From an iron fist to something more effective - Tarina’s honesty about her own evolution was refreshing. She describes herself as naturally perfectionist, and admits that perfectionists don’t always make the best leaders.

A decade ago, she says, transactional leadership was more accepted: focus on execution, push hard, get results. Today, she believes transactional leadership has no place in the modern world. That doesn’t mean standards have dropped. It means the route to high performance has changed.

Clients have changed. Teams have changed. Expectations have changed, dramatically, even within the last five years. With the rise of AI and increasing digitisation, it has become even more important to establish and nurture relationships: with staff, brokers, service providers, partners, and where relevant, clients.

Tools must remain tools, she argues, not replacements for human interaction. The leadership shift she describes is from “an iron fist” to something gentler, because research and lived experience show it yields better results.

A key section of our conversation focused on how you keep business priorities sharp in a “softer” leadership environment, how you deliver growth without reverting to command-and-control. Tarina’s context is real: The book required remediation. That remediation was necessary, but it came at a cost. Business was lost. Broker trust took strain. Going into 2026, her priority is clear: Rebuild confidence and regain growth.

And then she asks the question many leaders avoid: what drives growth in insurance beyond price? She is blunt about price wars. She is not interested. She knows she cannot, and should not, try to win them. Product differentiation, too, is limited. In a market where features are quickly copied, it is not a sustainable edge.

So, elite’s growth strategy goes deeper. She described three pillars:

• exceptional service (not just service excellence, because that is now expected)

• intimate relationships built on trust with brokers and advisors

• technology and data used to strengthen decision-making and service delivery

Her emphasis is that if leadership begins with empathy, business strategy should reflect that. Growth must be built through service and trust, not just price and features.

Technology, data and AI - Tarina is not anti-technology. Far from it. She sees data as one of the industry’s richest assets, and asks the uncomfortable question: what are we actually using it for? She believes analytics and AI will transform underwriting, claims and customer experience. The opportunity is significant: Better risk assessment, better pricing, faster service, improved efficiency.

But she returns, again, to the human centre. AI should help staff focus on what matters: relationships, broker engagement, and client understanding. It should improve accuracy and productivity so people can spend more time on high-value interactions. She has seen it in action. The technology is here. The leadership decision is whether we use it to become more human in our service, or less.

Beyond compliance, without grandstanding - Tarina also placed ethical leadership and ESG firmly on the strategic agenda. In her reading and engagements, ESG is growing in importance for clients, moving beyond a regulatory or compliance exercise into a real strategic imperative.

But she raised a dilemma many corporates struggle with: How do you talk about community support and resilience work without it becoming window dressing? Old Mutual insure and Elite do meaningful work, through claims, reinstatement, and community initiatives, but communicating that authentically is hard. It costs money. It is part of sustainability. Yet it cannot be performed as a marketing exercise.

Her view is that the industry is still learning how to embed ESG transparently and authentically, without grandstanding, and that ethical leadership will be judged quickly by clients and partners who can detect inauthenticity.

People, data confidence, ethics - When asked what she would tell emerging leaders, Tarina offered four practical priorities:

1. Put people first — Leadership starts with relationships, and you can’t lead on empty

2. Build data confidence — You don’t need to be a data scientist, but you must understand how data and tech shape decisions

3. Stay client-obsessed — Clients expect personalised service across every touchpoint; AI can enable that if used well

4. Lead ethically and with purpose — Be authentic, be transparent, and be willing to be vulnerable

The thread connecting all four is maturity: Leadership as trust-building, not authority.

The industry’s bigger gap - Finally, Tarina widened the lens to what the industry must do for South Africa, not just for itself. She is proud of the role insurance plays: Driving transformation, employing thousands, supporting resilience. Yet she believes we can do more, particularly in closing the protection gap.

She highlighted the reality that unemployment, inequality and affordability pressure leave many uninsured or underinsured. Complexity and legalistic policy wording undermine trust and create pain at claims stage. Education efforts often miss the audiences who need them most. And solving these challenges will require collaboration: microinsurance, parametric products, shared data, regulatory support, and ecosystem partnerships.

Her closing thought is one, I suspect, that will define the best leadership conversations of 2026: The industry’s success cannot be measured only by profit, but by the role it plays in building a better, more resilient society.

In a year where AI will accelerate, competition will intensify, and client expectations will continue to rise, Tarina Vlok’s message is a useful anchor: The leaders who win will be those who remain human, and who build organisations that feel human too.