Chairperson’s Corner

By Lori Weyuker

The Stepping Stone, September 2023

I recently returned from attending the in-person Society of Actuaries Health Meeting in Seattle. It is such a great experience to interact with other actuaries, outside speakers and SOA staff face-to-face! There’s nothing quite like interacting with others in person. The energy generated was palpable. While the Health Meeting is significantly focused on health care and related topics, the Leadership & Development Section Council planned and executed some valuable sessions and events:

• Effective communication in the age of remote work
• Actuaries on managing large projects
• Managing up
• Leadership & Development Section Breakfast Session
• Leadership & Development joint networking event, co-sponsored by four sections: Leadership & Development, Actuary of the Future, Health, and Entrepreneurial and Innovation

I especially enjoyed our well-attended Leadership & Development Section breakfast session. I presented highlights of the L&D Section’s current accomplishments this year, our new 2023 projects, and the channels through which we are executing our initiatives. I then facilitated an open discussion with attendees during which I asked for their input on “what topics are most important to you for the L&D Section to focus on in our work right now?”

It was a very engaged discussion with participation from quite a few session attendees! Some great topics were ideas generated by the attendees:

• Building credibility with the C-Suite
• Building credibility with people at various levels and areas of functionality
• Practical practice of communication skills
• Practice presenting technical information to non-technical audiences
• Building networks in remote work environments
• How to effectively manage people in a hybrid work environment
• Effective presentations in a remote work environment (creating PowerPoints, giving presentations)
• Running an effective meeting while working in a hybrid work environment
• Have a separate event (either in-person or on live webcast?) on “hands-on creating an impactful PowerPoint deck”
• Have a separate event (in-person preferred) on “hands-on-practice” presenting to a live audience effectively
• Negotiation skills
• Managing difficult people
• Empowering & developing your staff for their future success
• How to do succession planning—planning to replace yourself when you are promoted, etc.
• Leadership & DEI — Equitability vs. Equality

The L&D Section is also slated to execute on additional relevant sessions at both the 2023 SOA Life Meeting in New Orleans and the 2023 SOA ImpACT Meeting in Indianapolis. We will also be co-sponsoring a great networking event at the Life Meeting.

We continue to do our highly-rated quarterly, live SOA Webcasts. In addition to this, I’m excited to announce our new initiative for 2023: a Book Club, which we are doing jointly with the Joint Risk Management Section. The books selected are timely and relevant to “leadership” and “development.” We plan to hold live Book Club meetings every other month. I encourage anyone who is interested to check out these free events.

This kick-off book club meeting was held August 9 with Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It, a book with practical advice for negotiating. Join us for our next meeting, featuring Dare to Lead by Brené Brown on October 17.

Another new initiative we plan to execute very soon is a podcast on topics relevant to actuaries in countries around the world, on “leadership” and “development” topics. Keep your eyes open for our continuing live, quarterly webcasts on timely, relevant topics.

Finally, the SOA is holding its annual Section Council elections. Voting will commence in September 2023. I encourage you to vote for all Section Council openings, but especially for open SOA Leadership & Development Section Council slots. Good luck to all candidates!

Statements of fact and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the Society of Actuaries, the newsletter editors, or the respective authors’ employers.

Lori Weyuker, ASA, is the chair of the Leadership & Development Section Council and works as an independent consultant to InsurTech efforts, the pet insurance industry and health care innovation. She can be reached at InnovationLW@gmail.com.