Description: Latest in series of articles exploring the adaptation of Buddhist philosophy to actuarial practice. This installment examines the challenges for actuaries in dealing with external opinions of actuarial work, and how to best manage these forces so that the work remains aligned with professional standards.

Description: Latest in series of articles exploring the adaptation of Buddhist philosophy to actuarial practice. This installment examines the challenges for actuaries in dealing with pain points in actuarial work, and how to best manage these forces so that the work remains aligned with professional standards.

Description: A compilation of reader responses is presented to a real life situation. This issue’s case study involved a candidate for an actuarial position who didn't handle salary discussions well, and whether that should impact the hiring decision.

Description: In this video Anthony Champi, FSA MAAA takes you through the journey from an Individual contributor to a leader of people. Anthony is a Director of Actuarial at Prudential Financial. He has over 15 years experience in actuarial work and is a member of the Society of Actuaries Professional Development Curriculum and Content Creation Council. He emphasizes the importance of developing leadership skills in the actuarial field, regardless of one’s position on the organizational chart. He highlights key differences between individual contributors and leaders of people, including the shift in accountability from personal deliverables to team deliverables and the need to continuous learning and setting expectations as a leader.

Description: Taking a look at Julia Child's signature TV show The French Chef, and how aspects of her show gives us tips on how to train others.

Description: Article presents the basic terminology and theory of attribution theory, the theory explaining the causes that people attribute their successes and failures to. The article reviews i) typical attributions(e.g. effort, luck), ii) dimensions of attribution (controllability, stability), iii) useful and non-useful attributions, and iv) attribution retraining and v) other aspects of the theory (such as accompanying emotions)

Description: James Glickman delivers his general session speech at the SOA 2019 SOA Annual Meeting & Exhibit in Toronto.

Description: The article describes principles for optimal sub-tasking of a project goal. Two experiments each one comparing different approaches are presented. A summary of principles for optimal goal setting presents seven key points: i)levels of outcome goals should be recognizable and lack ambiguity; ii) each subtask should be atomic, i.e. not be capable of being broken up into further subtasks, iii) the subtasks should be uniform, lacking ambiguity, so that any new trainee could master it without the need for further guidance; iv) each subtask should be attainable in a reasonable amount of time; v) mentor feedback should be provided during the initial stages of learning or training; vi) upon mastery of each subtask trainees should be encouraged to maximize their overall score; vii) after mastery of individual subtasks, while attempting to maximize scores, trainees should be provided with a mixture of easy, intermediate, and difficult tasks.

Description: A compilation of reader responses is presented to a real life situation posed involving a management, leadership, or other business decision. This issue’s case study involved a dilemma involving an ASA who decided to stop taking exams, and communication difficulties with the Chief Actuary.

Description: A real life situation is posed involving a management, leadership, or other business decision, and readers are invited to submit the irresponses to "What Would You Do?" This issue’s case study involved a staff performance issue faced by an actuary new to management.