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Thomas A. Dials, CPCU, is president of Armed Forces Insurance headquartered in Leavenworth, Kansas. AFI is a member-owned, non-profit company that provides property insurance for military professionals throughout the United States and overseas.
On effective leadership...
The path of least resistance always seems to be “…if you want it done right, do it yourself.” The greater the pressure for time or resources, the more leaders/managers tend to regress to that directive, authoritarian style. Sometimes that’s necessary, but the most effective leaders are able to resist that impulse in all but the direst situations. If you can surround yourself with people of integrity and the courage to do the right thing, even when it’s the most difficult course, then you can build effective teams. That’s what I strive to be – a team builder.
I believe that a good leader must be personally and professionally credible to those he or she expects to have as followers. There is an old piece of folk wisdom that goes, “If you think you’re the leader, you should occasionally look back and make sure the followers are there.” If credibility as a leader is absent, they won’t be.
On the most important lesson learned in life...
Patience: The consistent practice of which I am still impatiently learning (and relearning).
On coastal insurance issues...
Obviously, the affordability and availability of insurance is a critical issue, and I think that at the core of most political agendas, politicians want to do what’s right. However, if you approach this issue from the notion of a duty, no duty is satisfied by politically acquiescing to popular opinion in making a decision if the elements of that decision fail to make an effective provision to deal with the real-world consequences stemming from its execution. I am a firm believer in the free-market system, If the risk transfer is not adequately priced or actively suppressed, then risks taken on by state-run insurers that are underpriced must be subsidized by those with lower levels of exposure because on the day the loss occurs, real money gets involved.
The duty of elected officials is not to make ‘popular’ decisions but to protect the interests of their constituents. And their constituents aren’t just real estate developers and commercial lenders; constituents are real folks who depend upon their federal, state, and local governments to make well-informed and well-reasoned judgments on key policy issues – and all policy issues are ultimately ‘pocketbook’ issues. Populist agendas quickly run out of room to maneuver in such an environment; sacrificing intrinsic substance for the 10-second sound bite or the next press release does not constitute political leadership. As an industry we own some of this, too. We haven’t fully carried out our duty to inform our policyholders of the fundamental financial basis of risk transfer in terms that are comprehensible to the layman, and we are reaping the fruits of that failure every day in the coastal regions of the United States. We have surrendered control of the image and ‘brand’ of the industry to populist agenda setters, and we urgently need to begin an earnest effort to seize it back from them.
Posted: Monday, January 21, 2008 12:00:00 AM. Modified: Monday, January 21, 2008 4:12:07 PM.
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