ARGUS Insurance Company Communication and Marketing co-ordinator Maria McLeod-Smith's career path shows that sometimes sheer talent and enthusiasm can take you further than you ever dreamed.

Like many women her age, Mrs. McLeod-Smith, 40, passed up college to get married and start a family. Five years ago, Mrs. McLeod-Smith entered an administrative job at Argus Insurance that was not what she expected. She was bored by all the typing and spreadsheets.

"I was a little disappointed to start with," she said. "But they (management) are really good here. They really want you to be happy. So they said, you're artistic and we need some forms designed. Why don't you do that? So I did a form. They liked that. Then I redid all of their forms for them. Then everytime there was an artistic opportunity they would ask me to do it."

Mrs. McLeod-Smith doesn't exactly know how management knew she was artistic, but she thinks it was probably her desk that gave her away.

"Whenever I do anything I always have colour in it," she said. "Behind my desk I have lots of pictures up, and I have two different graph calendars that I have done up. One is the children's holidays and one is of the summer.

"The different camps are different colours so I can look at it and see instantly when they have camp. I am a very visual person."

Eagle-eyed Argus management also noticed that Mrs. McLeod-Smith was good at event planning. She always handled office baby and wedding showers, so one day they asked her to handle the annual Argus summer party.

"That went really well," she said. "They said rather than outsourcing people to do events for us, why don't you have a go?"

Mrs. McLeod-Smith did have a go, and was eventually promoted to Communications and Marketing co-ordinator and is now one of the most enthusiastic promoters of Argus Insurance.

"I really, really enjoy working at Argus," she said. "I have such great scope here. I can do all sorts of things including organising the Argus golf tournament and the Argus tennis tournament.

"I can do events like the Coldwell Banker Home Show which is fun. I'm not just doing art work, but I am also doing events. I don't know where else I would have access to all of that. I really don't have the qualifications so Argus is very kind to let me do my thing."

She said Argus was very 'pro-education' and had strongly encouraged her to take her insurance exams. She has now completed four out of five insurance exams.

"They do make sure you stay on track and are always accomplishing your goals," she said. "At first I wasn't sure why I was taking the exams, but it does help you sell the company if you understand insurance. Let's face it, half of Bermuda works for an insurance company so at least you know what everyone else is talking about."

Mrs. McLeod-Smith said much of her event planning expertise comes from when she was just out of high school and working on Beau Evan's glassbottom boat for four years.

"It was a very all-round experience," she said. "Sometimes it was just me and the captain, so I had to be able to do it all. It definitely helped me with event planning. People would hire the boat out for parties and things like that.

"Everyday you are on the microphone talking to a bunch of strangers. You learn to figure out what people like. People pretty much want the same sort of thing. You find out how much they like to drink and eat, how long they want to be somewhere. It definitely did help me with event planning.

"We did the whole range from the not-so-expensive cruises all the way up to people having very expensive parties where it is all champagne and cavier. It was a good cross-cultural experience."

After working on the glass bottom boat, she went to work in the Immigration Department for a decade.

"One of the girls who worked with me, left and got a job at Argus," said Mrs. McLeod-Smith. "She was always saying how great it was. I had been in government for quite a long time. I thought I should move on if I was ever going to move on at all."

The rest is history. Now, Mrs. McLeod-Smith is designing promotional material like the life-size window and shutters used at the Coldwell Banker Home Show. The window features a view of Bermuda and the shutters list Argus' various attributes on each slat.

"We needed people to not just say that is pretty and move by," she said. "I made a game of it. I made people guess where the window scene was in Bermuda. People put their guesses into the hat. If their correct answer was pulled from the hat, they won a prize."

Mrs. McLeod-Smith said although the window game may sound like meaningless fun, activities like this are actually important exercises in staff morale building. It seems to be working. She said that while some local companies lose staff to the large re-insurance companies, Argus often gets staff from the re-insurance companies who are looking for a more personal working atmosphere.

"Our staff morale is very healthy," Mrs. McLeod-Smith said. "We just received the Investment in People award. For that award the staff was interviewed about their feelings about the company, it's training programmes and so forth."

She said Argus Insurance Company does a lot with its staff.

"One of the fun things they do is the management cooks breakfast for us every year," she said. "All the managers make us scrambled eggs, bacon and sausages and then serve it to us. Everyone has fun with that.

"We also do fabulous summer parties. We just had one where we cruised around Hamilton Harbour and the Great Sound. Then we went up to Newstead and had dinner and dancing. We always have fun together. It is a really nice, friendly company."

She said all the fun events help to break down barriers between staff and management.

"Management is very modern here," she said. "They have an open door policy. If you need to talk about something you can go in and talk about it."

Mrs. McLeod-Smith said an example of this happened a few years ago, when she realised she was having a hard time balancing the demands of family and career.

She asked to cut back her hours, and management agreed without any hesitation.

"It is very hard to manage the children and work," she said. "We are very fortunate that Argus is flexible and understanding. In particular, this comes right from Gerald Simons the CEO. He says it is very important that you look after your family.

"If you want to see your kids' Sports Day or Christmas play, you don't have to feel guilty about it. Some companies do make you feel guilty about taking time off for your kids."

She said it is not so much that women have to make a choice between family and career, but that they have to pull a constant balancing act.

"You have to make sure you are not sacrificing one for the other," she said. "Sometimes you do need to work late. Sometimes you need to stay home because your kid is sick. You always have to make sure, each time you come to the decision time that you are making the right decision."

Mrs. McLeod-Smith has two children Jasmine, 12, and Nicholas, nine, and is married to Peter Smith.