NAILBA Perspectives - May/June 2015 - (Page 30)

reading ahead Making Responsible Decisions What have you recently read that inspired you to look differently at the way you're doing business? NAILBA welcomes your recommendations for books or blogs that you find helpful in shaping the way you do business. Contact Rachel Marineau, NAILBA's Manager of Meetings and Education, at 703.383.3069 or rmarineau@nailba.org and share your reading list. 30 perspectives MAY/JUNE 2015 The Slight Edge Jeff Olson When faced with the choice of what action to take, Jeff Olson reminds us in The Slight Edge, that "it is easy to do and easy not to do." There are many circumstances that affect our life-how we chose to deal with them and the reaction we're going to have is what ultimately determines the outcome. It may seem like extreme common sense but Olson points out the cause and effect of taking responsibility. We can either choose to be a passive hearer and let things go by us and then place blame if things go badly, or we can be an active doer who takes charge of the matter. The Slight Edge challenges the reader to own up to the fact that there is only one person ultimately responsible for any situation you're in whether it be good or bad-YOU. Life happens and with every step you make, you must choose how you will respond and the affect you will have on your future. "If you want to measure where you are, if you want to know whether you're on the success curve or on the failure curve, or if you want to assess anyone else and determine which curve they're on, here's how. There is one attitude, one state of mind, which overwhelmingly predominates either side of the curve. The predominant state of mind displayed by those people on the failure curve is blame. The predominant state of mind displayed by those people on the success curve is responsibility." What it boils down to is a simple decision. You either are or are not going to take responsibility for the actions you take and for the circumstances in which you find yourself. So will you put yourself on the upward curve or the one that points downward? Christi Daughenbaugh of Borden Hamman Insurance Marketing calls The Slight Edge, "an incredibly challenging book that reminds us that it's the small mundane choices we make each day that ultimately determine our success or failure." Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work Chip Heath & Dan Heath The prolific business authors Chip and Dan Heath have come up with a wonderful model for decision making in their latest book Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work. They carefully identify four basic principles to consider when faced with a crucial decision as well as the "villains" that tend to thwart our best intentions. Their "WRAP model" is covered throughout the chapters of this book as they teach you about widening your options, testing your assumptions, distancing yourself from decisions to get perspective, and preparing to be wrong. These are the guideposts in a system that can improve anyone's ability to make better choices. And they warn against typical roadblocks to good decision making: shortterm thinking, overconfidence, and supporting our decisions by any means possible. As with many of their books, the Heaths have a great command of the topic and they make it fun and instructive. Each step has insightful pointers to get you through each phase and carefully consider ALL options available to you-especially the ones you haven't come close to considering yet. Forget about 'A' OR 'B'; what if 'A' AND 'B' is possible? There's also the vanishing options test: What would you do if your current options were not available? Above all, Decisive assists in developing a process for decision making that, when followed closely, can help eliminate the agonizing cycle of "what am I missing?" Each chapter has very digestible advice backedup by scenarios and case studies. At the end of the book, 'clinic' sessions are provided that help to practice the WRAP model and offer solutions. The scenarios are challenging and the authors don't give you a right or wrong answer; they are there simply to make you think. Decisive is a must read for anyone looking for a leg up on their competition. Be sure to check out their website for additional resources that support this book at: www.heathbrothers.com. http://www.heathbrothers.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NAILBA Perspectives - May/June 2015

NAILBA Perspectives - May/June 2015
Contents
Chairman’s Corner
CEO Insights
Basic Staff Training: Onboarding Should be Longer than One Day
NAILBA Charitable Foundation
Member Profiles
Mooers Award Nominations
Get Schooled! Ongoing employee Education and Producer Training are Key to a Brokerage Agency’s Success
Agency Successor Networking Group
Life Happens
Reading Ahead
Government Affairs
Calendar of Events
Index of Advertisers

NAILBA Perspectives - May/June 2015