Description: What are the keys to creating the sort of actuarial career that leads to senior leadership roles? Is it to put more and more work into your technical skills, or to develop the 'soft skills' that make you standout among other actuaries? Learn one of the keys to self-marketing in a natural way, so you can make sure that opportunities find you.

Description: This article explores how to create influential relationships with three different entities—your direct reports, peer group and boss. Ultimately, positive influence begins with strong relationships. While maintaining authenticity, mutual respect, and integrity, it is worthwhile to develop contacts, associations and affiliations that benefit your work, organization, and career growth.

Description: This article is an overview of the SOA Leadership & Development Section Council's current projects, recent accomplishments and some immediate focal points of the Leadership & Development Section Council's efforts.

Description: The true value of any leader is measured by how much they are able to accomplish through the work of their team. Actuaries in leadership roles are no different. But, to get the most out of your teams, leaders must first focus on building a high-performance culture. One that rewards measurable success and challenges everyone to reach farther all the time. There is no easy path to building a high-performance culture, but the benefits of a leader’s efforts will pay substantial dividends for the team, the leader, and the company. This series of articles is intended to educate leaders of large and small groups on how to build a high-performance culture and achieve outstanding results.

Description: Have you ever felt paralyzed seeing all the things before you that seemed impossible to complete? Asking for help can help, even though most of us don't want to seem inept or weak. This article outlines the benefits of asking for help, provides advice about how to do it, and describes the benefits of doing so.

Description: A personal account of how humor in the workplace improved productivity.

Description: This article contains tips for meeting people, building relationships and furthering your career in a simple, fun and authentic way.

Description: This article highlights the importance of communicating concisely and effectively through email and other written forums, and when/when not to use written vs. other forms of communication.

Description: Servant Leadership is a leadership philosophy that focuses on organizational success through serving and enriching the lives of the employees. As employees become engaged the organization becomes more vibrant, sustainable and successful. Four primary principles are discussed: Create an Environment for Employee Growth; Provide Employees What the Need to Thrive; Remove Obstacles to Employee Achievement; Help Employees Reach Organizational and Personal Goals. Trust, creativity, shared vision, listening, job skills and personal attention lift employees up, creating high quality, engaged employees that help drive organizational success and create a pool from which the next generation of leaders for the company will emerge.

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 management hiring someone to make changes, then ignoring all suggestions.