Graduate Stories – 2002

Ernie Stallworth

Following a destiny and staying the course

Ernie is the Sr. Vice President of six offices in Maine, and one in Massachusetts, for Primerica Financial Services, delivering financial solutions to families and individuals. A graduate of Clemson University, he spent 20 years as a reporter for newspapers in Maine, South Dakota, and North Carolina.

I feel Patricia and Tom, at Saltwater, have helped me become a more confident leader and, in time, that confidence will spread throughout the entire organization. Anyone who has been somewhat successful leading an organization would be a candidate for The Seven Intentions®.

I think what the program does, as you go forward, is begin to build some commitment toward achieving and implementing changes. The program gives you confidence to move forward.

I really urged one of my colleagues to take The Seven Intentions® program because he was feeling conflicted about what he was doing. I told him that he was free to choose whether or not to stay with Primerica but, if he chose to stay with the company, I wanted him to be happy. I wanted him to feel validated, that what he was doing was okay and not in conflict with what he should be doing.

The Seven Intentions® process makes you more sure-footed and confident and, the more sure-footed you are, the more likely you are to take action. You know who needs the Saltwater program? The people who are winning. I would recommend this program to owners or managers who think they are on the verge of having great success – they are the ones who need to do this.

I’ve had four of my top leaders go through The Seven Intentions® of Values-Centered Leadership program and they’ve developed their own goals and destinies which are linked with our company. Their values are in harmony with mine. What we need to do now is to articulate the company’s values and destiny statement and develop a strategy to achieve them.

The financial business is often driven by product and not process. We do asset management rather than selling investments. Everybody in this business makes money but the question is how you make it, and whether you can go home and sleep at night. I think values are critical in the development of any business but I think they are even more critical in the financial business because you’re dealing with other people’s lives.

I’m hiring The Saltwater Institute to serve as a management consultant to my organization, to help us incorporate values-centered leadership into our programs, into our orientation meeting for new people, and into the training for our managers. The Institute will be a resource to help us become a more confident leadership team.