Description: May 2020 issue of The Stepping Stone by Leadership & Development Section. practical information for actuaries, trends that impact section, section activities

Description: Inclusive Leadership: A Conversation

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: How the quote, "Wherever you are, be all there" inspires my leadership

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: 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: Leadership inspiration essay asserting that the things that are the most valuable to us are also the things that we have to work the hardest for.

Description: A discussion with an experienced actuarial manager on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted people management and what we can learn and apply in the actuarial profession going forward.

Description: This article is about the need for actuaries and technical professionals to develop critical leadership and other soft skills, and highlights the ways the SOA Leadership & Development section provides tools to develop those skills.

Description: This article describes why dressing up - even while working remotely- can help create work / life balance when the day is done.