Austin Business Journal
By Humana
May 25, 2022
When Brock Purslow speaks, you can hear the passion in his voice — a passion built around coaching and service to others.
Purslow, born and raised in the small town of Atchison, Kansas, is now a self-appointed Texan after having called it his family’s home for the last 26 years.
He embedded himself in the community through his diverse philanthropic endeavors and nonprofit board memberships aimed at helping Texas youth. It is this passion that brought him, in a roundabout way, to become the market president of Humana’s commercial business in Texas.
We spoke to Purslow on what it means to be a coach and mentor, to teach and serve others and how he can do all of that through his lifelong love of golf.
Q: How did you find yourself beginning a decades-long career at Humana?
The truth of it, honestly, is that it is because of my love of coaching that I ended up at Humana.
Approximately 20 years ago, I had just left the pharmaceutical industry after five years of being a rep. I wasn’t happy and needed a career change. So, I decided to go back to school and pursue a teaching degree, which would allow me to also coach sports.
Growing up, coaches and mentors from the golf course played a major role in my life. Outside of my parents, coaches were probably the biggest influence and helped to plant the seed for my passion for coaching.
While I was going back to school, I was also coaching youth soccer. I just so happened to be coaching the son of Richard Willis, who was Humana’s Austin market president at the time. When we first spoke, I didn’t even know what Humana did. But over time, we developed a friendship, and instead of going to be a schoolteacher, I started a new coaching journey with Humana where I could apply the life lessons I learned from the golf course to leading a new team.
Q: Coaching and teaching have played an instrumental role in your life — how do you try to incorporate that as a leader?
Coaching is what I do every day at Humana. As a leader, it’s the most rewarding part of my career.
You get to see the people who work for you learn and develop and go on to do amazing things. You get to follow people from where they started and share in their successes.
I’m fortunate to be able to work with highly motivated people in an environment where that is rewarded. I’ve been able to see people come directly through our Sales Learning Academy and go on to have outstanding career trajectories. Coming out of that, they are a lot smarter than me, but I am able to guide them through their chosen paths.
That’s what drives me. It’s the people. Developing and coaching talent is my “Why.”
We’re really only as good as our leaders. Every day, I get up and serve for them.
Q: What are some of the challenges you have faced in your career, and how have you been able to learn from them?
The biggest overall challenge I have faced in my career would be the constant change and evolution of the industry as a whole.
The passing of the Affordable Care Act in 2014 brought a tremendous amount of change. With that change, there are unintended consequences and some uncertainty. So, as we developed our organizational strategy, we had to understand what our employees needed to know through these changes. The same points are exponentially true with COVID-19.
As leaders, we know there is going to be change no matter what. Our job is to be as transparent as possible and bring people along as we develop our response to change together.
First is letting them know upfront the why or reasoning through open dialogue. You need to develop a story for your team that supports the mission. Over-communicate, because it builds a foundation of trust. This keeps people engaged and motivated when they understand the reasoning for change and how it will directly affect them.
When you are able keep your team informed of change, there’s no limit to what they can do. For example, during the pandemic, we had to reinvent ourselves and our strategy. Right away, we held early-morning meetings to discuss and align on some of the tough decisions we were going to have to make. Sharing the data that drove our decision-making process helped to reiterate the reasoning.
Through this, my team was able to set realistic goals and, with no excuses, capitalize on what we were facing. We maintained our growth pipeline in Texas and exceeded our 2021 net membership budget by more than 150%. The results speak volumes to how the team responded, stayed visible to and engaged with clients and kept communications open.
Q: With that constant change, how do you keep your customers and members informed of what Humana really does?
Having a compelling vision helps. Humana is focused on human care and human care goes beyond just your health. We are committed to designing holistic wellness programs to make it easier for our members to become and stay healthy — everything we do is about overall health.
When my team engages with prospective employer groups looking for the best health insurance for their employees, our number one differentiator is our Go365 program. Go365 is our preventative wellness program that engages with our members and rewards them for taking an active role in their health.
We aim to make products (dental, vision and medical) with the customer in mind, and we constantly work to improve the entirety of their whole-person healthcare experience.
Q: You talked about your passion for serving your team — what are some of the things you do to enrich your community?
I am a huge believer in giving back to the community in any capacity you can. In the beginning of my career, I had a leader tell me, “If you are going to be on my team, you need to serve others, too.” And that is something I encourage my team to do as well.
I am a huge believer in giving back to the community in any capacity you can.
I am very blessed to have had opportunities to be directly involved with organizations like the Juvenile Diabetes Association, Boys and Girls Club, American Heart Association and Junior Achievement. But, the two I am most proud of right now are my involvement with First Tee of Greater Austin and the Children’s Cancer Association JoyRx program.
The great thing about Texas is you can golf almost every day of the year. I was raised on a nine-hole golf course. I have been golfing from the time I could walk and talk, and I played in college. It was golf where I learned life-enhancing values and etiquette through positive role models on the course. I have been a part of First Tee of Greater Austin for the last 10 years and through this program, I can pass my love of the game and values down to the youth of South Texas.
There is so much more to the program than teaching golf. As any golfer will tell you, there are some hard life lessons that can be learned out on the course.
First Tee enables kids to build the strength of character that empowers them through a lifetime of new challenges.
The curriculum is centered around the nine core values of honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, respect, confidence, responsibility, perseverance, courtesy and judgment, all of which they can then carry to everything else they do in life.
First Tee enables kids to build the strength of character that empowers them through a lifetime of new challenges.
The curriculum is centered around the nine core values of honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, respect, confidence, responsibility, perseverance, courtesy and judgment, all of which they can then carry to everything else they do in life.
With the Children’s Cancer Association JoyRx program, I get to be involved in bringing another love I have, music, to some kids who really need it.
This wonderful program recognizes that it takes more than medicine to treat cancer and serious illness JoyRx prescribes joy through programs that create immediate and measurable improvement to the mental and emotional wellness of young patients.
It’s a program that started in Portland, and I am working on growing its footprint in Texas through fundraising efforts and using my network to connect with hospitals.
Q: When you are not at work or volunteering in the community, what are you doing?
Whenever I get the chance, you can find me on any of the gorgeous golf courses in town. Otherwise, I am probably at a dog park with my two dogs or going to a farmer’s market with my daughter to sample the outstanding fresh salsas, tamales and baked goods.
I love Texas, it has been my home for more than 25 years. The state is so big and diverse that there is something for everyone and if you get bored, you’re doing it wrong.
I feel a real connection to Austin, and I have become part of the fabric of the community here after raising a family in this community. As my family grew, so did this amazing city. Austin, thankfully, maintained much of its small-town vibe as it’s become a mini-Silicon Valley and home to international companies.
It’s just the overall scene here, from SXSW, to the capitol, the University of Texas and the music. You can meet so many different people wherever you go, from industry leaders to music and movie stars.
I am fortunate to be at the place in my career and life where I am able to make direct contributions to the overall health and wellness of my neighbors and to give back to the youth of our communities.
I am fortunate to be at the place in my career and life where I am able to make direct contributions to the overall health and wellness of my neighbors and to give back to the youth of our communities.
Originally published at https://www.bizjournals.com.
