When the chief executive officer of reinsurance broker Holborn read a recent article in Carrier Management introducing a series of articles on trust in insurance, it struck a chord with the leader.
Executive Summary
What does trust-building leadership look like?
That was one of several questions Carrier Management set out to answer, seeking insights from property/casualty insurance industry executives. Only one CEO and chairman volunteered. Frank Harrison of Holborn Corporation offered a business-to-business perspective on ingredients of trust-building that start with servant leadership, culture and training inside of a reinsurance brokerage that employees jointly own, extending outward to customers with a handshake and relationships tended with care.
Frank Harrison had “just literally” come back from attending a program devoted to the topic, he reported, referring to a multiday off-site meeting called the “Trusted Advisor Program.” The program, taught by a retired marine who often commands leadership courses for Holborn executives, was arranged by those executives to help all the younger and newer employees understand what Harrison and other veterans already know: “We’re in the trust business.”
“Reinsurance contracts are merely our vehicle. We believe that,” Harrison said during a recent interview.
“What is the one asset that takes years to build, can be lost in minutes and never appears on a balance sheet? The answer, of course, is trust,” he said, recalling a saying he’s heard over the years and offering a teachable moment to Carrier Management.
