Wanted: Excellent Communication
For the last few weeks, I’ve been a guest co-host on The Art of Adjusting Podcast with the amazing Chantal Roberts, CPCU, AIC, RPA, ITP, where we’ve been discussing some of the interesting scenarios claims adjusters face on a daily basis. Chantal has been kind enough to let me wax nostalgic about my claims adjuster days, and occasionally go off on a tangent about why no one ever bothers to read their actual insurance policy.
We recently recorded an episode on Claims Adjuster Superpowers and the common theme was Excellent Communication. Communication is one of those soft skills that EVERY organization wants. I dare you to pop into Indeed and look for a job posting, ANY job posting, that doesn’t include “communication skills” as a component of the job requirements.
And yet…
Have you ever been trained on communication? Have you EVER been trained on de-escalation? What to do if a client starts crying? How to deliver bad news? How to negotiate?
Hardly any of us have ever been trained on this soft skill that is expected in practically EVERY role.
Make it make sense.
Most of us have learned via good ol’ baptism by fire: Something happens, we put our foot in our mouth, and then we learn a lesson. Hopefully.
But it shouldn’t have to be this way. I can’t tell you the number of work comp stress claims that could have been avoided if a manager had been trained on how to communicate.
And believe me, managers with poor communication skills are, by far, your BIGGEST liabilities in the poor communication category.
Wait, should it be “biggest” or “largest”? Somebody! Please call a communications major and check!
My point is this: we hire people who tell us they are good communicators, and then we cross our fingers and hope they are correct in their self-assessments. Imagine how much more efficient we could be if we stopped hoping employees know how to communicate and actually invest in training for this soft skill? Last time I checked, hope is not a strategy.
I’ll close with a quote from George Bernard Shaw, who was a playwright, and therefore a much better communicator than the blog writing insurance nerd that is yours truly:
“The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
