Description: Book review: George W. Bush memoir

Description: Follow Your Fear by Bob Morand from The Stepping Stone Newsletter, July 2004, Issue No. 15.

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: Latest installment of a series applying lessons from Buddhist philosophy to the working world of actuaries. This installment focuses on practicing the yogic principle of "ahimsa" or non-harming with ourselves, and the importance of respecting and caring for oneself in order to better serve the needs of others.

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.

Description: This article provides steps to clarify conversations to ensure greater success, fulfillment and satisfying business relationships.

Description: The author reviews works from Greco-Roman literature from 800 B.C. to 400 A.D. and discusses how they relate to business and management, strategy and tactics.

Description: Read the November 2016 issue of The Stepping Stone published by the Leadership & Development Section. Newsletters provide practical information for the working actuary, articles on trends that impact sections and news about section activities.

Description: This article describes and shows how to apply an often overlooked but crucial concept to build influence in conversations, tension management.