Lessons on Serving as a Great Mentor

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By: David T. Vanalek, Esq., Claims Chief Operating Officer at Markel

Early on in my professional career, I was very fortunate to be surrounded by those who took an avid interest in my development – a high school speech and debate coach, a sitting jurist, and an elected official.  It wasn’t clear to me at the time why I may have peaked their interest, as I certainly did not feel that I warranted their limited time or undivided attention.  However, after these many years, things are more lucid:  we in our respective professions have a moral duty to mentor the next generation of leaders in our industry, and we should do everything we can to support the growth and development of those who have the desire and passion to take all of us to new heights and unchartered waters. 

As such, over time, I’ve been fortunate to serve as a mentor for many in our profession – sharing those lessons I learned at an early age.  I offer the following lessons to you, so that you may profoundly and positively impact those around you:

               Actively Listen:

               I first joined the speech and debate team in high school to overcome my fear of public speaking.  I hated awkward silences, and was under the false impression that talking more helped the situation.  My first mentor- a speech and debate coach- taught me this was not the case.  She told me that active listening, and not just hearing others, was a predicate to true understanding and formulating a cogent response.  The lesson carries over to the mentor relationship.  As Coach John Wooden once noted, “[w]e’d all be a lot wiser if we listened more … not just hearing the words, but listening and not thinking about what we’re going to say.”

               A great mentor is not one who pontificates ad nauseum about a particular topic that suits his fancy.  Rather, a truly profound mentor spends most of her time listening to her mentee, and deeply understanding those areas where she can provide guidance and support.

               Ask Questions

               I had a wonderful opportunity in law school to serve as a judicial extern for an associate justice of our highest state court.  On my very first day on the job – eager and curious just like any of us would be – I asked the justice, “So, what can I do?”  She kindly smiled at me and sagely advised ‘’wrong question- what do you want to do?”  As I sat there and pondered, I knew I wanted to do more than draft legal memos – I wanted to make recommendations to her on important matters coming up before the highest court.  Incredibly, she made it happen.

               A truly great mentor recognizes that for one to grow professionally or personally, one cannot direct or explicitly instruct others.  Rather, he is infinitely curious, and asks multiple questions to guide the mentee – allowing them the opportunity to discover their true desires.

               Identify Opportunities

               Right after college, I had the pleasure of learning from the head of a state organization responsible for, among other things, making clemency recommendations to the governor’s office for inmates.  While this was an entirely new area for me and I was outside my comfort zone, he wanted my opinion and recommendations, along with those of his staff, to arrive at the best decisions.  He shared with me that he wanted my untarnished views, because ultimately, it was the public who he served.  Since then, I’ve identified and afforded opportunities to others to serve in similar, objective roles.

               A terrific mentor recognizes opportunities to expose her mentee to new ideas and ways of thinking to not only avoid blind spots and groupthink, but to arrive at better decisions and courses of action for the broader organization.  In the process, the mentee develops new skillsets and experiences that will transcend into other areas during the course of his career.

               While there are many other key lessons to being a great mentor, the three above – actively listen, ask questions, and identify opportunities – are the cornerstones to starting a great mentoring relationship with our next generation of leaders.  Try it out – you’ll be glad you did.

For more information about careers with Markel, check out https://www.markelcorp.com/careers

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Insurance: The Career that Can Take You Places if You Let It

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By Andreas Kleiner, President and CEO, American Modern Insurance Group, Inc.

As a young professional, you may have landed in the insurance industry by complete accident. This, in fact, happened to me.

When Berlin was bidding on the 2000 Olympic Games, I was an engineer working feverishly on the design for several Olympic structures.

Then Sydney, Australia won the bid and everything I had been working on collapsed. It made me think about my next career move and I saw an exciting job advertisement by Munich Re that fit my profile. I applied and then joined Munich Re as a fire engineer. I knew nothing about insurance but I thought, “if you don’t like it you can always move back to a full-fledged engineering job”.

Many years later, I am still in the insurance industry, and it has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. I have learned that this is an industry that can give you a world of opportunity – if you are open to it.

International insurance companies regularly have difficulties finding employees interested in taking an assignment in another country. A move like this is not for everyone. However, I would encourage you to consider taking the leap. Many times international opportunities offer the chance to work in a smaller business unit that allows you to have a broader general management type role, gaining exposure to many different aspects of the business. This is of great importance for those interested in moving up the corporate ladder into an executive role. You must be well-rounded and well-versed to be considered for high-level positions.

I never expected to work abroad when joining Munich Re but in less than three years with the company I was offered the chance to go to Singapore and lead the establishment of a risk engineering operation for South East Asia. The move to Singapore and other countries helped my career progress in such a diverse way that it eventually led to my current position at American Modern.

“Working abroad is not just about career growth… It helps you to become more receptive and tolerant towards different ways of living. “

Working abroad is not just about career growth. Working and living in a different country and learning about a different culture can also be a personally enriching and wonderful experience. It helps you to become more receptive and tolerant towards different ways of living. I met my wife in Singapore and made life-long friends while working and living in four different continents over the last two decades. And I hear from my two daughters that the greatest gift that we as parents gave to them is exposing them to life in different countries – in our case Singapore, South Africa, Germany and the USA.

Insurance is the sometimes accidental career that can take you around the world – but, only if you let it. If you have ambition, a desire to learn, and you’re open to new experiences, then consider international assignments and make it known that you are interested in these opportunities. Based on my own experience and the experiences that have been shared with me by other leaders, I don’t think you will regret saying “yes.”

Learn more about careers at American Modern here

Read more articles like this in the 2019 RISE Awards Magazine or request a copy to be mailed.

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Technology Taking Industry by Storm to Offset Adjuster Shortages

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In the 2000s, claims adjusters had plenty of practice when it came to hurricane responses – answering calls for Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne in 2004 and Dennis, Katrina, Rita and Wilma in 2005. These storms produced record numbers of claims for the property insurance industry, which employed many staff adjusters and contracted independent adjusters before a 12-year hurricane drought occurred.

During 12 quiet years through 2015, the industry lost many of the contracted catastrophe independent adjusters – including many who went into other lines of work. Those that did not leave may not have remained up to the task of completing vigorous field inspections. Meanwhile, as the drought caused overall claims volume to decrease, the industry saw no need to add independent adjusters to the pipeline.

The resulting shortage of hurricane-experienced adjusters prompted industry ingenuity as hurricanes re-emerged in 2016, 2017 and 2018, including Harvey, Irma and most recently Michael. Because most insurance carriers require a minimum number of years of experience before allowing an independent adjuster to deploy to a major storm, therein lies a problem in the industry.

Emerging Technology Fills Gaps

As the industry adapted to the shortage of adjuster resources, it has turned to emerging technology to fill the gaps. Many of these technology solutions deliver claims services faster and cheaper than traditional methods – and in some instances with a higher level of quality.

The first step in transforming technology is to focus on the segmentation of claims during the assignment process. It is mission critical to understand the types and number of claims that will be received during an event to ensure that you leverage the most appropriate resources. Up to half of claims likely will be low-severity, such as damage from power outages, tree limbs or wind-damaged roof shingles, trees or fencing. If identified during the first notice of loss, they can be routed to a desk adjusting team to handle by phone, instead of by a catastrophe field adjuster. This will free the catastrophe field adjuster to handle more complex claims. 

[Technology] will free the catastrophe field adjuster to handle more complex claims. 

There certainly will be claims segmented incorrectly or found to be too complex to handle by phone, but still not so complex as to engage a catastrophe field adjuster. For these claims, an emergency licensed adjuster, or a catastrophe field adjuster with less experience than normally required by the carrier, can be deployed to use a scoping assistance tool connected to a smart device – again saving adjuster resources.

This leaves the carrier with only about half of total catastrophe volume that requires fully-trained, experienced adjusters and there are additional savings to be made here, too. The next step in transforming technology would be to facilitate the catastrophe field adjuster in the handling of their assigned claims. There are many products available in the marketplace that can be downloaded to a smart device to assist in the scoping of the loss that will make the adjuster more productive and help them provide a higher quality estimate of the damages. 

There are many products available in the marketplace that can be downloaded to a smart device to assist in the scoping of the loss that will make the adjuster more productive and help them provide a higher quality estimate of the damages. 

Aerial Imagery Is Transformational

There are estimating tools that can provide aerial images of structure, and include dimensions that save the adjuster time taking measurements to write an estimate for roof damage. If it’s not available for a particular structure, a drone can accomplish the same task.

Aerial imagery can be transformational technology in other ways. Many vendors conduct flights over damage after catastrophes and offer images that can be used to further segment claims by severity, including obvious total losses. Focus can be placed on specialty large-loss adjusters, or those with the specific skills to handle severely damaged structures.

Many vendors that provide aerial imagery will offer the data so that it can be used by carriers’ Geographic Information Systems (GISs). Once loaded, the GIS data can provide detail about geographies with the worst damage, allowing yet another segmentation of the claims based on geography so managers can better assign adjusters. 

GIS can identify policyholders who have reported a claim versus those that have not. If there is an area that has significant damage, the policyholder may not be allowed to access the structure to determine the amount of damage. The carrier can use this information to report a claim for the policyholder and then can independently control the segmentation/assignment as well as to drive the level of activity they want from the impacted area. If the damage is severe enough, the carrier, utilizing highly skilled desk adjusters, may be able to start the adjustment process for total loss structures, which will speed up the adjustment process and settlement for the policyholder.

The future of claims-handling is changing and more and more emerging technologies will help to increase the productivity and the accuracy of producing quality estimates for desk adjusters. It is important for all adjusters to embrace these new technologies and adapt their adjusting skills to keep up as new technologies are developed.

About the Author:

Jay Adams is Chief Claims Officer at Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, responsible for overseeing all claims operations, including the Non-Catastrophe and Catastrophe Claims, Commercial Claims, Disputed Claims, Vendor Relations and Special Investigations units. He previously served as the Senior Director of Claims, where his focus was on the development of the Citizens Insurance Suite ClaimCenter®, the claims management system used by Citizens.

Adams has more than 20 years of insurance experience in underwriting, portfolio management, claims and business analysis. Prior to joining Citizens in 2009, he served at Nationwide Insurance Company for 19 years. There, he oversaw the design and implementation of a new large-loss claims-handling process, implemented direct repair and water mitigation programs, and merged multiple claims teams into a single unit.

Adams earned a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

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