Description: This article covers the importance of letting teams lead you as a leader, that it's okay to admit you're not okay even at work, and that it's important to find informal ways for virtual teams to connect.

Description: Relationship management is your ability to use your awareness of your own emotions and those of others to manage interactions successfully. Given enough time and quality exchanges, we can form a relationship with any person we encounter. We should strive to develop positive relationships with people we like, and even with those we don’t like as much. Once established, both parties will understand each other better and benefit from the connection. Relationships can be challenging, especially at work or under stress. Skillfully managing them will help you initiate direct and productive conversations to alleviate misunderstandings, solve conflicts and achieve desired goals. This article explores strategies to develop the skill of relationship management.

Description: It is well established that empowerment of staff is a critical leadership trait. But what are the metrics to recognize that you have achieved it? What steps enable this achievement? Which psychological attributes explain its efficacy?This article proposes to answer these questions through a multi-disciplinary examination of empowerment in the context of three leadership domains.

Description: With increasing demand for quality new-hires, it is increasingly important to hire the most impactful employees. Actuaries who think creatively can have a disproportionately positive effect on their employers. In this article, we discuss how to identify this type of person during the interview process.

Description: The latest installment in a series that applies Buddhist philosophy to the everyday working world of actuaries. This installment chronicles the author's career transition from corporate actuary to academia, relating the challenges faced to those periodically encountered by all actuaries during their career journeys.

Description: Investing in and taking care of employees can result in many-faceted positive results, for your team and for your firm. We first state the case for "taking care of employees," then exhibit several practical methods for showing you care for your employees.

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 latest in a series of articles connecting the principles of Zen Buddhism to the working world of actuaries. This issue focuses on techniques for cultivating a gratitude mindset under all types of conditions - even stressful ones, in order to maintain equilibrium and harmony for a more productive workday.

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 summary about the first book club discussion on Never Split the Difference. Insights on key negotiation elements are discussed in the article.