Supporting Leadership Opportunities for Women in Insurance

In honor of International Women’s Day on March 8, we’d like to share some insights on how the independent insurance industry can better facilitating leadership opportunities and support for women in the industry.

We talked to several women in insurance leadership positions on our three-episode Women in Insurance series on HawkSoft’s Insurance Perspectives Podcast. Take a look at some of the top insights they shared on how to foster growth for women in the independent insurance channel.

In this article

• Increasing visibility & support for women in ownership roles
  • Understanding the numbers
  • Representation in perpetuation and acquisition
  • Mentor relationships & women-focused groups
• Facilitating leadership growth & training
  
  • Overcome the imposter syndrome
  • Provide opportunities for training & growth
  • Develop grit, growth, & gumption
• Advice for women in insurance
  • Find your own definition of success
  • Over-deliver on expectations
  • Be ready to change

Our panel

Kasey Connors
Executive Director of Big I’s Agents Council for Technology (ACT)

Kasey has been with Big I since 2017 and headed marketing operations for Trusted Choice before coming to ACT, where her focus is to unite the independent agency system in support of agents embracing technology to meet their strategic goals.

Lisa Hengel
Owner of Willow Wood Insurance Agency

Lisa founded Willow Wood Insurance in 2013 with the vision to create a community centric, women-led agency that prioritizes values like integrity, sustainability, and support for both clients and team members. In 2021 she completed the prestigious Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program.

Tinsley English
Operations executive and leadership consultant

Tinsley is a recognized expert, speaker, and author on female leadership development, especially in the insurance industry where she has over 20 years of experience. Her Three G Consulting Group and 24-CARAT Leader Program are centered around her transformative G-Force Code of grit, growth, and gumption.

Ciara Gravier (host)
Founder and CEO of The Bunker Insurance and Risk Management

Ciara Gravier is the Founder and CEO of The Bunker Insurance and Risk Management. She has earned the Cyber COPE Insurance Designation (CCIC) from Carnegie Mellon University; CHUBB Insurance. Ciara was the host for the Women in Insurance series on HawkSoft’s Insurance Perspectives podcast.

Increasing visibility & support for women in ownership roles

One common thread brought up by the women in the series was a need for more visibility and support for women who are in executive or ownership roles at an agency. Visibility, representation across agency processes, and supportive relationships are crucial elements.

Understanding the numbers

“Women actually make up a larger percentage in the industry overall in terms of agency staff,” Kasey observes, “but they’re a much lower percentage in higher level leadership positions.”

Lisa points out that there is very low visibility into how many independent agencies are run by women. “We need to understand the numbers,” she says. “Even asking carriers or my state association how many women owners we have in Minnesota, they didn’t have that data. So we need to start by just figuring out where we stand. We need that visual representation for women. We need to be conscious of it, so we don’t continue to perpetuate the status quo.”

Representation in perpetuation and acquisition

Another area where Lisa feels women are underrepresented is in the space of agency perpetuation and acquisition. She gave the example of an agency group she belongs to which initially had about a third of the owners who were women. “As the owners retired, the agencies all went to men,” she recounts. “At this point I’m the only woman at their events.”

She encourages female agency owners to make an effort to include women in their perpetuation or acquisition plans if possible, to maintain representation at the ownership level. She observes that being women-owned can even be a selling point for an agency, sharing that she was once approached by an agency who had many offers for their book of business, but approached Lisa because their agency was also led by women and had a similar approach to their business.

 “Find your tribe and get connected and get involved, whether it’s through a state association or network or even a group outside your vertical. You’ll learn more and be able to grow faster.” 

Kasey Connors

Mentor relationships & women-focused groups

One thing the panel agreed was vital for their success was finding mentor relationships and support groups with other women in the industry.

“Find your tribe and get connected and get involved,” says Kasey, “whether it’s through a state association or network or even a group outside your vertical. You’ll learn more and be able to grow faster.” Ciara agrees, saying “it’s critical for your professional and personal growth to have a support system to bounce ideas off of. Constructive criticism is sometimes required, and having it delivered by someone you respect, especially another woman, makes it easier.”

Lisa adds that taking active, visible roles in groups can help women make valuable connections. She gives the example of helping teach an education session at a HawkSoft User Group national conference, which led to an attendee getting in touch with her to network as another female agency owner.

Tinsley points to her mother as her greatest mentor, attributing her achievements to her mother’s example and guidance. “She's been the biggest champion of change for me in my life,” she says. “I see her navigate each new decade of her life, and it makes me excited to live it myself instead of being scared.”

Facilitating leadership growth & training

One of the obstacles to getting more women in leadership positions is often simply that they aren’t as likely to vie for those roles against others. The panel gave several suggestions for helping encourage and support women to successfully take the leap into leadership roles.

Overcome the imposter syndrome

“As women I think we tend to underestimate ourselves a little more than men do,” Kasey says. “I was reading that men apply for jobs when they meet only 30% of the criteria, whereas women won’t apply unless they have a much higher percentage.” She admits that her current role was a bit outside her comfort zone, “but I realized that while I am very different than the people who held the role previously, I can bring different strengths to the table than they did.”

Tinsley agrees that for more women to get into leadership roles, they need to be willing to take calculated risks. “Women in our industry need that strategic, courageous mindset to bet on themselves more,” she says, “to color outside the lines of their job description, and to take more risks. As risk advisors we’re cautious, but taking calculated risks on yourself is not a bad thing.”

Tinsley helps the businesswomen she coaches overcome the imposter syndrome they often feel when stepping out of their comfort zone for a leadership role. She suggests naming your “imposter,” or the negative voice in your head, and writing down the negative things they tell you. Then you can create counter-affirmations to tell yourself when you hear those thoughts. "Don’t let that imposter hold you back from sharing your gifts,” she says. 

 “Women in our industry need that strategic, courageous mindset to bet on themselves more, to color outside the lines of their job description, and to take more risks.” 

Tinsley English

Provide opportunities for training and growth

Ciara tries to make sure leadership feels within reach for her female staff, and gives them opportunities to consider and express that desire. “One of the things that is actionable from the owner level,” she says, “is having those conversations with women on your staff to ask, do you want more?” Lisa adds, “We have so many women in this field who don’t even consider the ownership track. We say, I don’t want to cause conflict, so I’m not even going to try. That’s something only women do.”

Tinsley suggests that agency owners can help women step into leadership roles by delegating work effectively. “I’ll ask, what are you good at, and what do you like to do? And then I can start delegating things to you that you really want to do, teaching you and having you try it and me check it, rather than me just dumping work on you that I don’t want to do.” 

The women also point out the difficulties of transitioning from a contributor role to a leadership position, which outside training can help with. Tinsley enlisted a leadership coach to help her understand why she initially wasn’t connecting well with her team, which eventually led to her career in leadership coaching. Lisa completed the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program to help her feel confident in leading her agency. “It helped me understand how to run my business as a business owner,” she says, “not just an insurance agent.”

Develop grit, growth, and gumption

Tinsley’s book and leadership coaching strategy for women center around her “G-force code,” which includes 3 G’s: grit, growth, and gumption. She sees grit as determination and ability to adapt, self-discipline, and resilience. According to Tinsley, “as women I think we’re pretty self-disciplined and adaptable, but we stink at the resilience part. Resilience means self-care and putting yourself first. If you’re just white knuckling it and you never take your foot off the brake and take a breather, you’re going to burn out.”

The second G, growth, is about having an attitude of continuous learning and development. “You're never going to know everything about insurance,” she says, “so just learn a little every day, whether that's learning a coverage or statute or policy or procedure or something about self-leadership.” The third G, gumption, is about having the courage, bravery, and confidence to take risks when needed to succeed.

Advice for women in insurance

Ciara asked the women on the series to share a piece of advice that helped them in their leadership role, or that they feel could help other women in the industry.

Find your own definition of success

“I’ve had to learn that there's no wrong way to do any aspect of this business,” Lisa says. “Every agency has a different definition of success. I absolutely do things differently than other agencies, but we have our own parameters and goals, and it’s working for us. I spent so much time in the beginning being insecure about my insurance knowledge, and if I had just listened to my business gut from the get-go, I would have gotten where I am much sooner.”

Over-deliver on expectations

Kasey shares, “one thing I learned back when I was working at a marketing agency was that we always wanted to under-promise and over-deliver. If you can always try to go a little beyond what people are expecting of you, that will carry you forward in a lot of ways. It builds your reputation and shows people you’re trustworthy.”

Be ready to change

“The two things I tell women I’m coaching is that you have to be ready to change, and you have to be willing to roll up your sleeves and do the work,” Tinsley says. “You have to dig deep into your soul and find out what you really want and how hard you’re willing to work to get there.”