Jaden Wang, Co-Founder of Assets Prestige Alliance, a group of agency units of Prudential Assurance Company Singapore, has groomed not one, but two top rookie agency leaders so far. And a repeating pattern in grooming these agency leaders does establish the success in his methods, training, and formula for spotting and developing talents that fall under his wings.
Like a true leader that he is, Jaden is willing to share and pen down his thoughts for anyone within the insurance community who might be interested in learning best practices from other organisations like his. This is his journey and lessons from his experience.
How do I as an entrepreneur spot and develop a possible talent?
Talent spotting and development is a management skill that is fine-tuned through experience. To attract the right candidates, I realize the leader must have certain traits or focus. I have summarised my own emphasis below:
- Lead by Example
- Quality over Quantity
- Know Your Style
- Personal Development
- Success Replication
Before I elaborate on these points, to put things into perspective, I want to start by giving background information of myself. If anyone is to ask me how I end up where I am today, I would credit it to a big decision made in 2010.
Background
At 24 years old in 2010, I was an auditor in one of the accounting firms in Singapore. While struggling to achieve work-life balance and working towards early retirement, I soon realized that if I were to continue my career as an auditor, I would not be able to achieve the few goals in life that I had set for myself. The main reason was due to the slow career advancement and salary increments.
I stumbled upon the book "Rich Dad Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki. In this book, he famously wrote:
“If you’re the kind of person who has no guts, you just give up every time life pushes you. If you’re that kind of person, you’ll live all your life playing it safe, doing the right things, saving yourself for something that never happens. Then, you die a boring old man.”
- Robert T. Kiyosaki, Rich Dad, Poor Dad
Drawing inspiration from the book, there was nothing that motivated me more than having to overcome the challenges that stood in my way. I wanted to achieve my life goals which were to own a car, start a family, and finance my house, I had to take a risk at some point in time. An opportunity arose and I took a leap of faith to leave my stable job to start a career in Prudential.
The Start
I started off as a Financial Consultant in 2010. My goal was clear and simple, to get myself promoted to Financial Services Director (FSD) within the shortest time possible. By the end of my first full year in 2011, with hard work and outstanding performance, I was promoted to a Senior Financial Consultant (SFC). Some of my peers have to take 2 years or more for this achievement.
- Lead by Example – Talents would only be willing to join a leader that had proven his worth. They want to follow someone that had been there and done that, rather than others who do not practice what they preach.
At the end of 2012, I was promoted to Financial Services Supervisor (FSS) while leading a humble team of two Financial Consultants. I truly enjoy the process of developing and grooming like-minded individuals to improve themselves and achieve greater goals.
- Quality over Quantity - Consistently in the next few years, I recruited a handful of individuals and focused on training and developing them individually rather than massively recruiting to maintain the quality of my team. One must dedicate time and effort to coach talents. When there are too many rookies, time spent on training could be compromised.
At the start, there was not much guidance for managing my own team. It was a transitional stage from a lone producer to a coach leading a small group, and I had to “bang a lot of walls” before I could figure out the right strategies.
- Know Your Style - I was at the stage of developing my leadership style. I was unsure what type of talents would thrive under my guidance. There was a mismatch of my style and the individuals who joined the team initially, resulting in mediocre performance. With constant feedback, I figured that certain profiles would fit my style of coaching. That reinforced the philosophy of focusing on quality talents with the traits that I look for.
It is imperative that in a successful team, we need capable members. Therefore, while expanding my team, personal development supersedes all other undertakings. As a mentor, I employed various pedagogies to target every individual’s unique personalities, roles, and responsibilities. By personalizing the coaching provided, my team was able to deliver spectacular results. At the end of 2015, we achieved the Million Dollar Agency (MDA) award while I attained Directorship before 30 years old.
- Personal Development – Having a growth mindset is a trait that a leader must have and this is also inculcated to the team. As a result, the team and I continue to attend self-development courses and training to better equip ourselves, so that we can mentor other talents in the future.
Concurrently in 2015, I groomed an Associate Financial Services Manager (AFSM) from my group whom became my Business Partner.
- Success Replication – The hallmark of a successful leader should be determined by the quality of the talents developed. True leaders would want their Talents to outperform themselves. Systems in place and consistent tutoring given would ensure the continuous replication of future success stories.
To reinforce the success of the systems, at the beginning of 2018, a new AFSM was promoted from my group. I am also heartened to share the most recent achievement in 2018 for achieving the Multi-Million Dollar Agency (MMDA) award whilst promoting another AFSM (Jaslyn Ng - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaslynng/).
Get to know more of the talents that Jaden train:
How to achieve Million Dollar Round Table M.D.R.T.?
Have an end goal that is so strong, it will be all worth it - Priscilla Tay
Thriving with the right mentor and organisational culture - Ryo Shu, banker-turned-financial consultant
Scepticism, rejection, and disappointments. Nonetheless, persist! - Ong Zhi Wei
Assets Prestige Alliance (APA) is a group of agency units of Prudential Assurance Company Singapore.
This article first appeared in Jaden's post on LinkedIn.
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