Former CEO: You Don't Need Greed to Succeed

Newswise — With the disgraced CEO perp walk becoming a regular feature on evening news broadcasts, one former CEO is trying to teach business leaders that they don't need greed to succeed.

That's the message of a new book by former CUNA Mutual Life CEO, Irv Burling. "Winning Without Greed" (Evergreen Press) is a case history in servant-leadership " the concept that leaders are at their best when they are mindful of the needs of their followers. Before becoming CEO at CUNA, Burling was the head of Century Life of America. He know that the life insurance business was at a crossroads. Economic factors forced Burling to make the reluctant choice to merge his company with another. But he wanted to ensure that he didn't stomp on his most important resources in the process: his employees.

"I simply didn't want our company to be swallowed up by another. In a traditional merger, one of the companies disappears and the staff of the survivor takes most of the key positions and the other company's employees are let go," Burling writes in the book. "Two things worth preserving are lost " first, a dedicated staff that as a unit had a capacity to deliver one of the better product values available; and second, a significant economic base for the community."

This disregard for human factors is all too common in traditional mergers, he says.

"WorldCom/MCI, Waste Management, Sunbeam, Enron, Global Crossing, Arthur Andersen LLP, Tyco " the list is staggering," writes Bill Withers, a communications professor at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, in the book's introduction. "Organizational leaders, many driven quite simply by greed, have put hundreds of thousands of employees on the streets, and mergers and downsizings have swelled the ranks of those who no longer believe in organizational leaders."

Burling would not let this happen at his company. He was not about to hurt the hundreds of associates that had been so loyal to Century Life over the years. So Burling began re-envisioning the merger process, and worked to ensure that his associates would be given the respect they deserved as the merger moved forward.

"Before we established our vision for the future, I felt it was important to put into writing our fundamental beliefs as an organization," Burling writes. "We believe trust is earned by treating others with dignity and respect. Success depends on developing the abilities of our associates. Our associates have the creative capacity to solve problems. Communications should be open, honest and timely. Performance must be measured by long term results."

But perhaps Burling's most refreshing attribute " and one that separates him from many other CEO's " is his recognition that he is fallible, and that any mistakes he made had ramifications for all his employees. So to make sure that his errors " and his own ego " didn't interfere with his vision, Burling took an extraordinary step: he hired a personal coach to help him keep his priorities in line.

"One of the frequent reasons given for the failure of mergers is the personal agenda or the ego needs of the CEO. If you make an honest personal assessment of your ego needs and conclude that they are very important, a coach is a must," Burling explains. "An open and honest psychological contract with a personal coach can mitigate letting ego get in the way of meeting the needs of the total organization."

It's hard to argue with the results or Burling's brand of servant leadership. Century Life eased into their new affiliation as CUNA Mutual Life, and became one of the nation's leading insurance companies. In the process, Burling was able to ensure that the associates had a voice in proceedings and could be confident that their jobs were safe.

And there was no golden parachute for Burling when he retired 10 years ago " he took only a modest pension. He continues to educate students at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa as well as business leaders around the country on servant leadership despite battling Parkinson's disease.