The All Aboard Newsletter

Hey everyone, welcome back to another weekly edition of the All Aboard Newsletter, brought to you by Next Call Club! I hope you all had a fantastic holiday season and a refreshing New Year.

For me, I took a little extra time to rest. Some of my best ideas and strategies come when I take the time to step back and recharge. Over the past week, I’ve been reflecting a lot on leadership—specifically, the future leaders of Peachy Insurance.

I’ve had the privilege of working with seven of the leaders at Pichy Insurance and Next Call Club for over eight years. And it’s a perfect reminder that when you find the right people and give them opportunities to grow, they stick around. But it’s also a reminder that leadership doesn’t happen by accident.

How to Identify Future Leaders

If the embedded link doesn’t work, you can access the video here: Click Me

For the best experience and most information, I highly suggest you click the video!

How to Identify Future Leaders

As leaders, its our job to balance our focus between the present and the future. We have goals to hit today, but how do we ensure that we continue to hit higher goals tomorrow?

Who in the organization embodies what we’re looking for as leaders and can actively help us achieve new heights? These are questions we need to be asking and answering consistently if we want to continue and grow.

Developing leaders is important not only because we want to grow and may need new leaders, but also because current leaders might eventually leave.

The reality is that people come and go. Life happens. Some folks get job offers they can’t refuse, others shift careers, and many go on to open their own agencies. These are incredible things, and we should celebrate them.

This year alone, I had two incredible managers move on—one chose to work part-time to spend more time with her kids, and another received an offer to lead a corporate sales team with a compensation package too good to pass up.

While these departures were bittersweet, they weren’t devastating because we’ve been developing potential leaders to step up for the past couple of years.

So, how do I identify these future leaders? It starts with three essential qualities.

The Three Qualities to Look for in Future Leaders

There’s an old saying that goes something like this: “Good, fast, and cheap—pick two.”

Identifying leaders works similarly - Kind of. Except the three categories go something like: “Reliable, Fun, Good.”

You often don’t get all three qualities in every employee, but when you find someone who embodies all three, you’ve found a potential leader. Let me break it down:

1. Good at Their Job
   First and foremost, they have to be good at what they do. You can’t have a leader who’s not strong in their role. Occupational experience and success is key to getting trust and buy in from the team.

   People might ask “How can they lead if they’ve never done the job?” While thats not quite fair (usually), I get what they’re saying. People like leaders who can lead from the front. People who can walk the walk if you will.

   But that’s only the baseline. While a great employee is a strong foundation, it’s not enough to be considered for leadership. Being really good at your job doesn’t automatically make you a good manager.

2. Enjoyable to Work With
   You can have someone who’s excellent at their role, but if they’re unpleasant to work with, or the team doesn’t like them, they won’t make it in leadership.

   I’ve seen it firsthand—a great performer who just wasn’t a team player. Whether it’s negativity, being adversarial, or just having a bad attitude, it doesn’t matter how good they are; if they’re not easy to work with, they won’t get the job done as a leader.

   Leadership requires trust, respect, and the ability to collaborate with others. I’ve always said that in order to develop people, you need to enjoy working with them. Otherwise, you won’t be able to invest the time and energy required to bring them to the next level.

3. Reliable
   The last quality—and arguably the most important—is reliability. A leader needs to be someone you can depend on, someone who will execute on the plan when it counts. You can’t build or drive a team without someone reliable who can consistently perform. If you’re constantly waiting on someone or second-guessing them, that’s a problem. This is especially true for leadership positions where consistency and execution are key.

Where Do They Fall?

So, now that you know what to look for, think about your own team. Use a simple Venn diagram to plot these three qualities. If someone lands in the sweet spot where all three qualities overlap—good at their job, enjoyable to work with, and reliable—that’s the person you want to develop into a future leader.

So, you know my point here.

If someone is all three: Good, Reliable, and Fun → Consider them for leadership development.

When I present this framework, sometimes people will ask:

“If you could only have two of the three, which two would you want?”

Well, if you want to know, I answer it in the video. Take this as a small nudge to check out the video if you haven’t already 😁.

Developing Tomorrow’s Leaders

The good news is that even if someone doesn’t hit all three marks today, you can still develop them. Invest in their growth, give them opportunities, and make sure they’re exposed to leadership training.

I’m a huge believer in development—not just for myself but for the people around me. Some of my best leaders have their own coaches outside of the organization. After all, growth doesn’t stop at the top.

The truth is, if you want to be a leader at Peachy Insurance or Next Call Club, you need to be open to investing in education. We provide the $, and the person needs to provide the time and energy.

If you’re looking to develop leaders, I highly recommend checking out resources like Maven.com, and I’m always happy to share more ways about how I’ve developed leaders within my teams including the Leadership Development Program we’ve created.

A Challenge!

When you identify leaders who embody all three qualities—competence, likability, and reliability—you set your team up for success. So, take a moment this week and think about the people on your team. Where do they land on the Venn diagram? Who do you see as a future leader? Start investing in them now.

I hope these tips help as you begin to build and strengthen your leadership bench for 2025 and beyond.

As always, feel free to shoot me a reply with your thoughts, feedback, or questions. I’d love to hear from you!

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As always - Thank you for the support! I’m looking forward to bringing you insights, ideas, and actionable strategies multiple times per month! If you enjoyed this newsletter or it gave you value, please consider sharing it with a friend!

Happy New Year!