Captives turn to emotional intelligence to strengthen boards
Captive insurance professionals should develop emotional intelligence alongside technical expertise if they want to build stronger boards and become more effective leaders, delegates at the Vermont Captive Insurance Association (VCIA) annual conference were told this week.
Speaking during a session on emotional intelligence, Dawn Wiese, chief operating officer of Vermont-domiciled group captive insurer of college fraternities FRMT, said better governance starts with understanding the behaviours and perspectives of those around the boardroom table.
Drawing on her background in organisational behaviour, Wiese told delegates that leaders should spend less time thinking about what they want to say next and more time paying attention to others.
Using an exercise in which delegates were asked to identify emotions only by looking at photographs of people’s eyes, she said the exercise demonstrated “there’s so much that we can learn about what’s going on with other people just looking at their eyes.”
“So often we’re in our own thoughts about what we’re going to say next that we’re not thinking necessarily about what’s going on with that other person,” she said.
“And when you start to look at other folks and try to figure out how you can influence their behaviour for the better, that’s going to make a more effective work environment.”
Wiese said these principles lead to strong board governance.
“Ultimately, what we’re working toward is stakeholder alignment,” she said, adding that this means “taking perspective in what’s going on within the workplace, setting the tone, and continually clarifying and having curiosity about other people’s perspectives.”
She said emotional intelligence is particularly valuable in the boardroom, where effective leaders should demonstrate sufficient self-awareness to regulate their own behaviour under pressure while also encouraging healthy debate.
“It’s especially effective when your board leader is going in this direction as well,” she said, highlighting “inviting dissent” as a critical leadership skill.
According to Wiese, stress reactions and failing to recognise the emotions of others can undermine board effectiveness.
Among the practical techniques she recommended were identifying what is happening emotionally within a meeting, pausing before responding, remaining curious about other viewpoints and using de-escalation and reframing techniques during stressful moments.
Earlier in the session, Strategic Risk Solutions’ Daylan Staude, global training and development manager and senior account manager at SRS, said emotional intelligence is a professional skill that can be learned and strengthened over time.
He argued that emotionally intelligent captive professionals make decisions based on principles rather than emotional reactions, helping boards communicate more effectively, build trust and manage constructive challenge.
“When we’re in an environment where we need to make decisions or communicate, we really want to make those communications based on our principles, not on an emotional response,” he said.
Staude also encouraged delegates to become more aware of situations that trigger emotional responses.
“Ultimately what we’re trying to achieve by having good emotional intelligence is that you respond versus react,” he said, describing self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills as the five interconnected elements of emotional intelligence.
Did you get value from this story? Sign up to our free newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.
