Are great actuarial leaders born or made?
As the eldest of four, I’ve comfortably worn the hat of manager and leader since my childhood. In my after-school casual work, weekend Army cadets, then in my actuarial career, my leadership qualities were quickly identified and I was promoted into supervisory and management roles faster than others. People tell me I’m a “natural leader”.
One of the actuaries who recently graduated from the Guardian Actuarial Leadership Program told me that she was surprised but relieved to realise that people can learn the skills needed to be great managers and leaders, and that people weren’t classified as a “good” or “bad” manager without any room to change. This got me thinking more about the question:
“Are great actuarial leaders born or made?”
While I see myself as a born leader, I’ve learnt lots of valuable skills (e.g. communication) that have improved my day-to-day effectiveness as a manager and leader. I wondered what others thought, so I asked a few actuaries who I consider to be great actuarial leaders whether they think managers are born or made. Here’s what they said:
Most great managers have a component of “made”
Each of the actuaries I interviewed agreed that people can learn the skills to become great managers.
Annette King, Senior Vice President of the Actuaries Institute 2021, non-executive director and prior CEO, said “Management is a skill that can be learned. It is a bit of art and science combined, and it takes practice. You’ll make mistakes – learn from them.”. She believes that leadership skills can be learned: “Leadership is a notch above management and is all about inspiring people, and helping others to be their best, and the team to be their best. It can be learned too!”
What’s the difference between managers and leaders?
While the terms “manager” and “leader” are sometimes used interchangeably, I think great actuarial leaders need to possess both management and leadership skills in their toolkits.
Actuary, Adviser and Facilitator, Martin Mulcare agrees that management and leadership are two different activities. He points to a Harvard Business Review article that summarises the differences as follows:
““Leading people vs Managing work. Management consists of controlling a group or a set of entities to accomplish a goal. Leadership refers to an individual’s ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward organizational success. Influence and inspiration separate leaders from managers, not power and control.” [1]”
On whether managers are born or made, Martin shares the following: “If you will allow me to differentiate “managers” and “leaders”, I think managers can definitely be “made”. In other words, the core skills of a manager can readily be learned by most people with an aptitude and an attitude to learn. On the other hand, whilst I won’t go so far as to say that leaders are “born”, the core skills of a leader – which leadership expert Matt Church summarises as: Turn fear into confidence; Create clarity from confusion; and Mobilise people for action - are much harder to learn if they are not “natural”.”
Perhaps a natural aptitude for leadership can give aspiring great actuarial leaders an edge?
What if you are naturally a “born” leader?
Like me, Scottish-born actuary working in investment management, Douglas Isles grew up feeling like a born leader. He told me:
“I was often picked as a captain in teams at school and since I kept being captain of things, I just always assumed I would end up being the leader. So a big lesson going into the workplace was that no one was tapping me on the shoulder for the next step. People who went on graduate programs, maybe certain elements were more structured, but all the way through school and into university I believed there was a “born element” to being a leader. Then going into the workplace, I probably spent 15 years or so wondering when someone was going to ask me to step up.”
Even for those of us who are “born leaders”, Douglas points out, that the “made” component is possibly more important:
“I think if you start to believe your own hype, or think you have been born with something as you get older I think you discover many leaders are “made”. They might work harder, they might try harder, or they might work out the rules of the game, or get lucky breaks and get the right training or whatever it is. So while you can get a fortunate head start in life, in the end it's a long game and I suspect the “made” part is probably more important in the long run.”
So just being born with leadership skills isn’t enough.
How can great leaders be made?
What can we do if we want to become great actuarial leaders?
Various types of training courses can help leaders develop their skills. Iain Bulcraig, Scottish/Australian actuary currently on secondment in Paris, reflects on how helpful one particular course was for his own development:
“I did some management training (1 day per month over 12 months organised through work, big investment) – it was so effective that I can still remember what it taught me including:
What my values are, and how to use them for decision making,
My natural personality style: when it works, when it won’t and how to interpret other people’s styles,
How to get people to open up and trust you – my rule is usually the “manager” needs to open up first (Johari window)
That strength is also asking for help when required.
That I need positive feedback to succeed and this is not a sign of weakness.”
Sam Maitra, GI actuary and entrepreneur, suggests a wide range of activities to build your skills: “The great [leaders] are made, through experience, hard work, self-reflection and empathy towards others – all developed through learned broader life experiences and intentional ongoing practice.”
Do companies that invest in leadership training have a better corporate culture?
Genevieve Hayes, actuary and data scientist, agrees that managers are made “because my experience has been that the majority of managers in any particular organisation tend to behave in a way that is reflective of the culture of that organisation. If they were born, then I would expect to see greater diversity in management behaviour, which has never been the case.”
Leaders set the tone and corporate culture in organisations. Genevieve has observed a correlation between workplace culture and the willingness of companies to invest in management training:
“Two organisations that I have worked for expected managers, especially line managers, to develop their staff and have regular career coaching sessions with them. In fact, both organisations sent their managers off on training sessions in order to build these skills in them. People were considered important, and this was something that senior management would regularly talk about. As a result, this flowed through to the way in which managers behaved. In these organisations, I regularly met with my direct manager (either weekly or fortnightly) and developed strong working relationships with them.
“By contrast, I have worked for several other organisations where managers' only responsibility was effectively to assign work to their staff and review that work, with no expectations about developing and coaching staff. In these organisations, I have had far less communication with my managers (in some cases, my manager never had any one on one catch-up meetings with me at all) and my relationship with them was far weaker. These organisations also typically had poorer cultures.”
But not everyone wants to be a manager!
South African actuary Mia Geringer says “Not everyone wants to be a manager and that is fine.”. Stepping into managerial roles and responsibilities is not something everyone aspires to.
Chris Dolman, actuary and responsible AI expert, agrees that management and leadership are different, and that not everyone wants to do both. “You can lead without managing, and vice-versa, and the skills and talents you need for each are quite different. Personally I’ve found that while I can “do” management, sometimes (I hope?) quite effectively, I don’t often enjoy it or get much out of it. So I’ve spent the last few years trying to focus more on activities that are more exclusively leadership focussed, which is what I actually find more motivating.”
Born leaders might have an edge, but the development of skills is needed to be great.
There you have it – while some of us may be “born” with natural leadership abilities, many actuaries agree that there is also a component of ongoing development and learning required for people to become great actuarial leaders.
If you aspire to be a great actuarial leader, what will you do next to build your management and leadership skills?
