Make It A Great Day: Leading in today's world with Erin Lynch

In this episode, we talk with Erin Lynch, Global Energy Practice President at Beecher Carlson. Erin shares some amazing insights around how she and her team are continuing to meet and exceed their customer's needs in a time of change. Erin and most of her team are typically on a plane 3 weeks a month meeting face to face with customers. Learn how they are pivoting using tech while still creating a strong human touch.  

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spk_0:   0:01
Theo, everybody, It's Ryan Lee with Make it a great day. I hope you're having a great day wherever you are. Decided to make a little bit of a change here in the podcast. Given some of the times and some of the changes, I thought it would be really cool to interview and talk to some great leaders around the globe about how they're managing and they're leaving through this pandemic. And so one of the first people that we get to talk to is a great friend of mine named Miss Erin Lynch. So I pre recorded that today and talked with her. And let's dive in and learn a little bit about Aaron and how she's managing through the pandemic. Thanks, Aaron. Hey, it's Ryan Lee coming to you live and direct from Make it a great day. I am so excited to have one of my amazing friends and incredibly fearless leader join us Erin Lynch, who is the president of global energy practice at Beecher Carlson. Aaron Haria

spk_1:   0:57
I'm great. Are you Ryan?

spk_0:   0:59
I'm doing great. I am doing great. I really appreciate you giving us some of your time in this crazy world. That we're living in to share some things that are happening in your guys. This world.

spk_1:   1:08
It's my pleasure. Really good to be with you.

spk_0:   1:11
Perfect. Well, so for some of our listeners that don't know, I'd love to just understand a little bit about who Beecher Carlson is and what it means to be the global energy practice President.

spk_1:   1:20
Yeah. Thank you. So Beecher Carlson is actually an insurance broker and a risk management consulting for him. We focus on the Fortune 500 sector, and we provide insurance Brooking support and also risk management guidance to our clients and that really commune a lot of different things. We're talking a lot about how folks think about risk, how they transfer it, have a mitigated. We help clients put together alternative risk financing structures. We help them transfer risk into the insurance market for me and the energy practice running the Gulf global energy practice. We focus really on the independent power sector. So we're supporting clients in the downstream energy sector. People who develop, own and operate power plants, and we helped them really think about how to mitigate risk associated with their activities that we work with about 80% of our client base is renewable energy focused, which is really exciting. So many of our clients are the leading renewable energy firms in the world. I'm developing wind and solar projects, hydro projects, geothermal, etcetera. So we're talking about a lot of really interesting and important technology and supporting critical infrastructure around the world. So it's an awesome business to be in.

spk_0:   2:37
That is awesome. And why insurance? What would get you excited every day And why did you decide to come into the unbelievable world?

spk_1:   2:44
Well, it's been a winding road. I'm having flashback right now because I started my career as a journalist and was always very interested in sports. And so how did that turn into insurance is always a a fun story to tell two people that, um, I went to the University of Oregon here and had a great relationship with a person who owns the Eugene Running company, and it turns out that he was in the insurance sector with his day job, and he recruited me way back when it's been over 15 years. Uh, he was a great mentor to me, and then I had an opportunity about 13 years ago to meet some leaders who were really starting out. Beecher Carlson is that exist today, and they took a rider on me and brought me in, and I immediately jumped into an opportunity that I saw in the energy sector. And I really, really believed in supporting the industry. I saw an opportunity and renewables and felt like, um and that's pretty exciting when you have a chance to wake up every day and support an industry that you know is imperative. Thio. You know, my Children and my Children's Children and the success of our local communities and our greater global industry. So it's, um it's in a really exciting industry to be a part of

spk_0:   3:58
that is awesome. Well, let's jump in a little bit. So obviously we are in a very unique and interesting time. And as we think about this pandemic and what we're going through, I'd love to understand just kind of some of the biggest challenges that you faced so far. Whether that's leading your team are working with your customers. And now that we're three weeks in, what would you say are some of the biggest challenges that you're seeing right? now today?

spk_1:   4:21
Yeah. You know, I feel really grateful. In a lot of ways were a geographically diverse team s o I live and work in Eugene, Oregon, when I'm not on an airplane or in front of our clients around the world and my team is dispersed as well. So we have teammates and Oregon and California and New York and Atlanta in Boston. So we're really accustomed to needing to be really focused and intentional about the way that we communicated and collaborate. But I feel really blessed from that perspective that we already sort of have that going. We know howto do all this virtual, you know, work from home and on do our jobs in this way. That said, I think, What I didn't anticipate. Waas Given that I'm on the road all the time and in front of clients and in front of my teammates, you can't replicate that. So even that I'm even though I'm looking through, you know, video conference call every hour of every day. It feels like right now nothing can really replace that, that human interaction. And so I think one of the challenges for me has been trying to create a cadence and an interaction that feels as good as possible in this time. And I think what I'm finding, certainly with our teammates and our clients, is that people are hungry for that human interaction. And they're also Henry for a sense of calm and, um, maybe a reprieve from the panic. And so what I'm really trying to do with my teammates is to provide that whether I'm picking up the phone or the video call during the day and reaching out to my teammates or clients Or, you know, I've been posting sort of a daily update that isn't Cove in related. It's, um, you know, maybe a lift your spirits related. It's a quote that's meaningful to me or a video and trying to present a moment of levity and positivity for the team that can just sort of elevate us out of what we're all dealing with all day, every day.

spk_0:   6:12
That's awesome as you talk about your team and obviously you guys been blessed, as you said, to know a little bit about remote working kind of how to do that. But what are some things that have really surprised you and made you proud about how your team has responded to this?

spk_1:   6:25
Oh, my goodness. You know, there's something multiple things every single day. I think for me, what is most present is the incredible commitment that our teammates make tour clients every day. So our clients and the energy space are part of, you know, the critical infrastructure of this country and the world. So we have clients who don't have the ability to work from home. Right now, they have to get up every day and go to a power plant, Um, Howard ops room. And they have to make sure that our power plants are running in. Our lights are on, so they're dealing with really incredibly difficult situations. You know what if somebody gets sick, who is running a nuclear power plant or a wind farm and and how do we provide them the support they need and determine if they have infected other people? And how do we make sure that we continue that operation successfully? So we've had just this incredible amount of great stinking on behalf of our resource is who have come to the table to say, How can we help with risk control? How can we help with claims mitigation? How could we really get hands on in the situation and support our clients? And even in the face of our teammates, all working remotely with their kids running around in the background and all the things that they're dealing with, their showing up every day in such a meaningful way to our clients because they care so much about the work that they do every day to support our industries of that sentence? Really amazing to me. I think people raising their hands to just say how how can I help? Beyond insurance theon risk management? How can I help my clients or my teammates today? I've just seen more of that than I have, maybe ever. And that just motivates me every data to get up on dhe, try toe to do as much of their doing.

spk_0:   8:10
It's awesome. And so as we come through this, because we will come through this, you know, what are some of the things that you have seen as you just described that that you think you might do differently or keep doing that? Maybe you hadn't even thought about before. I'd love to know if there's anything out there that you're like, man, we've never done this before but we were forced to do it. But now that I think about it, that might be a practice or something that we actually might want to take a hold up.

spk_1:   8:33
I think it's really interesting and I for over a decade, but on a plane

spk_0:   8:38
almost every week, I still

spk_1:   8:41
believe that nothing can really replace human interaction and sitting across the table from somebody and really having a connection in person. I think that there's nothing that can replace that. But I do think that what we're finding is we are having the ability of virtually and through video conferencing toe have meaningful conversations and there are things that we can do with our business partners. I mean, I'm hosting client round tables right now and summits, you know, with groups of clients where we're having really meaningful conversations and interactions, and we're being successful in the way that we're delivering on our, you know, promises to our clients and so I think it is going to make a step back and say, Do I need to be in person with you for this specific thing. Yes, I want to be in person with you. It sometimes sometime this year. But do we need to be on an airplane every single week for every single conversation? I think we're all gonna be thinking a little bit differently about that in terms of how we manage our business. And I think outside of that, um, you know, it's just it's just made me think a little bit differently about being a leader like we talked about before, just, you know, really stopping and slowing down. And we can be in the weeds every single day. There's there's more work than there are hours in the day. But to stop every day and find an opportunity to, you know, connect with each other. I think that's just pulling at my heart strings right now, because everybody's going through so much and we're doing it. We're all going through it together, so that's really important.

spk_0:   10:14
And that's awesome. One question on that virtual round table you talked about. Had you normally been bringing more clients together like that, or is that changed little bit where you maybe have that one on one with that client, you're physically there. But now, if you're doing these virtual, lt's what you say that's bringing more people together differently.

spk_1:   10:29
It is, and that's been really amazing. So this roundtable idea, you're absolutely right. We've had we've done some really amazing client events in the past. We do an annual event where we bring, you know, 30 of our clients and prospects together every year on DWI. We simulate that, but where this is now happening on a monthly basis, which is amazing. So you get 10 risk managers on the phone who are running company running, large energy companies, worldwide, energy companies sharing their ideas, and that is really a first. It's amazing. And they're talking about specific things that hadn't even come to mind for me, like I was saying before that her specific thio their operations and their challenges right now, and I think it's been really meaningful to them to be able to share that's practices, challenges, all those things. So, yeah, I see that is a continued opportunity. In fact, we were talking last week about, um, Let's keep doing this. You know, even when we're all hope we have passed Cove in 19 let's continue to find ways to connect in that way.

spk_0:   11:30
That's awesome. And last question yourself. As you think about yourself internally, you know, what are some things that you think you've learned the most about yourself during this and have happened a lot of quiet as we talked about and some time to really self reflect, or some stuff that surprised you about you unless you've gone through this, especially given what you talked about it used to traveling here's to being on the plane, used to seeing people going to dinners. I would love to know what kind of internally what's going, what's going on inside. Aaron.

spk_1:   11:56
Oh, boy, I mean, how much time do we have? Uh, you know, having a lot of grace right now in patients, not just for, you know, the people in my life my, my family and my teammates. But for myself, I think has been important. Some of these emotions air hard. Thio put a finger on right now, I think, and I think certainly for myself, and I'm hearing from others as well. You wake up some days right now, I feel a little sad, and it's hard to put your finger on why. And I think the lack, like I said of that, the human connection and maybe a little bit of the death of what I've been used to go for a decade is hard to process. And so, uh, having a lot of grace for myself with that And then also witness saying the incredible work that my husband and my mom and the people that support my family's on a daily basis, seen that firsthand on a daily basis is mind blowing. And so I have a just a whole new level respect for teachers, hon. And for caregivers, Um, you know, witnessing what my 97 year old grandmother is going through, having to be quarantined and having to just wait at the window to her. I mean, it just puts all of it in perspective for me. I'm extremely thankful for my relationships. I'm extremely thankful for my job, Um, having a job right now and just witnessing with so many people are struggling with, I'm just really I'm really grateful every day, and so I think it's been a good moment for me to pause and recognize what's really important.

spk_0:   13:30
That's awesome. Last thing is, you know I love the quotes. I would love to know what your most favorite quote is and why it is that.

spk_1:   13:38
Yeah, So I have had this one frame next to my bed for 20 years, I think. And I think it was one that my dad gave to me before a long time ago. We I grew up a runner and he was a runner. And so we were big Steve Prefontaine fans. And so the one that's by my bed is to give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.

spk_0:   13:59
That's awesome as a great quote, especially for us Oregonians. And for those of you that have never heard of Steve Prefontaine, there's some great movies to check that out. But if he did anything other than never not giving this all that was him to the fullest and which is awesome, where it's been an absolute pleasure, I think all of our listeners will have a great opportunity here. What it's like the lead through this. I appreciate your vulnerability and really digging in, and we wish you nothing but success on if anybody's listening to the need a great, uh, teammate to help them through anything with the insurance road Global energy. I would highly encourage you to reach out to her and her team. But thank you so much. And as always, we hope everyone makes it a great day.