Monday

The start of the week, and I'm feeling grumpy because of England's abject failure at the World Cup, writes Phil Bunker, managing director of LV=Broker. The one thing that struck me was Capello's poor English. How can you lead a team if you cannot communicate properly with them?

My email mire is still out of control following my holiday the week before last. I clear 20, but 30 new ones come in. I'm a hopeless e-mailer. I find talking to people so much more productive. A huge pile of Tobas sits unsigned on the side of my desk. I'll need to sign these before I leave, or get them locked away, unless I want to get caught by LV='s clear desk police (again...).

I'm up to London this afternoon to meet with a broker to look at an interesting business proposition, and then on to a dinner with our reinsurers.

Tuesday

I'm visiting our Birmingham SME branch with John O'Roarke today. We travel up on an empty train, which isn't surprising given the extortionate ticket prices.

This branch has the most amazing can-do culture, and has carved a fantastic position for us in the Midlands. In a market as difficult as SME it is a breath of fresh air to find such an upbeat and successful team. We listen to the staff, look at the systems, and then off to lunch with a broker and some of the team. We learn a lot about the various strategies adopted by our competitors. This gives us much to consider as we start to formulate our plans for 2011.

Time to plunge myself into my e-mail mire on the train on the way home. I'm still not winning.

Wednesday

Back into the office, and the pile of Tobas has grown to over a foot. I'll sign these today, together with approving invoices, staff expenses and HR change forms. This is the only part of my job I dislike. The good news is that I'm beginning to win the email battle.

Thursday

Today we are kicking off the selection process for a batch of trainee underwriters and my job is to give the background on LV= to the candidates. Our recruitment drive was targeted at A-level candidates, but due to the poor graduate jobs market, we have a higher qualified batch than we expected. This is a four year programme including CII training and senior mentoring, so it's important that we select the right people that will see it through.

Friday

Friday is management meeting day. This week it is "The Broker Exec" where we get detailed reports on all of the areas of our business. It's always a long meeting, but it means that everyone is up to speed with what each area is doing, and the full set of notes that we get is a great "bible" of information from one month to the next.

I must admit though, that what I'm really looking forward to is the weekend. I'm going with the family to the Hop Farm Festival to see Bob Dylan, Mumford & Son and The Magic Numbers. Being a hop farm, I also expect there will also be a few pints of real ale to consume!