A Resilient Team Perseveres and Constantly Looks Forward

Over the last month Jeffrey and I had the pleasure of attending our Regional Meetings in Vancouver, B.C., Amelia Island and Kansas City. Growing up in Tennessee, I mistakenly thought the South had the market cornered on hospitality before moving to California 27 years ago. The lesson I learned long ago was there are wonderful people everywhere especially in this business. Jeffrey and I didn’t really know what to expect at the Regional Meetings outside our own; but what we found were lots of welcoming, fresh faces hungry for fun, knowledge, and networking opportunities. We had a great time in all three locations.

This was also our first opportunity to spend some time with many of the new Surety & Fidelity Association of America’s Young Professionals Group. What a great young group of up and coming all-stars in our business! It was terrific to see them get to know the members of our 5-15 Leadership Committee. What I found most interesting wasn’t the fast and easy connections of the young people to one another; it was the positive comments from the regular attendees about the new faces and interactions they were witnessing.

During the stretch we got some wonderful news about our individual surety bill that we’ve been trying to get through the last three Congresses. Our bill passed through both the House and Senate and is incorporated into the final National Defense Authorization Act. Although the bill received a Presidential veto over funding for domestic-related issues (nothing to do with surety), the hope is, an agreement will be reached in Congress permitting the NDAA to move forward. How nice would it be at next year’s Legislative Fly-In, June 7-8, 2016, to be able to thank our representatives in Congress for their support and move on to tackle another legislative priority. Largely due to the hard work and perseverance of both our staff in Washington and our bill sponsor, Representative Hanna (R-NY), we may soon have a big win in our column.

On a personal note, we missed quite a few baseball and football games during the three week-stretch, although in some ways it probably saved me a few blood pressure pills and several gray hairs. Not only did my Tennessee Vols and San Francisco 49ers continue to lose, but also the Dodgers clinched the Western Division in our ballpark. Watching on Gametracker on your phone isn’t nearly as exciting; and being in a hotel requires a certain amount of restraint, so I was on my best behavior. Many of you had to listen to my stories along the way and were full of great sports stories of your own. How cool was it to see the play of Jake Arrieta get the Cubs into the playoffs. There are several long-suffering teams that made it deep into the playoffs because they persevered this season. The playoffs were fun to watch.

In Amelia Island we were all entertained by the leadership shown through stories told by keynote speaker, former long time West Virginia University football coach Don Nehlen, 17th winningest coach in college football history. Had I known he was one of Jeffrey’s Uncle Jack’s closest buddies (the football community really is a very small world) before he spoke, I might have asked the question publicly that was on my mind that day. “What do you say to a very young team that has been playing their hearts out for you, yet has blown three double-digit leads to lose three very close games against ranked opponents, one in double overtime, and still has several formidable, ranked SEC opponents ahead on the schedule?”

Butch Jones, head football coach at the University of Tennessee, had to answer that question himself this week. Yesterday that same young team didn’t come out swinging and build a double-digit lead. Instead they found themselves down 21 points in the first half and yet battled back to beat Georgia 38-31. It was a glorious day in Knoxville. While we don’t know everything Butch said to the team, I paid close attention to what he said at halftime and in his media comments, as well as to the team, after their win. Things like:

Other words came up multiple times–perseverance and resilience. Did our coaches learn from the mistake of playing it too safe in the prior games once they built a double digit lead? Did our young players want the win more?

As I’m writing today, I’m also struck by how much hope I feel for this young team. Yet the hope is not because of the talent of the players..it’s because of their leadership; both their coaching staff and the University’s athletic program. This is Butch’s third year as head coach at Tennessee, and his Brick-by-Brick campaign to build the program back to championship expectations has been well received.

Even though both my teams, the 49ers and Tennessee, have had tough starts, the differences between the hope we fans feel for the Niners and what I see happening at Tennessee are dramatic. It’s all attributed to the leadership of the team, or lack thereof; and it starts at the top. Patriots’ fans should be glad their “Deflategate” drama is over. We 49ers fans believe our ownership and front office have let the air out of our entire franchise. When you have a championship legacy and high expectations, it only makes the fall that much harder.

So how can we apply lessons of resilience and perseverance to ourselves as individuals and to our businesses?

A couple of years ago Maureen and I picked up a new account, a really nice one. It only took us 17 years. Earlier in 2015 we finally picked up the insurance for the same company. Our insurance producer had been working on it at least 15 years. It would have been very easy to get discouraged and quit. We’ve also been very fortunate this year and were invited to participate on RFPs for three large companies. In two of the cases, we made a decision to play to our strengths and only propose on certain lines, yet still didn’t win. However, on the last opportunity, we won all lines of the business. The producer of that win has been diligently working for at least five years to get an opportunity. Woven into the successes are lots of times we passed on the opportunity or didn’t win. But, just like our good customers, most of the time we try to debrief and figure out where we can improve or could have done better; but other times it’s really hard to keep your chin up.

Failure happens to all of us at one time or another. As leaders, how we deal with the failure and what we take away from the experience is even more important than the lessons learned when we win. So here is a collage of thoughts from a variety of leaders about what they believe is critical to building a resilient team that perseveres–constantly looking forward:

Susan Hecker is Executive Vice President and National Director of Contract Surety at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in San Francisco, CA. She can be reached at Susan_Hecker@ajg.com.