Leadership can be Taugh

Speaking at the company’s annual sales awards function at the Cascadia Hotel and Conference Centre, Tom Yew recalled that at last year’s awards function, he urged staff to “plan your work and work your plan.”

He said his sales force listened, went out into the field and proved that Mega “could hold its own in the competitive environment in which we work today.”

The company, he said, can best be described as a medium-sized company, a single Lilliputian in a field of Gullivers, a David among Goliaths.

“By using the slingshot in our possession, the commitment and dedication of our sales force, the result will be the same as in that epic fabled battle,” he said.

Mega’s performance in 2005, he added, was only the tip of the iceberg. “We can do better, much better and and we will,” he said.

“We can and will show to the people of Trinidad and Tobago that Mega Insurance is indeed the life force of the future,” he said.

He said there is a very unfortunate school of thought in many companies that when a promotion is made from the ranks of agent to that of management, that person is now in a position to manage people to achieve specific objectives for the department or branch and, by extension, the company.

However, history has shown that only approximately 20 percent of all managers who have been promoted meet their objectives.

The other 80 percent of managers, he said, seem to struggle to survive and have great difficulty in achieving their annual objectives. But for the 20 percent of managers who consistently meet their objectives, companies found that their staff followed their directions willingly and with great enthusiasm, he observed.

This proved that those who fall in that 20 per- cent are, to a very large extent leaders, noting that for companies to achieve their objectives, more managers than leaders are needed.

“We would be labouring under a gross misapprehension if we believe that leaders only exist among the realms of management,” he told guests.

Based on this, Mega, he said, will be adopting a new philosophy : “Leaders are made, not born,” and that “leadership can be taught.”

The new method, which he called “Case in Point” uses an individual’s own experiences and a classroom environment for learning, which was used at Barataria, the number one branch in the company.

The new framework will be introduced on a phased basis to raise sales and motivation, he said.