Description: No matter what you do, you are in sales in some way. The word, "sales" or "selling" brings up negative connotations for many people. It may be helpful to think of it as "influence". Whether you're a sales professional, coach, consultant or executive - there are key stakeholders in your world you need to influence. To persuade successfully and non-manipulatively, it's important to understand five key principles of influence. Principle #3 is covered here.

Description: Great lessons come from bad experiences. This is a story of how I learned the importance of influence after a difficult relationship with my supervisor.

Description: Over the last decade, the actuarial career has gained significant attention of entry level job-seekers as it continues to be one of the consistently top rated jobs in the market. There are different avenues to break into the profession, but one of the most common is through an Actuarial Student Program, where a company formally supports the exam progress of individuals through paid study materials, exam fees, and time off to study. Most programs also include an emphasis on development of leadership and communication skills. As the recruiter for MassMutual’s Actuarial Student Program, I get the opportunity to regularly share with candidates why I believe a student program is such a powerful springboard for a successful actuarial career. Profiled in the article is two actuarial students and one recent actuarial student program “graduate” to highlight the value a student program can bring to one’s professional development.

Description: This article focuses on how a manager should focus on 'influencing' to get their team to be as high-performing as possible.

Description: Book review: George W. Bush memoir

Description: This articles showcases the principles of effective servant leadership.

Description: At the 2004 Annual Meeting, four industry leaders, David Atkinson, Patricia Guinn, Bruce Nicholson, and Salim Manzar, shared their insight on a variety of questions. This article briefly covers their responses to a few of those questions.

Description: The author compares team leaders to lessons learned on the TV show Restaurant Impossible.

Description: As a manager, it’s critical to be able to coach and direct staff development, both for their success and your own.

Description: To persuade successfully and non-manipulatively, it’s important to understand five key principles of influence. In this four-part series, I’ll be covering these five principles that are based on human psychology and behavior. Let’s look at the first two now.