From FSA to CEO: The Path Is Quicker Than You Think
by Joseph Paesani, FSA, MAAA
This article is reprinted from the May 2007 issue of The Actuary of the Future, newsletter of the SOA's Actuary of the Future Section.
In the last few editions of the Actuary of the Future newsletter I wrote about the importance of actuaries taking control of our careers and our ongoing development--in essence, each of us is the “CEO” of our own career. The AOF strategy has always included a vision for identifying and creating nontraditional opportunities, and the concept of “FSA to CEO” fits within the horizon of this vision. At the 2006 Annual Meeting, “From FSA to CEO” was one of the SOA’s “Featured Sessions” and I was pleased to conduct this teaching session for the AOF. Forty-three people attended the session and the evaluation results were excellent. People especially rated high the value of the material and the extent to which it will be useful to them. This article provides a recap and some key takeaways to consider as you continue your ongoing education and development.
An often-overlooked aspect of the actuary’s education has been in the area of business skill development or “business savvy.” For years, as a profession, we either assumed we didn’t need to develop these skills, or we thought we had enough to get by. Both views were shortsighted and, as a result, our overall ability to grow as professionals within traditional and nontraditional environments has been slowed. The “FSA to CEO” session is designed to enlighten actuaries to the role they need to play to take charge of their own career development, identify core skills and competencies that all actuaries should develop, and propose tactics for acquiring them. Its message: recognize, very clearly, that in this era of constant and rapid change, results are more critical than ever and our value is tied directly to our ability to impact our organizations and their bottom line. It’s no longer sufficient to have expertise in computing and analyzing the financial risk aspects of business, we must also be able to translate this expertise into measurable and significant actions. While rapid and constant change can present barriers for us, they can also create opportunities for us to grow. People and organizations are dealing with serious and difficult issues—new and unknown risks that can impact their businesses and their lives, and frankly no profession is adequately servicing them—the opportunity is clearly there for actuaries to become leaders in developing solutions for addressing these issues, both for organizations and for individuals.
Our career path is an ongoing “work in progress”—we need to continually develop and strengthen ourselves to grow and prosper. “Reinvent yourself” is a relatively new concept, but a clearly relevant one for today’s world. The ability to adapt proactively—to see emerging opportunities and prepare ourselves to capitalize on them is especially important for us today. We bring unique and different skills and characteristics, but really so does everyone else. What will set us apart is our ability to utilize those characteristic and skills to develop solutions, generate results and have an impact. That the actuary is uniquely trained in the areas of finance and risk gives us a unique platform from which to jump, but it is hardly sufficient—we can successfully make the jump only if we augment them with other business skills. Many other professions claim financial expertise once thought to be the actuary’s domain. Whether or not they’re right, or can deliver as well as actuaries, isn’t the main issue—the marketplace perceives that they can—the issue is whether we can sufficiently arm ourselves to deliver and provide this expertise in a meaningful and measurable way.
Ultimately, the responsibility for developing your career and maximizing your potential lies with you. You’re in the best position to take charge of it, manage it and develop it to get the results you want. While others may have an interest in your career growth and may support it, you ultimately are accountable for the results of it. So what can you do to make sure you develop good results? Specific answers will vary for each of us, but there is a common approach. First, determine exactly what it is you want—it’s hard to get what you want if you don’t know what you want. Next, objectively evaluate your core competencies, your strengths and the things that make you unique and valuable. The combination of these items should provide a good basis for matching your wants with your skills and setting a direction for you. This assessment should reveal some limitations and areas for improvement, so also recognize that you need to address these and develop action plans to do so. We should never lose our technical expertise and uniqueness, but we can’t rely solely on it in our career development.
It’s also important to recognize that the traditional education path followed by actuaries is not sufficient. Contrary to what we may think (or want!) our education no longer ends with the exams—we need to do more. In this era continuous education and learning are vital to our ability to thrive. This will continue to be true regardless of the level we attain in our organizations. Recognize that education and development are ongoing, lifelong processes; we need to keep learning and continually reinvent ourselves.
Broader business skills such as interpersonal skills, strategic thinking and leadership are necessary to increase your overall effectiveness. The most successful people recognize this and have developed at least some proficiency in these areas. They also continually develop and augment these skills. But what are they? The most important business skills for development include: good decision making skills, influence and persuasion skills, exceptional communication skills, strategic thinking/planning/execution, innovative thinking/problem solving, and political savvy. These skills are all critical in enhancing our ability to develop good solutions, get our message across to broad and diverse audiences, gain the support of others, and secure good outcomes. In addition to these, becoming a coach or mentor can also accelerate your own growth and learning—sharing your knowledge and developing others is often a good way to ensure our own success.
With the success of this session we will look to offer it again at future meetings and in other forums. We’re also exploring bringing it to local actuarial clubs, and we’ll continue to write about the topic in future publications. The message is important for all of us. Learning and development are almost never quick and easy, but if we continue to learn and improve we’ll be better positioned to recognize emerging opportunities and take advantage of them when they arise. And, don’t forget the most important skill to continuously develop: Have fun! It shouldn’t all be work. Take your mission seriously but yourself lightly, and enjoy the journey.
Joseph Paesani, FSA, MAAA, is a self-employed consultant based in Broomall, Pa. He can be reached at joe_paesani@verizon.net