Description: Humor in the workplace can improve productivity. This article describes a typical office relationship problem and how humor helped disparate teams work together.

Description: February issue of The Stepping Stone

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: This article considers ways actuaries can meet the growing demands of senior executives by redefining their role and the actuarial operating model.

Description: A compilation of reader responses is presented to a real life situation involving a business decision. This issue’s case study involved a recently promoted chief actuary receiving pressure to make a downward reserve adjustment at year end.

Description: The author finds the best way to reach your potential is to follow a personal growth plan daily. Free resources, including online newsletters and blogs are cited. From The Stepping Stone, February 2012, Issue No. 45.

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.

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

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: 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.