Description: This article addresses the importance of remembering to respect ourselves and others during times of uncertainty and stress, and offers practical tips on how to do so

Description: Latest installment in series that applies Buddhist philosophy to the actuary's daily activities. This installment discusses the challenges for actuaries in dealing with the ongoing ups and downs of the COVID-19 pandemic and discusses mindfulness tools to cope with the resulting stresses in a peaceful and effective way.

Description: Continuation of series applying Buddhist principles to actuarial work setting. This issue discusses the challenges to actuaries posed by the coronavirus pandemic and how mindfulness practice can expand an actuary's perspective and enhance effectiveness

Description: This article introduces hope as a cognitive concept that appears when circumstances are uncertain or dire. Hope is the belief that by shifting one's perspective, an individual has the power to take steps to improve their current problematic circumstances

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 very new actuarial manager trying to deal with a disruptive employee.

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: metadata for the entire issue

Description: The author suggests that the ability to negotiate is the ability to achieve a specific type of outcome. Given corporations and people are held to their own high standards, we all would get what we want more often and that is the goal. From The Stepping Stone, February 2012, Issue No. 45.

Description: The Stepping Stone issue 60, November 2015

Description: A business leader and researcher describe the importance of effective leaders revealing their failures as well as successes.