Risk Services Of Arkansas - December 2019

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With Christmas coming up, I’ve been thinking a lot about what we’re really celebrating. The Bible is the most important “book” ever written, but reading it can sometimes feel very two-dimensional. We read about the amazing life of Jesus Christ, but we miss out on a lot of the day-to-day detail and emotional complexity of the people written about in it. That’s why I was so excited when I heard about a new TV show called “The Chosen.” This is the first multiseason show to attempt to tell the in-depth story of Jesus Christ and his followers. If you don’t remember seeing ads for this show, that’s because it wasn’t made through traditional Hollywood channels. Show creator Dallas Jenkins made the show using crowdfunding. This is when content creators go directly to the public to raise money for a project. In interviews, Jenkins stated that he used crowdfunding in order to avoid having to take orders from Hollywood executives about this project. Fundraising for “The Chosen” raised over $10.2 million, setting the record as the top crowdfunded TV project in history. I believe this speaks to how strongly people wanted to see this story be told with biblical accuracy, character depth, and historical detail. The plan is to make seven seasons, though only season one is available right now. I watched the whole first season (the pilot and four episodes) in a week, and I truly liked it. From a technical standpoint, I think “The Chosen” is a very good TV show. The team behind it clearly put a lot of work into making the historical details as accurate as possible. Everything, from the costumes to the acting, seems to be of the highest quality. But what sets “The Chosen” apart from other Biblical adaptations is the way it takes individuals from the Gospels, from Nicodemus to Simon Peter, and turns them into fully realized characters. In essence, the viewer gets to experience their humanity, before, during, and after their convergence with Christ. For instance, they did a really good job with Mary Magdalene, who only appears in just a few verses in the Gospels. From that, all we know is that she was a demon-possessed prostitute who became an early follower of Jesus. “The Chosen” spends the better part of an entire episode exploring her life. They show what a bad place she was in, how messed up she was, and how the “religious” people treated this poor woman. Then she has an encounter with Christ, and she is changed into a beautiful human being. This show is special for me because it turns these Biblical names into real people. Through their eyes, we see the powerful experiences they had with Jesus. Episodic television is a good media to tell this story because it allows time for characters to develop and stories to unfold. The audience can identify with these people and understand who they are and what they went through. ‘The Chosen’

A New Way to Experience the Greatest Story Ever Told

“The Chosen” puts the story of Jesus into perspective. He was a carpenter; he was a man who worked hard, who probably cut himself and smashed his fingers; who got tired and thirsty. Yet, at the same time, he focused solely on his one and only mission. It really made me think about this mysterious concept of someone who was 100% man and 100% God. “The Chosen” made me think, and it led me to this question ... If Jesus was here now, would I recognize him? This show is clearly one man’s version of the historic story. Obviously, Jenkins takes some artistic license, but you can tell it’s done as a means of telling Jesus’ story in a way that will hopefully resonate with the audience. I enjoyed it a lot and am looking forward to watching the next seasons as they come out. I highly recommend watching it for yourself, especially around Christmas. It’s a great reminder of what we’re celebrating. You can find “The Chosen” online at VidAngel.com/the-chosen or by searching for “The Chosen” app on your phone or in your tablet app store. I recommend downloading the app because it has all of season one available to watch for free. That’s another amazing thing about this show. Dallas Jenkins didn’t make “The Chosen” because he wanted to make a lot of money; he made it because he wanted to share this story with the world. And it’s a story that will always be worth telling.

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Some people are born into insurance. Other people, like INSURICA’s vice president and director of sales development, David Saldon, quite literally stumble into it. In the summer of 1984, David had been accepted to law school and was working two bartending jobs to pay tuition. Every day, he would see two well-dressed men come in for lunch and order a pitcher

Poor delegation is the Achilles’ heel of most leaders, who often confuse being “involved” with being “essential.” To determine if you’re holding on to work you should delegate out, the Harvard Business Review (HBR) recommends asking this simple question: “If you had to take an unexpected week off work, would your initiatives and priorities advance in your absence?” If your answer is no or you aren’t sure, then you’re probably too involved. No one person should be the cog that keeps everything in motion, no matter their position in the company. Luckily, HBR has created an audit using the following six T’s to identify which tasks can be delegated. TINY: Small tasks that stack up can undermine the flow of your work. Registering for a conference, putting it on the calendar, and booking the flight are all small tasks someone else can handle. TEDIOUS: These tasks are straightforward but not the best use of your time. Someone else can input lists into spreadsheets or update key performance indicators for a presentation. TIME-CONSUMING: These important, complex tasks don’t require you to do the first 80% of the work. Identify what they are, pass them to someone else, and step in for the final 20% to give approval. TEACHABLE: Is there a task only you know how to do? If so, teach someone else to do it, and step in for the last quality check when it’s done. TERRIBLE AT: It’s okay to be bad at some things. Great leaders know when to pass tasks off to someone who is more skilled than they are. The task will get done faster and at a much higher quality. TIME-SENSITIVE: These tasks need to get done right now but are competing with tasks of a higher priority. Just because it has to get done immediately doesn’t mean you have to be the one to do it. Sure, some tasks only you can accomplish, but these are extremely rare. As the Virgin Group founder Richard Branson warns, needlessly resisting delegation is the path to disaster. “You need to learn to delegate so that you can focus on the big picture,” Branson says. “It’s vital to the success of your business that you learn to hand off those things that you aren’t able to do well.” Delegate to Elevate The Secret to Being a Great Leader

of sangria. Four hours later, they’d be back for happy hour. After a few weeks, David finally had to ask these gentlemen what they did for a living. That’s when he was invited to stop by an insurance firm and hear about a career where you could make good money, help businesses protect their assets, build strong professional relationships that turn into lifelong personal relationships, and still be home to catch your kid’s baseball game. “I was going to law school in September, but I figured I’d give insurance a try for the rest of the summer,” David recalls. “Long story short, in my first week, I wrote an account for a guy who hated his previous insurance. I was hooked!” David’s love for the industry grew from his passion for helping people. Over time, David would create a producer development program for his firm to help bring on and train more people who wanted to help businesses thrive. This skill is what ultimately brought David to INSURICA when the company put out a national search for a director of sales development nine years ago. At the time, the average age of someone in the industry was 54. INSURICA wanted to prioritize recruiting and developing young talent. After consulting with the Supreme Ruler — aka his wife — David decided to look into the position. This led to the whole family, including David’s in-laws, moving from Pennsylvania to Oklahoma. It was a huge change, but one that has paid off for both David’s family and INSURICA over the last decade. “Generally speaking, 3 out of 10 people who come into the industry as producers make it,” David reports. “It’s probably one of the toughest sales jobs there is. Over the last decade, I’ve hired over 100 producers at INSURICA, with a success rate of 64%. We’ve got a support program in place. When producers are set up to succeed, they can help our clients develop and implement risk management plans that are best in class.” Having David in leadership set our team up for success and changed the direction of the company, much like how stumbling into insurance changed the direction of David’s life. “Family is key,” David says. “I got into this industry on the promise that I would be able to support and be with my family. Over the years, I’ve been able to go on family hikes, coach my son’s baseball team, and take my daughter to visit colleges. I love spending time with my family, and it’s a privilege to be in an industry that helps people protect their businesses so they can spend time with their families, too.”

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After #MeToo

CAN COMPANIES REPAIR THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN?

Most men want to do the right thing, but without these workplace relationships, women will be denied career advancement and leadership opportunities. These opportunities are vital to correcting the toxic habits that created a need for #MeToo to exist in the first place. How can we create strong relationships without crossing the line? When in doubt, ask the women. “Women, particularly in senior leadership, have a responsibility to truly step up and lead and show the vision of what we want our company culture to be,” Mellard says. Schultz agrees with this sentiment, stating, “We are being challenged to rethink everything. But most people react with a sense of respect for the other person. If women react with what is acceptable to them, they may solve some problems. In the professional environment, we have to instill confidence for the recipient of an action to say, ‘I don’t appreciate that behavior; here’s where the guardrails are.’ ... If women are made aware of this duty, it can work.” This isn’t to say that women are solely responsible for educating their male colleagues. Each company is responsible for addressing their own issues and equipping employees with the tools to prevent and address problems. The good news is that this seems to be happening. In that same Survey Monkey/ LeanIn.org poll, 70% of employees said their company has taken action to reduce sexual harassment; in 2018, that number was just 46%. There are many problems in the American workplace that have been allowed to fester for a long time. In this moment, companies have the opportunity to both address that harm and chart a future that will allow all employees the chance for success.

It’s been over a year since The New York Times published the story on Harvey Weinstein, exposing the serious problem of sexual harassment in Hollywood and sparking the #MeToo movement. Has anything changed in that time? The answer is clearly yes, though not all of these changes are for the better. A Survey Monkey/LeanIn.org poll of 5,182 men, published in May of 2019, found that 60% of men say they “hesitate to commit to 1:1 time with women.” This includes mentoring, socializing, and having one-on-one meetings. The response was up 14% from last year. This increase is believed to be a direct result of #MeToo. SueAnn Schultz, chief administrative officer, litigation counsel, and secretary at IMA Financial Group, believes that men are afraid of being falsely accused.

In an effort to protect themselves, many men, even those who are not “part of the problem,” have distanced themselves from female colleagues. Unfortunately, this response can be damaging to women in the workplace. Nancy Mellard, executive vice president and general counsel at CBIZ Benefits & Insurance Services Division discussed this problem in an interview with “Leader’s Edge.” “Those person-to-person relationships are critically important to success — success might be closing the deal or getting your next promotion,” says Mellard. “There is a level of caution. Relationships are not being created as they need to be.”

Sudoku Have a Laugh!

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INSIDE This Issue

What Are We Really Celebrating? page 1

What Great Leaders Have in Common Can You Stumble Into Destiny? page 2

Where Do We Go From Here? Sudoku page 3 A Better Way to Think About Motivation page 4

Susan Fowler’s ‘Master Your Motivation’ A Science-Based Approach to Achieving More

Thankfully for the reader, Fowler defines an alternative framework for motivation. In what amounts to the book’s thesis, she states, “To master your motivation, create choice, connection, and competence.” When you measure motivation across these three factors, which are the result of rigorous academic research rather than folksy conventional wisdom, you unlock the power of motivation. It’s not hard to see how Fowler’s framework is much more actionable than traditional motivational techniques. Creating intrinsic motivation, especially for others, is a mug’s game, but defining choice, connection, and competence is much less ambiguous. If you have team members who you feel lack motivation, ask yourself if their jobs have these three essential traits. Do they have agency (choice) in their work? Do they generate meaning (connection) from what they do? Do they get a sense of accomplishment (competence) from doing something well? If you can’t answer all three of these in the affirmative, you can create a plan for increasing motivation that doesn’t involve empty metrics or meaningless rewards. If you or your team could use a proverbial kick in the pants, the solution might be to ignore those proverbs entirely. “Master Your Motivation” takes a refreshing look at what makes us strive for more. It’s a great addition to any leadership library.

“You have the power to change your behaviors,” says Susan Fowler, “but to be successful in changing, you need an evidenced-based framework for motivation and techniques for applying it.” In her new book, “Master Your Motivation: Three Scientific Truths for Achieving Your Goals,” Fowler synthesizes her decades of research into a guide that provides such a framework. In the process, she overturns countless widely held myths about what motivates us.

Fowler believes the traditional carrot-and- stick approach to motivation (a combination of reward and punishment to induce a desired behavior) results from our perception of motivation as being either intrinsic or extrinsic. “Simplifying motivations into two types presents a conundrum when you aren’t intrinsically motivated,” she writes. “Your only fallback position is extrinsic motivation.” In other words, just by thinking about motivation as intrinsic versus extrinsic, you’ve already set yourself up to fail. To really motivate yourself and others, she argues, you need to think about motivation in different terms.

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