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Executive Presence and Influence

“As you start to ascend the ladder, there’s greater focus on the way that you present and negotiate with other people"

Victoria Smith

Managing Director (interim) of QBE Equator Re and Blue Ocean Re

Past participant of Executive Presence and Influence

INSEAD has given me the frameworks and the techniques I need to give me confidence in the way I lead and interact with others. There’s a real thoroughness to the learning and to the ALP project work that is just so effective. There’s no way you can come away without really learning, it’s well worth doing.

Victoria Smith is a seasoned leader in the world of insurance and recently took the helm as Managing Director of QBE Equator Re and Blue Ocean Re, based in Bermuda.  Over the course of the last decade or so, her career has followed a singular impetus that has seen her climb the ranks of senior leadership. Making this kind of gear change over time comes with certain challenges, however; among them, finding the authority and the presence to hold her own with more senior peers, she says.

“As you start to ascend the ladder, there’s greater focus on the way that you present and negotiate with other people. Up to a certain point in your career, your technical skills and abilities will drive you forward, but it’s when you’re on the cusp of senior leadership that other skills become more important. These are skills that you may not necessarily have learnings in or experience with, at this stage of your career, but to succeed you need to have them” says Smith. 

It was the search for these skills that in 2022 brought Smith to INSEAD and to the Executive Presence and Influence programme – an online learning experience for executives looking to build greater trust and to inspire others. 

Smith herself was a little sceptical that the programme could deliver what she needed at first.

“I’d heard a lot about what a great learning establishment INSEAD was and here was a learning solution that seemed to be exactly what I was after. Going into the programme, however, I was doubtful that it would give me all the answers. The online format felt like it would be a passive experience. At a minimum, I thought I might learn a base set of principles”

She couldn’t have been more wrong, she says. From the word go, the programme was intense and immersive. Instead of “passive listening,” she found herself amazed by how the different facets of her learning were coming together to create an engaging, demanding and fulfilling learning experience. 

“It was well structured with the format of the videos designed to optimise the training, and the online content easy to navigate and use. Everything was about short sharp learning experiences with a really high degree of interaction between learners and faculty – as well as interaction with your peers.” 

Something that Smith appreciated was the diversity of experience of her peer cohort which was nowhere more apparent than within her study group – a group that came together online on a weekly basis to share insights and perspectives, as well as valuable feedback on each other’s progress in terms of how they were finding the material. Another dimension of the programme that she found highly effective were the one-on-one coaching sessions; a chance, she says, to synthesise the learning, get clarity and drive momentum in her personal action learning (ALP) project.

“Throughout the programme you learn to use a simple framework to build trust and further develop your charisma as a leader and the coaching really helped focus on what’s important, drawing linkages that help bring it all together.  This was particularly useful in preparing my ALP work”.

These experiences and the ALP assignment efforts brought the learning into much sharper focus, says Smith; affording her the outside perspective she needed for greater awareness of the kinds of communication tools – the options and alternatives – that she can pick and choose in real-world scenarios to build engagement, motivate and align other people. They also constituted a very welcome affirmation that she was doing many of the right things already.

“The programme really helps you see what you are already doing well and what just needs a bit of finessing. The programme helps keep at the forefront of your mind that you need to keep thinking about people and relationships all the time – and to be mindful about every interaction you have as a leader – always make sure you stop and think about how you are making someone feel.” 

“INSEAD has given me the frameworks and the techniques I need to give me confidence in the way I lead and interact with others. There’s a real thoroughness to the learning and to the ALP project work that is just so effective. There’s no way you can come away without really learning, it’s well worth doing.”