In this guest blog, Stacey Mills Director, Learning & Talent Development, Wawanesa Mutual Insurance (Canada) shares details of the Leadership Connect programme at her organisation, where leaders, at all levels across the business, share valuable insights and learnings across the company through moderated panel discussions. In the most recent Leadership Connect session a panel of leaders who had attended the ICMIF Advanced management Course shared the benefits and key insights from the course, which are shared below.

In 2022, our leaders were telling us their roles were getting more complex, and they were feeling disconnected from other leaders across the business. Wawanesa had been working fully remotely for over two years due to the pandemic by this time, and with 600+ leaders located across six provinces and multiple time zones we had to develop a solution to address what our leaders were telling us. So, we piloted an offering branded “Leadership Connect” in November 2022.

What is Leadership Connect?

Leadership Connect is, our leaders, at all levels across Wawanesa – from supervisors to executives:

• sharing what they know, what they have learned along the way
• bringing their collection of insights, stories of how they persevered in the face of challenge or failure, the moments they are most proud of.
• uncovering their “why” – what keeps them motivated about being the best leader they can be.

These are moderated panel discussions running anywhere from 60-90 minutes. The response from our leaders has been incredibly positive – leader participation rates have been high, with more than half of our leaders opting to attend sessions exploring topics like Leading engaged teams, Inclusive leadership, and Connecting strategy to goals.

Leveraging ICMIF for leadership development

In our most recent Leadership Connect session in April, Leading with purpose, we featured a panel of leaders who had attended the Advanced management Course hosted by ICMIF in 2023. In this session we discussed leadership strategies to help achieve Wawanesa’s purpose, learnt from our panelists about activating strategies with purpose and helping direct reports find meaning in their work to connect personal values with Wawanesa values and foster a committed workforce.

During this session panelists shared:

• Their experience with the ICMIF Advanced Management course
• Their definition of purpose-driven leadership for a mutual
• Mutual-specific solutions to common problems for an insurer
• Actions and ideas from the ICMIF course that support purpose-driven leadership

Here some of the key learnings they each took away from the AMC:

“If I think about how have I taken the content from the course and applied it to the day to day, it does force you to think about the vision. It does force you to think about when you are making operational decisions. When you’re making operational plans, are you anchoring around that purpose and are you bringing people along because you’re lighting that fire inside of them, or are you doing it the old-fashioned way, which was set the direction, force people to follow you, and then kind of execute things right.”
Randy Dhillon, VP Central Region

“The concept of ‘collective intelligence.’ It is a foundation of leading, and using effective collaboration knowing that the world we operate in is complex and fast changing. The pace of change will never be slower than it is today. We cannot solve these problems within one department, one team. We really need to collaborate. And one way to do this is to capture private perspective first, to help remove bias from collective thinking. Then ask everyone to take turns sharing their perspective without interruption, and then engage in dialogue that considers all perspectives, not just that of the most senior person in the room, which is one-way leaders can build psychological safety and demonstrate humility.”
Maja Dos Santos, VP, Corporate Actuarial & Appointed Actuary

“Working for a purpose-driven organisation means helping people find meaning in their work beyond self-interest and allowing us to complete impactful work that puts people before profits at times. It means we have permission to pause and take a breath to consider the right path forward. One thing that really struck me was the concept that: ‘Leaders are not responsible for results. Leaders are responsible for people.’ When you remind yourself of that, it can change the way you approach a challenge.”
Rachel Cameron, Director, Member Experience & Insights

At Wawanesa, we are investing in a multi-year “Certified to Lead” Programme, aimed at providing leaders at all levels with development opportunities at each level of leadership. Our newly designed three-month programme for first time leaders, kicks off in September 2024. Our goal is to have all 350+ first time leaders go through this programme over the next three years.

Recognising that one size does not fit all in terms of growth, we will also integrate development opportunities with key partners such as ICMIF for key talent. Wawanesa joined ICMIF in 2020 and has sent several senior Leaders to the Advanced Management Course (AMC) as part of our ongoing investment in strengthening our leadership talent. This year we have four leaders attending the Advanced Management Course and will also be sponsoring a Young Leader to attend the ICMIF Biennial Conference and the Young Leaders Programme.

Learn more about the ICMIF Advanced Management Course here or contact Mike Ashurst, Senior Vice-President, Reinsurance and Learning with any questions.