Amanda Smith has always loved math.
"I was probably still in high school when I had a math teacher say, 'You should really think about becoming an actuary.' I never really thought about how to apply math in a business sense and so it gave me a good vision for what I thought I wanted to do."
Smith majored in actuarial science in college and then joined an actuarial student program with Liberty Mutual, right out of college. She became interested in catastrophe management and property insurance.
Smith is currently the chief product officer, home for Plymouth Rock Assurance. She has been in the role for about six years and is responsible for pricing and underwriting Plymouth Rock's home product.
"What I love about my current position is the breadth of what I'm able to influence," Smith said. "I'm able to have near end-to-end ownership of our complete homeowners product. To me, it is so empowering if you have all of these different levers at your disposal. How are you going to use them? How are you going to be nimble? I think at a smaller company, sometimes there's a little bit less red tape, and you can get things done faster. And that, to me, is just really empowering to be able to tell the team, if you want to change it, let's change it today. We don't need to go through these very bureaucratic processes. We're here to drive business outcomes. Let's drive the business outcomes."
Being a leader for Smith means making sure the team understands the mission and empowering them to share information or suggest changes.
"I think we often have a roadmap that we've aligned on, and I think it takes a really strong leader to be presented with new information that says this isn't working, and that leader to be able to say, 'Yeah, I think I think you're right, or why do you feel that way?'... It's that fine balance of trusting your gut but also knowing when you do need to change because of the information."
Being a strong leader comes down to developing and supporting people, Smith added.
"As a leader, you are as strong as your team is. I feel fortunate that I've been able to hire most of my team, and they are people that are equally passionate and engaged in driving results. I think that makes it a really collaborative and fun place to want to work. For me, I want to empower them all to feel the fun piece, but we also still have to deliver the business results at the end of the day."
Mentorship has been very important to Smith.
"I have found that the best mentors I have had are often people that I have observed from afar, and as I've gotten to know them, have felt comfortable saying, 'I love the way that you do this," Smith said, adding that finding the right mentor takes time.
"I think acknowledging that it is a time investment on both people's behalf. So, I know when I'm asking someone to mentor me, being very cognizant of what I'm hoping to accomplish. So that way we're not wasting either of our time," Smith said. "The best advice that someone gave me once was to truly come with concrete examples and problems you want to solve. Mentorship doesn't always work great if you just talk about the things that are going really well. You have to be vulnerable and say what's not working if you actually want to be able to change the outcome of those situations."
Looking ahead, Smith said she is looking forward to influencing business results with her team.
"I now have people that have worked for me for seven or eight years, and it's very incredible to see how much they've developed in that time period and how they've become stronger leaders, and how for so long, I taught them a lot, and to be able to learn from them now. That, to me, is really fun, to see their careers grow and to see them driving business results," Smith said. "I always come back to that continuous learning mindset too. It never changes. There's always new regulations, there's always new things, new trends."
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