It’s easy to be consumed by the daily activity of your insurance career.
Professional lives are busy and you can be swept up on daily and weekly tasks, focusing solely on achieving the next milestone.
Amongst the busyness of your insurance career, it’s crucial though to take a step back, and reflect on the journey that has brought you to where you are today.
One of the best ways to do this is by recording your insurance career highs and lows.
It’s a simple but powerful practice, which offers a range of benefits for both personal growth and professional development. But it appears that not many of us do it regularly, if at all.
In a recent LinkedIn poll, 75% of respondents either made a note of their insurance career accomplishments infrequently or not at all.
Our memories aren’t infallible.
Sometimes it’s hard enough to remember what happened 3 months ago, let alone 2 years ago or even in the pre-pandemic working world.
Documenting your insurance career highs and lows will help provide you with invaluable insights into your professional journey.
“Recording your successes and failures, the key achievements as well as times of adversity in your insurance career, will give you clarity on what’s worked well and where you need to improve”, says Martin Blake, Head of Leadership Advisory at Insurance Search.
Self-awareness is essential for identifying your strengths and weaknesses. It will allow you to take advantage of your capabilities to move forward in your insurance career.
It will also help you address areas that require development and identify skills and aspects of your character that have helped you overcome adversity.
“Reflecting on your insurance career highs can be incredibly motivating and empowering.
Celebrating your achievements, no matter how big or small, will boost your confidence and reinforce a sense of accomplishment.
It will really underpin and reinforce your capabilities and encourage you to strive for greater success going forward”, adds Martin.
Acknowledging your insurance career lows will help you learn.
“We tend to learn a lot more from our mistakes and times of adversity. For example, instead of viewing the setback of being passed over for a promotion or not delivering on a key project deadline as failures, reframe them. Embrace a growth mindset. Look on them as an opportunity for growth in your insurance career. They provide a great opportunity to demonstrate resilience.”
Recording your insurance career highs and lows will enable you to keep track of your progress over time.
By keeping a detailed record of the achievements and challenges of your insurance career, you’ll see how far you’ve come and be able to identify patterns or trends in your professional trajectory.
Retrospective analysis can be particularly useful when thinking about your future goals and making strategic decisions about your insurance career.
It will help you assess what’s contributed to your success and what obstacles you’ve overcome along the way, giving you greater clarity and purpose.
Detailing your insurance career highs and lows will create accountability and responsibility.
“As we take ownership of our successes and failures, we become more proactive in managing our careers and driving our professional growth”, emphasizes Martin.
“We’re much less likely to make similar mistakes in the future and will be more confident to pursue new opportunities moving forward”.
Beyond individual development, making note of your insurance career highs and lows will help you build your professional network.
“Interact with mentors and other insurance leaders who’ve helped you achieve or been a positive influence on your insurance career to date.
Acknowledging their support and impact will put you front and center. They’ll be likely to mention your name in a room full of opportunities.
You can also reach out and ask colleagues or contacts, further on in their insurance career journey for advice. How did they handle a certain situation or deal with a specific scenario in the past. People will want to help.”
If you’re struggling to pick out your insurance career highlights, ask colleagues. Sometimes other insurance executives around you will notice more, and be able to give you a different perspective, above what you see or think about yourself.
By being open and transparent about our own insurance career journeys, we inspire others to embrace their own achievements and times of adversity. This will cultivate a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
“We can all learn from each other’s triumphs and setbacks.”
In a changing insurance job market, innovation and evolution is constant.
It’s crucial that you’re able to adapt and evolve too. Having a system of regularly diarizing your insurance career achievements will help you demonstrate, whether you’re looking for an internal promotion or applying for a new insurance role.
You’ll be better equipped to answer those age-old interview questions, such as:
- How do you handle criticism?
- What sets you apart?
- Describe a project you were involved in that didn’t go well and what did you learn?
- Give an example of a time when you had to persuade a team to follow you?
“Uncertainty is the norm these days. Being able to demonstrate your ability to adapt and grow through the positive and setbacks will help you stand out, give you that 1% edge over other candidates”, concludes Martin.
Recording your insurance career highs and lows will help you navigate the twists and turns of your professional lives.
Being disciplined and developing a habit of doing it regularly will equip you with the insights, motivation to help you succeed in your insurance career.
You will build your professional network and develop the tools needed to grab opportunities, overcome challenges, and ultimately achieve.
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