For Helen Cosburn, chief of sales for banking and emerging segments at Allianz Global Assistance, the career moments that mattered most were rarely the comfortable ones.
"Stop waiting to be 'ready,'" she says. "The roles that accelerate you most are often the ones you don't feel fully prepared for yet."
It is a philosophy she has lived. Over a career that has taken her into progressively larger and more complex roles, Cosburn has come to see discomfort not as a warning sign but as a growth signal. She often returns to what she calls the lobster analogy: lobsters only grow when they become too uncomfortable in their current shell and are forced to shed it. Career growth, she argues, works the same way.
"The moments that feel like a stretch are usually the ones that accelerate you the most."
Cosburn will bring that perspective to the Women in Insurance Summit, where she will join Renata Bezerra, senior director of strategy and growth at CIBC Insurance, for a panel conversation on career growth and leadership.
One of the themes Cosburn expects to explore is the distinction between mentorship and sponsorship, and why both matter but in different ways.
"Mentors help you think; sponsors help you move," she says. "At senior levels, opportunities often come down to who is willing to put their credibility behind you, advocating for you in rooms you're not in."
The catch, she notes, is that sponsors cannot advocate for talent they cannot see. That makes visibility a strategic priority rather than a vanity exercise. For Cosburn, intentional growth means building the relationships and influence required to succeed – so that your work does the talking whether you are present or not.
"Being intentional about visibility isn't about ego," she says. "It's actually a prerequisite for access to the next move." The goal, she adds, is "clarity on where you're heading, plus disciplined visibility and relationship capital so your work, and your judgement, speaks for you even when you're not in the room."
The panel will also take on a question that often goes unasked in professional settings: what does it actually look like to navigate power dynamics without losing yourself in the process?
Cosburn is direct about the tension she felt early in her career. "I thought leadership meant fitting a mould," she says. Over time, she arrived at a different view – that authenticity in leadership is not about being unfiltered, but about being values-grounded and deliberate about how you show up.
"The goal isn't to change who you are," she says. "It's to understand how your traits land, channel them with purpose, and adapt your approach without betraying your principles."
It is a distinction that matters in an industry where professional norms can be deeply ingrained and where women moving into senior roles sometimes face pressure to conform to leadership styles that were not built with them in mind.
Allianz is a sponsor of the Women in Insurance Summit, and for Cosburn the decision reflects something beyond corporate commitment.
"Building the next generation of leaders takes more than good intentions," she says. "It takes real access, visibility and connection."
What she values about the summit, she adds, is precisely the kind of conversation the panel is designed to have – honest, practical and grounded in the reality of how careers actually develop rather than how they are supposed to on paper.
"The Women in Insurance Summit is one of my favourite days in my calendar every year," she says. "I'm proud Allianz is part of supporting it."
Reserve your spot at the Women in Insurance Summit Canada 2026, taking place on June 2 at Universal Eventspace in Vaughan, Ontario. Join hundreds of insurance professionals for a day of bold conversations, practical strategies and purposeful networking designed to accelerate careers and build lasting connections across the industry. For questions about registration, reach out to our team at [email protected].
