want them to become entrepreneurs and to become self-sufficient within five years, to have survived the business and they’re improving year after year, and they’re not vulnerable to the pitfalls of the business. That senior VP was someone I didn’t know very well, but as a field manager, I had heard him speak at various meetings. I don’t think he realized the impact he had on me or other people. I’ve hired the majority of the people in my agency and developed them over the years. I’m extremely proud when I see people I’ve brought into the business who have gone on to become highly successful producers in this business, just to see their natural progression from rookie agents to successful MDRT qualifiers and higher, year after year. And many of them become managers who know that they can recruit their way out of any problem.
That is the greatest satisfaction that a general manager can have—much more than money, bells and whistles, and medals.

John G. Savadjian, CLU ChFC CLTC LUTCF
Managing Director
Prudential Financial
Paramus, NJ

=========================================================================================================================