Effective Communication and Influencing skills for actuaries in senior roles

Actuaries are widely recognised as problem solvers and strategic thinkers, who use their mathematical skills to measure the probability and risk of future events. They excel at using their analytical skills to predict the financial impact of these potential future events. Faced with increasing economic uncertainties and societal complexities, businesses, government and communities increasingly depend on the skills of actuaries to make sense of the future. For actuaries to rise to these wider demands, they need first class communications skills for a range of stakeholders. This means far more than determining the solution and just giving a message, instead it requires an ability to position the solution to be understood in a way the listener can receive the information. It requires to need to listen to the response and questions, to empathise with the opinion of others, and an awareness of one’s own potential biases at play and an understanding of group dynamics into which you are providing the message. To help hone these crucial communication and interaction skills, Sharon Constancon, a leading communications expert who has worked with actuaries, will present on four key topics: EQ Effective conversations Personas on boards Bias, decision making and influencing outcomes. Sharon is the CEO of Genius Methods and Genius Boards, and Chairman of the South African Chamber of Commerce UK and will offer powerful insight into top level communication.