Lead Through Respect Or Fear

There are two basic ways to lead. You can lead by leveraging the earned respect of your colleagues and employees, or you can lead by fear. This sentiment is not to be confused with Machiavelli’s “It is better to be feared than loved” tenant. First, love is not what you are looking for in a business environment, and secondly, it is fickle and can come and go. Respect is the path to successful long-term leadership.

Leading by respect comes when the four primary character principles of integrity, hard work, leading by example and doing the right thing, inspire your co-workers and employees to follow you. When you hear someone say, “He has my back, and I feel like I’m heard and part of the team. I will follow him happily into unchartered waters,” they are talking about a person who leads with respect. These colleagues can be asked to do a lot, and they will be on board to not only do it, but they will embrace being part of the ride.

Contrast the above sentiment with a work environment of uncertainty or fear, where employees feel the need to fall in line or be cut out of the line. Fear-based leadership is the easy way out. It can be a more predictable style, but it is likely only going to work in the short term. Your troops will quickly lose morale and soon after you may be left with no one to lead. You also may be seen as someone that people will hesitate in picking to lead again.

So now that I’ve got you thinking about leading by the respect you’ve earned, the next step is to understand and harness the simple-yet-crucial principles that make a great leader. If you ask five people how to do this, you will get five different opinions. However, most of them will center on the following:

• Passion for what you do
• Business execution
• The ability to inspire others, make decisions (lots of them, including tough calls)
• Are you a dreamer (the vision followed by positive actions or energy).

So, what is the right leadership style for you? It’s very simple. Chose to lead by respect and blaze your trail through your good character, and the leadership qualities within you will start to shine. Some aspects of your leadership style will be natural, and some may take work and personal development. When you have those qualities, instilling the principles of integrity, hard work, leading by example and doing the right thing becomes natural. Be patient and be prepared to analyze your situation. And choose when and where the above qualities of leadership will apply maximize your team’s success. The right leadership style you adopt will ultimately be YOUR leadership style.

Woman Investing In Life Insurance

Women have played a central role in household finances. It is not uncommon for women to be called the ‘money manager’ of the house in the family. While most women believe in saving, very few will actually buy life insurance for themselves or their family. However, with the increasing exposure and awareness through various channels, we are witnessing a significant change in the way women are opting for insurance and other investment instruments over fixed deposits. 

Why women matter?
As more women step into the workforce and become breadwinners, there is a need to protect their income. 
With changing trends, women are now moving towards financial liberation by exploring insurance and other financial instruments as a saving mechanism to augment their notion and habit of long-term savings. Not only working women, but even housewives, single women, single mothers (whether widowed or divorced) need to be insured to ensure financial independence at various stages of life. 

Cost effective
Traditionally, small savings have been the domain of women. However, access to market linked products like Unit-Linked Insurance Plans (ULIPs) can help women not only save but also get better returns, while getting the protection of life insurance. They can also save through traditional ‘with profits’ plans to meet their life stage goals like children’s education, contribution towards buying a new home and saving up for their own retirement.

Covers life risk
Life insurance is an attractive tool that helps address major expenditure during one’s lifetime and offers an additional benefit of lower/discounted premium rates for women in most products, which is especially in term and health plans. Women can use different types of life insurance policies to mitigate this risk — whether it is pure term insurance or insurance with benefits. 

Covers critical illness
A combination of comprehensive health insurance and a critical illness cover can give a good balance between pricing and coverage. Treatment for such illnesses is not only lengthy and traumatic but expensive too, and involves a lot of lifestyle modifications for a woman. This includes, giving up their job/profession, financial management, changes at home etc. Hence, there are specific products for women, which are simple to understand and easily available.

Leave a lasting legacy
A woman will want to leave enough money for her family, her children and for her spouse. Some may also aspire to leave behind sizeable donations for charitable organisations, and life insurance is a great way to ensure that you are able to do that. It is advisable to re-evaluate policy requirements with each life change. We can be rest assured that our dreams for our family’s financial security and stability stay on course in case of any eventuality.

Zurich Launch On-line Biz Indonesia

The Zurich Insurance Group, a Swiss insurance group commonly known as Zurich, has launched Zurich Click, an online platform to facilitate travelers in buying travel insurance using credit or debit cards, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Zurich Indonesia president director Philippe Danielski said the website would help travelers learn of the benefits of insurance with just once click.

"Indonesians are still, for the most part, unprotected as seen on the low insurance penetration rates and it is one of the highest risk countries in the world, with floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions all present along with everyday risks from accidents, illness and disease."

The newly launched website is the answer of the growing customers who prefer the digital platform, he said.

He claimed the products are backed with a customer service satisfaction rating of over 90 percent and great claims service.We also have thousands of agents offering the international, domestic and Hajj/Umroh products," he said.

Zurich has newly launched the "protect your mudik with a ZurichClick" program. The program provides travel insurance, aiming for people who will head to their hometown during the Eid celebration holiday.

"The travel insurance would be accessible through www.ZurichClick.co.id," Phillippe said, adding that the customers can also get Zurich’s travel insurance through the company's agents and travel agents.

Thanachart Offer Brokerage Business

Thanachart Capital Public Company Limited (TCAP) – a major shareholder in Thailand’s sixth largest lender Thanachart Bank – is expanding its insurance business, after having recently entered into a joint venture (JV) with Thai-listed shopping mall and property developer MBK Public Company Limited (MBK).

The arrangement will see TCAP partnering MBK to form two JV firms to operate life and non-life insurance broker and back-office support businesses respectively, reported Deal Street Asia.

The first JV, TM Broker, will have a registered capital of 20 million baht (US$565,291) and the second JV, MT Service 2016, will start with a registered capital of 50 million baht. Suphadej Poonpipat, chief executive officer of TCAP, says that TCAP and MBK will hold 51% and 49% respectively in both JV firms.

“TM Broker will provide more choices of life and non-life insurance to customers and generate more income to us. Meanwhile, MT Service 2016 will help reduce duplication and increase utilisation of resource sharing,” explains Mr. Suphadej.

In 2012, Thanachart Bank entered into an agreement to establish an exclusive 15-year partnership to jointly develop their bancassurance business in Thailand. In addition, it relinquished its life insurance business to Prudential Thailand, which acquired wholly Thanachart Life Assurance Company Limited – then a wholly-owned life insurance subsidiary of the Thanachart Bank – for 18 billion baht.

Thailand, with a population 65.7 million, trails Southeast Asian markets such as Singapore and Malaysia in terms of insurance penetration rates. According to statistics from the Thai Life Assurance Association, total life insurance premium income in the country is forecast to grow by 9% to 585.7 billion baht in 2016, after rising by 6.7% the previous year.

Southeast Asia’s biggest insurance deal so far is AIA Group’s $1.73 billion purchase of Dutch lender ING’s Malaysian insurance business in 2012.

Claim Denied Due To Non-disclosure

Nic Hughes who died due to gall bladder cancer was denied of life insurance payout simply because he did not disclosed his needles pain and reduced alcohol advice. And though these are not relevant to his death, his insurance company insisted that incomplete disclosure of information upon application will be grounds to refusal to honor a critical illness policy. Nic left young twins and his wife when he died. And his wife was compelled to go back to work a month before her husband died to sustain the needs of their family.

According to medical records, Nic only drank around 10-20 units of alcohol per week. This is way below the recommended weekly allowance allowed by NHS which is 21 units.

“Neither the pins and needles nor the alcohol is related to Nic’s death”, Dr. Rubin Soomal said. According to his friends, his insurance company is repugnant and they started a campaign in social media to urge such company to do the right thing.

“Mr. Hughes should have told us that his doctor advised him to cut down his alcohol intake. He should have made us aware that he went through pins and needles”, said a spokesperson from Friends Life Insurance Company where Nic was insured.

Nic’s social media campaign against his insurance company garnered a lot of supporters including Stephen Fry and Miranda Hart.

Kester Brewin; Nic’s friend, expressed his disappointment against Friends Life Insurance when he said; “They are so insensitive to the family’s situation. They refused to give my friend what they owe to him simply because of undisclosed information that has nothing to do with Nic’s death”. He added; “If they have any conscience, they will resolve this issue soon”.

A petition was made to demand Friends Life to give full payout reached to 50,000 signatures. Stephen Fry even retweeted 1,200 times a quote on tweeter, asking Friends Life to do the correct thing. Other celebrities who supported their petition include Boy George and Doctor Alastair Campbell.

Amidst all these commotion, this is all what Friends Life has to say; “we know the current social media activity as well as the case being questioned. We are giving this high priority for senior management. We also understand how difficult is the circumstance surrounding this issue. However, part of our policy is full disclosure to all symptoms and conditions upon application so proper assessment will be done. Otherwise, a policy will be cancelled or become invalid”.