Urgent Vs Important!!!!!

[shawnmwalker]

The other day I had the opportunity to give some opening remarks to a Group of 40 Premier agents that had taken a small time out to attend a Carrier training. They wisely chose to take a time out and "sharpen their saw" in order to increase productivity and their success rates with Carrier and get a leg up on the competition.

My thoughts were centered around the following comment by Stephen Covey, “Most of us spend too much time on what is URGENT and not enough time on what is IMPORTANT."

“I need a Cert, I need a quote, I need ID Card.”

I now find myself living by this wisdom….

Your thoughts? What thought of wisdom has changed your work flow lately?

 

[Beachguy]

My approach has always been do what's urgent first but never at the expense of what's more important.

Account size dictates what's most important.

 

[grizznation]

I try to figure out ways to do the urgent things more efficiently so I can hurry up and get them out of the way so I can focus on what's important.

 

[djs]

Truth is though, the single most important thing for any P&C agent is customer service. Without that as the priority of the day, everything else falls apart.

When the conversation turns to doing what is important vs what is urgent, most agents want to throw customer service into the 'urgent' pile, so they can try to ignore it under the assumption its urgent, not important. It is very, very important and in some cases, also urgent.

I guess my point is, many things are both urgent AND important. Its not always an either/or, they can exist in both piles, which should then be labeled 'critical'.

This isn't the same thing as saying the agent has to deal with customer service issues, that is what staff is for. But this is why its important to have staff


Dan

 

[shawnmwalker]

DJS

has some good points.

I guess I will add.

Urgent has a place on your daily calendar. Maybe even a morning and an afternoon slot. But you can't lose control of your time and blame it on, Everything is urgently important.

It is ok to carve out time for the truly important, like sharpening your saw.