Description: Negotiation - it's not just for buying a car! Actuaries negotiate every day at work, whether it's getting buy-in to change a critical assumption or a more reasonable timeline to complete a project. This workshop will be led by an instructor specializing in executive education and will offer techniques you can use to be more effective in your day-to-day life.

Description: Learn concrete strategies to manage executive dysfunction. The author discusses techniques she has learned along the way to improve productivity and manage time. High-level tips are: 1) Write it down. 2) Plan your day. 3) Don't let email and social media steal all your precious time. 4) Give your brain a little distraction. 5) Find an accountability partner. 6) Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. 7) When distracted, begin again. 8) Give yourself grace.

Description: A summary recap of the recent SOA Health Conference held in Dallas, TX in June of 2025. With the intentional use of AI to assist with the summary, this article gives a good overview of the recent conference with personal commentary from one of the attendees.

Description: This article addresses how to best use body language to one's advantage

Description: What it takes to lead teams is significantly different from what it takes to excel as an individual contributor. A leader's first mistakes is to think they have to do the same things they did before just with more volume and greater speed. Leading a team requires a transition to new behaviors and mindset. This article attempts to give you a few ideas to make the transition from leading yourself to leading others

Description: The Leadership and Management Skills Workshop has been developed for mid-career actuaries who aspire to rise into C-suite roles. The New Manager Essentials Module includes interactive sessions on topics such as recruiting, delegating, operating a team, and performance management.

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

Description: A typical course has some "hard" parts. These "hard" parts are the places where weaker students begin to fail, lose interest, and give up. The paper introduces a metric by which to evaluate each course topic. High metric values indicate "hard parts" of courses. The paper recommends spending more course time on hard parts and less course time on easy parts. The paper also recommends using disclosure: Tell students - this part of the course is "hard" and they may feel uncomfortable which is why more time is being spent on it." This approach to hard parts works! Failure rates are significantly reduced, while retention, satisfaction, and student scores improve.

Description: The true value of any leader is measured by how much they are able to accomplish through the work of their team. Actuaries in leadership roles are no different. But, to get the most out of your teams, leaders must first focus on building a high-performance culture. One that rewards measurable success and challenges everyone to reach farther all the time. There is no easy path to building a high-performance culture, but the benefits of a leader’s efforts will pay substantial dividends for the team, the leader, and the company. This series of articles is intended to educate leaders of large and small groups on how to build a high-performance culture and achieve outstanding results.