Description: How you can use your motivation and persistence to become an optimist.

Description: Six pointers about career advancement for actuaries, based on real life experiences from my 47 year career.

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

Description: A real life business dilemma faced by an actuary is presented, and readers are invited to answer "What Would You Do?"

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: Based on the book “Emotional Intelligence 2.0” written by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves, the four skills necessary to improve EQ are– 1) self-awareness; 2) self-management; 3)social awareness; and 4) relationship management. This article explores the skill of self-awareness by sharing examples and personal stories, highlighting three strategies to practice. In addition to lowering stress and becoming happier, having a greater ability to regulate our emotions gives us confidence, helps us communicate better, allows us to understand multiple perspectives, builds trusting relationships, and frees us from our assumptions and biases. Ultimately, this gives us more potential to influence other sand make better decisions.

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 real life situation is posed involving a boss who is over-managing, and readers are invited to submit their responses to "What Would You Do?"

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: Sam dives into how his experience as both a leader and a musician provide insight into how micromanagement disrupts the flow of an organization much like a live musician who overly focuses on one component quickly loses the flow of a performance. What does the symphony of actions sound like at your organization?