Aflac’s Virgil Miller: “First we must have a level of understanding about each other in order to facilitate collaboration and cooperation”

An Interview With Len Giancola

An effort has to occur culturally to embrace diversity in the workplace. Cultural diversity is important because our country, workplaces, and schools increasingly consist of various cultural, racial, and ethnic groups. We can learn from one another, but first we must have a level of understanding about each other in order to facilitate collaboration and cooperation. As our CEO Dan Amos says, diversity is not only the right thing to do, it is good for business.

As a part of my series about “Black Men and Women of The C-Suite”, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Virgil Miller, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, Aflac U.S.; President, Aflac Group. As EVP and COO of Aflac U.S. and president of Aflac Group, Virgil is responsible for the day-to-day operating activities, performance goals and strategic initiatives of company headquarters in Columbus, Georgia, and Aflac Group in Columbia, South Carolina. He also oversees the customer experience with a team of 3,400 professionals. He first joined the company in 2004 in the Policy Service department and earned promotions to positions of increasing responsibility including second vice president of Client Services, Policy Service and the Customer Service Center, and vice president of Client Services, Customer Assurance and Aflac’s Transformation Office. In 2015, Virgil was promoted to senior vice president of Internal Operations and later named chief administrative officer, head of Aflac Group. He was promoted to his current position in January 2018 and is responsible for the strategic leadership and overall direction of operations at Aflac Group as well as operations for Aflac U.S. of increasing responsibility. Virgil served as a U.S. Marine and is a veteran of Operation Desert Storm. He holds a master’s degree in business management from Wesleyan College and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Georgia College. He also holds Six Sigma/PMP certifications from Villanova University. He has been honored with several prestigious awards. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Palmetto Health Foundation, the Board of Trustees for Claflin University, the South Carolina State Chamber Board, the 2017 Group Insurance Executive Council, the Palmetto Business Forum and the Columbia Urban League. He is a former board member for the American Red Cross and the United Way Board of Trustees.

Thank you so much for doing this with us Virgil! Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

The most interesting story in my career is when I transitioned from being a manager to a leader. When I first led customer service teams at a previous organization my location ranked in last place in performance against the other comparative areas of the corporation. Under my leadership, I was able to lead us from last place to first place. What I didn’t understand at that time is the ‘how’ is more important than the ‘what.’ My boss told me the employees simply did what I told them and were not required to think and grow; therefore, he predicted they would return to last place when I departed. He was right. As a Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said, ‘give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish you will feed him for a lifetime.’ I learned that I did not put in a sustainable model by coaching others about what I know and how to get results. Aubrey Daniels, a behavioral thought leader says, ‘the measure of a true leader is the behavior of their followers.’ This was a lesson learned. You have to mentor your team, not just direct them.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I rely on my memory for many things; I pride myself on it! In college, I would often tell people I could pass my courses without ever using a textbook. I continue to do that in the corporate world. Now, I may utilize a sticky note here and there as a reminder, but that’s the extent of my note taking skills! I had a former boss who was the complete opposite. She was all about due diligence, note taking, reporting and being overly prepared for meetings, and we were fully expected to follow suit.

During our staff meetings, I was required to give an update on my division. During my report, I would periodically glance down at the paper in my lap as I reported on my division’s progress. One day, as I was leaving our meeting, my boss took the paper out of my hand, and just like that, my cover was blown! I had not prepared anything; the paper was completely blank. I can laugh about it now, but at the time, it was a bit unnerving.

Lesson learned? Always be prepared. Be concise; speak in bullets; do what works best for you, but when it’s time to step up to the plate, be prepared and be ready to play ball.

Can you share three reasons with our readers about why it’s really important for a business to have a diverse executive team?

Diversity fosters an environment of creativity. People see the world differently based upon their backgrounds; where they come from, where they’ve been, their life experiences. Diversity is the inclusion of not only different ethnicities, socioeconomic groups, genders, languages, etc. it also embraces diversity of thought. To paraphrase a quote from our CEO, if everyone thought like me, talked like me and looked like me, I would only need to hire myself.

The world is diverse and our customers are diverse. And our ability to work together towards the same goal is what will help to shape the future. Aflac has one of the most diverse workforces in any industry. Our employees are comprised of roughly 67 percent women and 45 percent ethnic minorities.

Although we believe Aflac is ahead of the curve with diversity and inclusion, you never stop learning. I recently graduated from the Riley Institute at Furman’s Diversity Leaders Initiative (DLI) Program. Participants learn to understand their diversity and inclusion “blind spots” and how to suspend assumptions, which is very important. They come away with focused decision-making skills and deep knowledge of how to effectively manage and lead increasingly diverse workers, clients and constituents.

More broadly can you describe how this can have an effect on our culture?

Culture is deliberate; it’s intentional and directionally formed from your leaders. At Aflac, we are in the process of executing on our digital strategy. By changing our model, IT and business units together will help foster a culture of faster and iterative delivery, enhanced team communication and innovative thinking across operations. This will require out of the box thinking and new innovative ways to engage customers. Innovation is inherently diverse, with many different ways of improving through technology. In order to execute we must have diversity.

Can you recommend three things the community/society/the industry can do help address the root of the diversity issues in executive leadership?

Yes, there a few things that really stand out to me to address the root of diversity:

An effort has to occur culturally to embrace diversity in the workplace. Cultural diversity is important because our country, workplaces, and schools increasingly consist of various cultural, racial, and ethnic groups. We can learn from one another, but first we must have a level of understanding about each other in order to facilitate collaboration and cooperation. As our CEO Dan Amos says, diversity is not only the right thing to do, it is good for business.

Many areas do not have a diversity program as well as measures of success to ensure diversity is a part of the culture. It is not only critical to have a program, but to measure how effective the program really is. As the saying goes, ‘what gets measured gets done.’

And lastly, each organization has to expand on how they recruit and attract talent. You can’t use the old method of just putting an advertisement in the newspaper as that will not yield the right results. Organizations have to recruit diverse talent by targeting gender- and minority-specific institutions and associations, not just to reach quotas, but to become truly diverse. For example, partnering with local schools, minority colleges and universities to offer internships would be a few examples.

How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?

As I mentioned earlier the true measure of a leader is the ability to get results through their people. It’s about effective coaching. The model I’ve used throughout my career is to set clear expectations, identify the right behaviors for each team member, provide reinforcement when those behaviors are observed to get them repeated, and then evaluate to ensure you are getting the right results. As you go through what I’ve described you can make small tweaks as needed to ensure the incremental outcomes occur. I ask all my leaders to read the book, “Bringing out the Best in People” which teaches this model. At the end of the day your goal as a leader is to leader in a manner when people will go beyond expectations because they want to not because they have to.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

1. Important decisions are made about you when you are not in the room. You must have an advocate in the room where it happens; you must know what others think of you. Relationships are critical. I’m sure anyone would agree that if you’re preforming and you are liked by your peers and leadership your chances of advancement are much greater. Sometimes people forget about the likability factor. When I became a leader, I was sitting in my first meeting to weigh in on promotion decisions, ironically, when the first name came up, the first comment about the person had nothing to do with their performance, but everything about likeability, behaviors and other subjective characteristics.

2. Don’t try to be a hero and do it all by yourself. Those that know how, work for those that know why. This means play your role. If your role is to be a coach, then be a coach. If your role is to be a doer then do. A leader that leads people must make sure that everyone plays his/her role but is also prepared to do the role of the person who is the leader.

3. Being yourself has to be good enough. Early in my career, I tried to become a character based on what I thought people wanted me to be. You can’t sustain that. Be true to yourself. Be who you are and be true to your character.

4. Always remember the political aspect of the job and do your homework. Know the players; ask the right questions and know the how and the why.

5. There’s no such thing as common sense; if it were common, everyone would think the same. No two perspectives are the same because of life experiences. Be a good listener first to get your ideas across.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. J

Helping people understand that when you put something or someone before yourself, you will receive much more in return. I am involved within the community and support several charitable and philanthropic efforts that help people that have a significant illness or someone who just needs a helping hand. Think about if every person was involved with their community to help others in their time of their need what a better place this world would be. When you give back you get back.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

A former colleague used to end all of his meetings by saying that “you get what you put up with.” I found this to be true throughout my life. What I mean by this is if an employee turns in a report on Wednesday that was due Tuesday and the leader doesn’t say anything, they are saying they are ok with getting the report late. In order to change this behavior, real-time feedback is required. The other thing I would say is you make your own path and create it yourself. Do not be a victim of circumstances. Don’t let somebody steal from you, cheat on you, etc. because it’s not ok and should not be acceptable. You get what you put up with.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

I’ve had the opportunity to meet General Colin Powell and President George W Bush and was fascinated with the stories they told as leaders of the free world. Having joined the US Marine Corp when I was 17, I have always been fascinated with military and world leaders. Having said that, I would like to have breakfast or lunch with President Barack Obama to understand the pressures he faced as our leader, how he implemented change in the face of opposition, and made the tough decisions under pressure. All of this change can change the fate of people’s lives. As I think about my career in corporate America, to strengthen my business acumen, I would love to have breakfast/lunch with Bill Gates. It would be interesting to hear his journey in building the world’s largest software business (Microsoft) through technological innovation, keen business strategy and aggressive business tactics that made him the one of the richest men in the world. This would be very interesting to me.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

I am not very active on social media, but I am on LinkedIn. You can find me on there and can review my profile or send me a friend request. https://www.linkedin.com/in/virgil-miller-753183107/

Thank you for all of these great insights!