Mentorship helps advisors and agencies build a solid foundation for success

No professional sports team would draft young players, hand them a playbook and then leave them to sink or swim on their own. Yet all too often, this is how businesses treat new hires.

“I started out in the industry on a direct-sales team with one of the major carriers,” says Kai Williams, employee benefits advisor for PSA Financial and Insurance Services in Bowie, Maryland. “They did a mass hiring of about 25 people, and I am the only one who is still in the business. A big reason for that is because they just let us fend for ourselves and figure it out. Fortunately, I was able to learn enough to keep my head above water.”

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His experience with PSA, on the other hand, could not have been more different. “I was able to connect with one of the more senior consultants and form a friendship,” he says. “He offered to mentor me, and not only did he mentor me, but we are now partners and have a joint book of business, so he has also benefited from my growth. He has an incentive for me to do well, besides just his goodwill. We’ve been doing that for four years.”

Williams credits much of his career success to this ongoing mentorship. “It has expedited my development,” he says. “Where it may have taken me five years without a mentor, I got there in my first year because I was being exposed to so many helpful experiences. I have been able to learn a lot more quickly through those experiences than I would have by stumbling and figuring it out on my own. I am able to learn without the consequences of failing too drastically.”

“If we are going to grow our businesses and keep people engaged, we also need to give our teams the opportunity to grow.”

Allison De Paoli, founder of Altiqe Consulting in San Antonio, agrees that mentorship is key to the success of both employees and organizations. “The insurance industry has historically not been ripe for mentorship and growth opportunities,” she says. “If we are going to grow our businesses and keep people engaged, we also need to give our teams the opportunity to grow. Sometimes, it means people leave for different opportunities. I think that is a positive reflection on the leadership.”

De Paoli, like Williams, is grateful for her own mentors. “I’ve had several mentors over the years, and they have been extremely beneficial,” she says. “Some were a bit structured, such as a sales leader or manager, and some were quite informal. I am not sure that all of them realized the impact they had on me. Today, I have several people I turn to for advice; I don’t think the need for an impartial sounding board ever goes away.”

Mentorship is not as structured at Altiqe as it is at many larger firms. “We are a small team, so mentorship is informal,” she says. “It is important to me that my team grows and develop their skills, so I encourage that as much as possible. I also try to explain the ‘why’ behind what I do so they can learn and develop their own skills.”

PSA, by contrast, has implemented a formal mentorship program, based in part on Williams’ own experience. “When we bring a younger producer on board, we partner him or her with a more senior producer,” he says. “We incentivize our senior producers to be mentors by giving them a joint book of business. At the end of a certain timeframe, they have a choice of going their separate ways or continuing the partnership. We have done a good job of developing a sustainable system to groom newer and younger producers. They have really done an amazing job.”

“Collaboration is really the foundation of success. Individually, we all can do well, but if we team up, we can be really damn good together.”

While continuing to learn from his own mentor, Williams also now works with new employees. “There is a guy on the property and casualty side that I work with, and I help him out a lot,” he says. “That’s predicated on the culture that PSA has developed. You want to do it. Collaboration is really the foundation of success. Individually, we all can do well, but if we team up, we can be really damn good together.”

Although the program at PSA is highly structured, Williams believes that the most valuable interactions often take place not in the office, but over lunch or drinks after work. The biggest challenge of working remotely during the pandemic has been around these informal relationships.

“COVID-19 really hasn’t affected the mentor relationship too much,” he says. “Anytime I need anything, it’s only a call away. There is never a time when we are not in sync professionally. The struggle was more from a cultural aspect, such as not being able to go to happy hours. “If you started a new position during COVID-19, it was extremely challenging. We had some new employees who struggled with mentor relationships during COVID, because there needs to be an interpersonal aspect to it. If it’s limited to strictly professional interactions, you may communicate with your mentor on one or two calls a day, but you don’t get to form that personal relationship. That’s the challenge.”

Altiqe employees have also had to adjust. “While informal ‘hallway’ mentorship was no longer happening during the pandemic, meaningful conversations could still happen,” De Paoli says. “Conversations have become more intentional and focused. From my perspective as both a mentor and a mentee, I think that’s fine; however, I do miss some of the spontaneity.” At its core, the benefits industry is a people business, and mentorship can go a long way toward helping employees not only get off to a strong start, but remain successful throughout their careers.

“Mentorship is great when the mentor actually cares,” Williams says. “It’s foolish to think you can go anywhere in life solely by yourself.”