Step In and Stand Out

Nicole Coffey , Director of Marketing at Renewal, has spent her career building relationships, showing initiative, and always going the extra mile. She knows what it takes to market yourself as a job seeker and today she is sharing her top tips with you. Check out the full article here:

What do you look for in a great team member?

One of the mindsets that resonates with us at Renewal is ‘step in.’ A lot of the time in business, there are going to be difficult situations, and it really stands out when people are willing to just jump in and help figure things out, whether or not it's in their job description. That’s especially important on small teams.

As we grow, we want to make sure we’re bringing in people who continue to embody that mindset. Culture doesn’t just happen. You have to be intentional about keeping it as a company scales.

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced in leadership?

Embrace the power of leading from below. Leading from below is about influencing an organization and its culture, even if you don’t have formal authority.

Because I have a commanding personality, I can be quick to say how I think things should be. But I have learned that asking questions is a much more effective way of leading from below. Instead of saying, ‘This should be different,’ I ask, ‘What do we think the outcome of this is going to be?’ or ‘What if we tried this other approach?’ Asking questions seems less like challenging authority and more like opening up the conversation.

What’s your best advice for job seekers?

Tailor your resume to every position. Just understanding how the hiring process works can help. Often, if you’re applying to a larger position, it's a computer that's matching whether your resume fits that job description. Being intentional about the keywords you pick up from the job description and making sure they’re in your resume can really make or break whether you get through that first round.

What skills will be essential in your industry moving forward?

From the broker side, I think there will be a continued emphasis on effective communication and relationship-building. There's an exponential increase in healthcare costs that is only getting worse, and employers are not going to be able to ignore transitioning to these more complex funding models to control costs year to year. It takes a strong foundation of trust with your broker partner to run these models effectively.

On the employer side, employee benefits have always been a very HR-focused thing, but businesses are not going to be able to afford not having their finance teams involved in these conversations. Finance professionals who are leading their departments in any industry will benefit from familiarizing themselves with the challenges that rising insurance costs will place on their company’s growth.

Thank you so much, Nicole! To learn more about Nicole and the work that is happening over at Renewal check out her LinkedIn here or Renewal’s website here.