JOIN THE WAITLIST FOR THE FEBRUARY 2025 PROGRAM •
JOIN THE WAITLIST FOR THE FEBRUARY 2025 PROGRAM •
Do you want to become a great actuarial leader?
Introducing the Guardian Actuarial Leadership Program
The Guardian Actuarial Leadership Program is designed and delivered by actuaries to help you become a great actuarial leader.
We spend years honing our technical actuarial skills, and as our careers progress into management roles, we find ourselves needing a whole new skillset.
You might have worked for one, or you might have been one: a new actuarial manager with an insufficient management toolkit and not enough support.
Do you…
⛌ feel lonely and exhausted?
⛌ find yourself carrying all the stress?
⛌ never get home for dinner?
⛌ feel your team starting to disengage?
⛌ wonder why you even wanted the promotion in the first place?
What if there was a way that you could feel confident in your role as an actuarial manager?
Knowing how to:
✔ Manage people and projects,
✔ Effectively delegate work,
✔ Build your leadership toolkit with tried and true strategies, and
✔ Meet other actuarial managers for support and networking.
Introducing the GA Leadership Program for new and aspiring managers
The Guardian Actuarial Leadership Program is designed and delivered by actuaries to help you become a great actuarial leader.
The program is run in small groups of up to 10 participants, across different companies over a 3-month period and is tailored to the specific needs of the participants.
The program includes self-paced modules, activities and group reflections to give you time to put into practice the tactics and strategies and then get feedback and support on honing these into skills that you can easily employ within your team.
Is this program for you?
The Guardian Actuarial Leadership Program is designed specifically for those actuaries looking to take the step into management or are already in leadership roles, who recognise that they have room to improve their skills.
This program is for you if you want to:
✔ Learn how to effectively delegate
✔ Support your junior team members to produce high-quality technical work
✔ Juggle the priorities and additional time pressure of being a new manager
✔ Feel confident approaching difficult conversations
✔ Engage in a systematic learning process to cover the key foundations that new actuarial managers need to be successful
Program Graduate
"The beginning of our Actuarial career is so heavily skewed towards exam assessment it’s easy to forget that there are so many other avenues we can take for career development.
The GALP course connected me with actuarial peers across the globe. We coached each other through common challenges, had thought provoking discussions and made meaningful connections.
It was refreshing to attend a course so completely tailored to approaching work-place skills from an Actuarial perspective.”
Alison Visser,
2022 Program Graduate
Great Actuarial Leadership looks like this
Leadership and becoming a great manager who can lead a high performing team is not an inclination. Great actuarial leaders agree that management skills don’t always come naturally but can be learned and practised. As you step into management roles, you need to build your management toolkit with solid skills and tangible, tried and true strategies that can be learnt and honed over time.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
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• I can supervise technical work and have processes for checking and reviewing to ensure high quality without completing it myself.
• I know how I would respond if a mistake was identified or a deadline will be missed.
• I have my own tools and processes to identify and mitigate risks relating to my team and our work.
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• I know my preferred management style.
• I can adjust my management style for different situations and/or personalities.
• I understand differences in my own work styles and those of my team, and how to adapt to differences.
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• I can identify five elements/tools/activities that are key to sustaining my wellbeing.
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• I can delegate work effectively.
• I have tried and true processes that I can use to manage my time and tasks.
• I can classify tasks based on their importance and urgency and can prioritise according to overall objectives.
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• I know why strategic thinking is important as a manager and know my preferred way to make time for it.
• I know my organisation's objectives and know how to cascade these to my team members.
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• I can identify the different learning needs for my team members and feel confident to support their development.
• I can use basic coaching skills to develop my team members.
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• I have my own tools and processes to plan and monitor projects.
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• I can communicate in a variety of ways and can select the best style for a given scenario.
• I feel confident to engage in difficult conversations when needed.
• I can identify key relationships I need to build and I have strategies to do this.
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• I know what professional skills I need to develop and what activities I will undertake to build them.
• I can identify at least 2 current activities or hobbies that I enjoy/ give me satisfaction/ contribute to my personal growth that do not relate directly to my work.
If you would like more detail on the program curriculum, please request our program brochure here:
What you can expect from the program
The program is designed around course material that incorporates hands-on follow up activities designed for you to implement in the workplace.
Key elements that you can expect from the program are:
July 2023 cohort
Group interaction and networking
Connect and work with a small group of up to ten like-minded actuaries who are also building their management skills.
US-based graduates, Alison and Alan
Peer support
You’ll be assigned a buddy to work through some of the practical exercises in a safe space.
Advice from Senior Actuaries
Hear expert tips from 6 experienced actuaries who collectively have over 100 years of work experience.
Individual support
Access to 1-1 support from your facilitators.
Group project
Collaborate with some of your group members to develop a thought leadership project. Previous graduates have even had articles published in Actuaries Digital!
Previous graduates say:
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“As a result of the program, I went from not knowing the optimal approach to engaging with the team and broader business by having the confidence that I’ll be able to handle different work situations and choosing the appropriate communication and management style to fit a given scenario”
Jason Qin
2023 Program Graduate -
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"As a result of the program, I went from having difficulty managing a project life cycle to having tools ready to implement to ensure high quality delivery of the project"
Andrew Yin
2022 Program Graduate -
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"As a result of the program, I went from feeling like I needed to be 100% across all the details of projects to being more comfortable in taking a step back and delegating to my team"
Shayan Shahid
2021 Program Graduate -
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"As a result of the program, I went from using a consistent working style when working with different people to starting to change my style to adapt to different people."
Dan Wang
2022 Program Graduate -
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"As a result of the program, I went from being unclear about what makes a great actuarial manager to understanding many different aspects to become a great manager and leader."
Laura Zhao
2022 Program Graduate -
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"As a result of the program, I went from questioning myself to being courageous to accept new challenges ."
Alex Leung
2022 Program Graduate -
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"As a result of the program, I went from wanting to ensure I understood all the details of analysis to provide leadership to ensure the team can achieve the same goals with accuracy and focus."
Michael Storozhev
2022 Program Graduate -
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"As a result of the program, I went from feeling lost in delegation and project management to becoming confident in my ability to assign projects and tasks and communicate project goals to relevant stakeholders."
Alan Hsu
2022 Program Graduate -
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"As a result of the program, I went from thinking I always have to have all the answers to understanding that managing is about getting the best out of people."
Cameron Morris
2022 Program Graduate
Ready to become a great actuarial leader?
Meet your facilitators
Julia Lessing
Julia is a qualified actuary, Associate Certified Coach and the Director of Guardian Actuarial. She is leading a mission to foster forward thinking leaders in the actuarial industry and runs the Guardian Actuarial Leadership Program to help actuaries build their communication, management and leadership skills.
Stephen Huppert
Stephen Huppert is an actuary with over 30 years of experience in Superannuation, Wealth Management and Life Insurance in a range of consulting and corporate roles. He has worked in a range of corporate and consulting organisations. Currently, Stephen juggles a portfolio career and helping Australians improve their lives in retirement is the common theme through his various roles.
Previous participants have increased their confidence as managers
from 56% to 80%
on average as a result of the program.
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“As a result of the program, I went from not knowing the optimal approach to having effective conversations with people having different communication preferences to me to using new strategies to communicate with my team and key stakeholders to get more out of them.”
Alfie Qiang,
2023 Program Graduate -
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“As a result of the program, I went from lacking the confidence in myself to take a more leadership role in the team, to having a series of tools and strategies to use to give me the confidence for leadership roles as required,”
Amitoze Singh
2023 Program Graduate -
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“As a result of the program, I went from struggling to time manage and delegate tasks to others, to effectively prioritising tasks, and communicating and collaborating with other people,”
Charlie Li
2023 Program Graduate -
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“As a result of the program, I went from being someone who was not confident with managing a team, seeing managing as a drain on my resources to someone who is open-minded towards managing and keen to put my new skills into practice in the near future.”
Henry Newton
2023 Program Graduate -
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“As a result of the program, I went from being a bit lost on how to further progress my personal and professional development to having a clearer vision of where I would like to be in a few years, armed with some useful tips and tricks on how to get there.”
Kelly Lee,
2023 Program Graduate -
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“As a result of the program, I went from not knowing what the next steps are for me after qualifying to knowing exactly what skills I want to develop, and how to develop them.”
Vanessa Angelica,
2023 Program Graduate
Frequently Asked Questions
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The program is designed to work alongside your day job over 13 weeks, where you'll be trying out new tools and techniques to build your toolkit.
Graduates of the program have told us they invest approximately 2 hours each week to work through the self-paced modules and participate in group and buddy discussions.
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At the start of the program, you'll be paired with another group participant. This will give you a chance to build your network by working closely with another actuary on the program. Together, you will practise some of your new skills, such as coaching, and you'll share experiences to learn from each other.
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As actuaries, we are bound by a Code of Conduct and must act professionally at all times. You are asked to refrain from sharing identifying information about others, or any commercially sensitive information with the group.
The group discussion is focussed on building our leadership and communication skills and each group will agree on its operating rhythm and parameters in the first group session.
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Before and after the program, you'll complete a self-assessment against each of the learning outcomes. You will receive a report showing where you've improved and which areas you might like to build into your future development plan.
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No! Everyone comes to the program with different goals. You will be asked to describe your own goal at the start of the program and you will be supported in achieving your goal over the 13 week period.
In the second half of the program, you will work in a small group to create something tangible (e.g. an Actuaries Digital article) to apply your new skills in a practical way.
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No - the modules are self-paced and group discussions occur over Zoom. Actuaries from around the world have joined this program. So long as you can attend the group sessions live you are welcome to join the program!
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While the program is delivered online to increase access for all actuaries, many participants enjoy meeting their buddies and/or group members in person.
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Actuaries Institute members can claim 3 points of CPD per hour spent working on this program. You will receive instructions about how to log your CPD on the Actuaries Institute CPD dashboard.
If you belong to another actuarial professional body, please check with them about how to log your CPD.
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The full fees for the program are AUD$4,435 (inc GST) per participant, with early bird discounts available.
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While many employers regularly support the development of their actuaries through this program, some employers have other priorities. In these cases, actuaries can choose to make an investment in their own career development, which may also be tax-deductible.
We have credit card payment options available, and payment plans may be available to approved participants.
Sydney based graduates from the 2022 cohort, Alex, Laura, Michael and Cameron catch up in person.
US based buddies from the 2022 cohort, Alison and Alan catch up in person.
The Guardian Actuarial Leadership Program has proven results
On average, the previous cohort:
Increased their overall management skills across all 20 learning outcomes from 62% to 86%.
Increased their skills in managing people and teams from 61% to 85%.
Increased their skills in planning and delivering projects from 53% to 91%.
Testimonials from program graduates
“This program is real magic. It provides an opportunity for networking as you participate in a small group of 8 people from different industries and different countries.”
Laura Zhao,
2022 Program Graduate
“One of the best elements about this program is the engagement with other participants. Although we all come from different social backgrounds and practice areas, the issues that challenge us every day are similar.”
Alex Leung,
2022 Program Graduate
“I was able to embed some of my learnings, see the same challenge I was having from a different perspective, and help me accelerate [my] growth.”
Michael Storozhev,
2022 Program Graduate
“One of the key strengths of the program was the ability to interact with the cohort of likeminded people in a similar career stage as myself, but from a wide variety of backgrounds.”
Shayan Shahid,
2021 Program Graduate
“There’s so many tips and tricks about being leaders that you get to learn, because being a leader is not just about yourself, it’s about other people, it’s about how do you manage the team.”
Heidi Tjahjadi,
2022 Program Graduate
Is group coaching for you?
Group coaching is
✔ Adult learning
✔ Practical, on-the-job
✔ Active, experiential learning
✔ Collaborative
✔ Self-driven
Group coaching is not
⛌ Passive learning
⛌ Lecture style
⛌ Theoretically focused
⛌ Examinable
⛌ Externally motivated
Program Graduate
"I would definitely recommend enrolling in the program. Regardless of whether you are a new or experienced manager, you will take something away from the course.
Make sure to put in the time to go through the content and exercises, and participate in discussions with your buddy and the group. You can also set up one-on-one sessions with Julia to further explore topics of interest to you."
Neha Chopra
2022 Program Graduate
Ready to become a great actuarial leader?
The next Guardian Actuarial Leadership Program will run from 17 February - 16 May 2025.
Group sessions will be held over Zoom at 7pm Tuesdays (Sydney time).
Complete the form below to apply for the next intake.
Still on the fence?
We understand how daunting investing in your career can be. If you’re still unsure whether this program is right for you, book a 30 minute call with Julia to answer any further questions you may have.
In the meantime, feel free to complete our baseline self-assessment to understand your core strengths and weaknesses. This tool helps to establish your baseline skill level and identify the key capabilities you need to develop to become a great actuarial team leader and manager.