Gas South CEO Kevin Greiner On The Value Of Being An ‘Even-Keeled’ Leader

For the past 20 years, Kevin Greiner has been the president and CEO of Gas South, a natural gas supply company that’s grown its revenues to reach nearly $2 billion. But Kevin knows that tenure does not always guarantee consistency.

“I’ve worked for mercurial leaders before,” Kevin explains on this week’s episode of the Corporate Competitor Podcast. “They are hard to work for because you don’t know which guy or gal you’re going to get.”  

Indeed, mere years on a job is one thing, the CEO explains, but bringing a trustworthy reputation is quite another. If your employees know who they are coming to work for every day, they will believe in the culture and vision you set.

As a leader, Kevin says he tries to be cool under pressure and, therefore, adaptive every day. In that way, his consistency at the office is rooted in his ability to work with his employees and manage whatever might come their way. “I’ve had to do that as the company has grown, as we’ve experienced different cycles in our company’s life,” he says.

It’s thanks to this calm outlook that Kevin has helped Gas South grow in leaps and bounds, taking it from some three dozen employees to nearly 500.

Still, that doesn’t faze him.

“I have always tried to be even-keeled,” he says, with a smile. “You know, the cool customer.”

The CEO talked about all this and more, including:

• Generosity leads to profits. Kevin knows that building a business rooted in generosity can be a door to a better future. That’s why Gas South pledges 5 percent of their profits to children in need. “Being a generous company requires us to actually be profitable,” he says. “More profits means more good that we can do in the world.”

• Value your employees. Kevin places major emphasis on valuing his employees, to the point of knowing every single employee by name. “I really try to get to know our people,” he says.

• Call out bad deals. At Gas South, Kevin rewards employees who call out bad deals. Sometimes the best deal is the one you don’t strike, he says. “You need to have incentive systems that reward folks for being those [prudent] voices.”