Posts by Robert Houghton

One topic that has arisen in many of my recent coaching sessions has been the importance of having a mentor. Later in the blog, I will relate a very personal story about my first mentor.  One that I have never made public. Mentorship can provide immense advantages to the mentee.  Not only is the transfer…

It’s been almost three years now since I started posting my Rob’s Rants blog every Friday morning on LinkedIn and on my website.  Today, I want to report back to you on just what an impact this blog has had on many people’s lives.  Your many comments, texts, emails, and phone calls in response to…

Most of my blogs are candidate-centric, but this one provides the secret sauce for all those insurance agencies and brokers who want to attract, hire, and retain top talent out there. This is for those who want to build The Rocket Ship. Because Top Talent IS the fuel for the rocket ship. So just how…

Every year about this time I begin coaching my select candidates on how to get a raise.  And this year is no different.  Many are preparing for their year-end annual review right now.  During the past 20 years of recruiting and coaching executives, here are three things you can do right now to get yourself…

Three years ago, a WDC-based insurance broker client of mine engaged me to build them a team of insurance commercial lines and employee benefits producers for their Mid-Atlantic offices.  At that time, she asked me what the right profile of producer is that we should hire.  Without hesitation, I said, “Hire experience and success and…

You’re in the middle of an interview process and you are informed that the next step is to take a personality/assessment test.  You begrudgingly complete and it is never seen again – sound familiar? What should happen is that you should see it again to know your strengths and weakness AND understand what job you…

I had a conversation yesterday with a prospective insurance client and I was asked for my thoughts on Talent (Potential) versus Experience in order of importance for a prospective account manager or producer candidate. First thought that came to mind was, “People are hired for what they’ve done, but fired for who they are…” It’s true…been saying this for…

Since early summer, I have been devouring Hemingway. No, not the person; he has been dead almost 60 years. His novels. Hemingway is considered by many to be the best writer of the 20th century. But how did he do it? And how can we learn from Hemingway how to be more productive in our…

As many of my loyal readers are aware, there has been a wave of acquisitions during the past two years in the insurance brokerage industry here in the WDC regional market. Workers are concerned.  They are worried if they will have a job in 30 days.  Restructurings happen fast.  You could be celebrating a big…

September 27, 2024 Last week we conducted a direct email campaign to 3,267 insurance professionals located in the WDC region to get their opinion on their work environment preferences. We threw in a new wrinkle:  We included the option of working a 38 hour four-day work week with either Friday or Monday being a day…