ATLANTA — Be passionate about your work, says an insurance executive.

“Educate yourself on what it is you’re looking to do” and then “make sure you have a passion for it,” said Joel Cavaness, president of Rolling Meadows, Illinois-based Risk Placement Services Inc., a unit of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

He spoke during an executive panel Tuesday at the Wholesale & Specialty Insurance Association’s Annual Marketplace in Atlanta.

Mr. Cavaness, who is WSIA vice president and will assume the presidency IN FEBRUARY next year, was responding to a question about lessons to share with those new to the industry.

Workers will start to see results if they are “constantly doing a little bit more than expected,” said Tracy Wade, chief operating officer of Alpharetta, Georgia-based Maxum Specialty Insurance Group, a unit of Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. Those who do so “are the ones who have really gone the farthest and the fastest,” she said.

Danielle S. Wade, chief operations officer of Boone, North Carolina-based Jackson Sumner & Associates, an excess and surplus lines broker, said when she joined the firm, which is owned by her family, “I was gung ho, and I was going to be a bull in the china shop and I was going to change every way” things had always been done.

She said she has since learned the “need to understand and to make an informed decision.”

“Find out why things are” the way they are first “to see if there’s a better way to do it,” said Ms. Wade. “Remember there was something to begin with” that led to the way things were being done.

Panelists were also asked what they look for in an underwriter. Tracy Wade said, “We really look for the passion and the drive and the ability to interact with people and a track record of being able to build relationships, because there’s so much mutual accountability. You have to make sure you’re managing your partnerships.”

“We look for integrity and genuine human interaction with people,” said Tim Stokes, CEO of Croton Stokes Wilson Holden Ltd., a London-based Lloyd’s broker that is a unit of Integro Insurance Brokers.

Most leaders either had been or are mentors, said Mr. Cavaness. “That’s a leadership trait that’s important,” he said. A true leader is someone who “takes an active interest in people.”

The session, which was hosted by WSIA’s U40 group of under-40 members, was moderated by Chris Peterson, vice president of Shawnee Mission, Kansas-based Chris-Leef General Agency Inc.