Gather Around

Insurance agents and brokers seem to go to more meetings and conferences than most people can imagine. Just in the property and casualty arena, there are a host of educational and networking events across the country covering professional liability, risk management, emergency management and other topics, plus one-on-one meetings with clients. Compare that to the industry I used to cover — waste management. In that business sector, equipment was so heavy and expensive to exhibit that there were just two major conferences per year.

Is the insurance industry’s penchant for getting together excessive?

Perhaps to an outsider, the answer would be yes. But as I am learning, meetings are the insurance industry’s bread and butter. We’ve all heard a friend or colleague complain about time wasted in meetings. But if insurance agents do their jobs properly, meetings will be a lot more productive than gathering ’round to sing kum-bah-yah.

Agents and brokers cannot provide good customer service without first understanding the coverages they can offer and getting to know their clients. To recommend appropriate coverage, agents also need to familiarize themselves with individuals’ financial goals, appetite for risk and long-term needs. And the best way to do that is to spend time with customers and potential clients in … a meeting.

A study that recently appeared in the Journal of Applied Psychology seems to validate the importance of meetings as well. The study noted that the average number of work meetings has more than doubled in the second half of the 20th century, and the time spent in meetings keeps growing. But this can be a positive thing, the study indicated.

According to the researchers, led by industrial and organizational psychologist Steven G. Rogelberg from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, some people get a secret charge out of meetings. More people actually view meetings as a positive part of the workday than they will admit publicly, the study said.

“When speaking publicly, people generally claim that they hate meetings,” Rogelberg said, “but in the surveys, you see a different story — some people’s private sentiments are much more positive.”

For people who are very task-focused, goal-focused and accomplishment striving, numerous short meetings have a greater impact on their well-being than a few long meetings taking the same amount of time, the study noted. And, people who scored low in accomplishment striving were also positively affected by meetings. They looked at meetings as welcome events, rather than interruptions.

“It’s an interesting finding,” Rogelberg said, “because it really helps to explain why we have all these meetings. And though they are typically publicly negative, overwhelmingly people say that they want the day to have at least one meeting. They have to feel like they are accomplishing something positive in their meetings to produce this response.”

So the next time you have to step out of the office for yet another meeting, don’t be sheepish or complain about it. After all, if that meeting helps you grow your book of business, soon your co-workers will be gathering around too — only this time, to offer their congratulations.