The Insurance Journal featured an interesting piece yesterday about an NCAA basketball referee who also runs his own insurance agency. For Gary Maxwell, the college basketball season is not a full-time gig since the schools only play games for six months a year, so becoming his own boss by maintaining his own small agency is a great way to provide both some steady income and the schedule flexibility he needs to ref.
And March Madness is definitely his busiest time of year.
During this year’s March Madness, he worked the Villanova versus Robert Morris game that went into overtime when the No. 15 seed almost beat the No. 2 team. In the second round, he officiated the St. Mary’s versus Villanova game, and when St. Mary’s, ranked 75 beat Villanova, ranked 65, “it was the biggest upset for the weekend,” Maxwell said.
Like many people, Maxwell never planned to get into insurance. It just sort of happened — which is the same way he got into officiating. And he has similarly learned many of the same lessons in each field.
“It didn’t start out I was going to officiate college basketball, kind of like my insurance career, I didn’t think I’d have four offices and 15 employees, it just sort of snowballed,” he said.
What Maxwell has learned in both careers, however, is that running a successful agency — like officiating a basketball game — takes diplomacy and good communication skills.
“In basketball we have to communicate with each of our partners, and with the coaches and players, and even the media,” Maxwell said. For instance, he said if a referee can explain a situation or interpretation of a rule, that’s helpful when officiating. “That doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll always agree, but still, being able to communicate is very helpful.”
And just like in hoops, he has discovered that — above all — insurance is a team game.
Above all, running a successful agency means putting the team goal above personal gain. “Everybody pulls and helps each other, and we’re not particularly hung up on who’s getting all the glory,” he said of his agency. “It’s all about getting the job done. That’s one of the reasons we’ve been so successful with officiating and our insurance operation.”
Along similar lines, NBrown has a post today on Insurance Marketing HQ about some lessons that insurance agencies can learn from the now-National Champion Duke Blue Devils.
Excellent recruiting aside, Duke competes on a yearly basis, because, in their minds, they’ve worked harder than any team in college basketball and deserve to be champions. Insurance sales and marketing is no different. The work you put in is a reflection of the victories you achieve, and more importantly, personal satisfaction.
It’s possible to survive and even grow a business without a winning attitude and hard work, but it’s not nearly as enjoyable or gratifying. The success of automated processes and agency management systems don’t rely on happy productive employees, but genuine customer relations and maximum efficiency cannot be achieved without them.
In the end Duke wins with accountability, excellent coaching (management), high-effort defense (hands-on insurance marketing) and by grooming talent (keeping good employees). Assess yourself and your team, would it make Coach K and Coach Wooden proud?
And if you still haven’t gotten your fill of what college sports and what they can tell us about business, you also might want to check out an article we ran last month on CEO succession planning. Who knew that Colt McCoy, the Texas Longhorns and the BCS Championship football game could teach us so much?
Unfortunately, Gary Maxwell’s lessons on March Madness and insurance couldn’t help Morgan do any better on his bracket. He came in second to last place. I mean, that’s a lot of red.
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Jared Wade is co-editor of Risk Management Monitor and senior editor of Risk Management magazine, where he has worked since 2002. You can follow him on Twitter @RiskMgmt and find more of his writing at JaredWade.com.
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In my defense, I did come in second last year.
Funny story. But now that I come to think of it, I suppose nobody plans to get into insurance. Certainly, nobody in grade school has dreams of entering the insurance industry. I know I didn’t.