ing because we do not know for certain what each might have said to
the other. We only know that when Moses went into the tent, ‘‘the
pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance,’’ and that
‘‘his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.’’ (Exod.
33:9–11) Now I ask you, if your boss’s office was constantly surrounded
by a pillar of cloud, would you want to leave or would you want to
stick around to make sure you received all the mentoring you could?
And we can be sure a lot of mentoring was taking place in that tent,
probably not just simple job coaching (‘‘Make sure you have at least
twenty-five good trumpeters when you approach Jericho’’) but much
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deeper discussions on how to motivate individuals and large groups,
battle tactics, and techniques for maintaining group cohesion in the face
of obstacles and difficulties (how high is that wall?). Moses wasn’t just
‘‘teaching skills,’’ he was grooming Joshua to lead the tribes of Israel.
Moses knew it, Joshua knew it, and the people of Israel knew it. The
very act of mentoring was increasing Joshua’s power and credibility.
For a modern-day version of Moses’ tent, let’s segue to the Cayman
Islands vacation home of Roger Enrico, another place you would prob-
ably not want to leave if you were an aspiring executive at PepsiCo.
Enrico had risen to the top circle of executives and was considering
leaving PepsiCo to teach at the university level. Wayne Calloway,
CEO, and Paul Russell, PepsiCo’s vice president of executive develop-
ment, had a better idea: If Enrico wanted to teach, why couldn’t he
teach what he knew best, the business of PepsiCo, to the people who
most wanted to learn it, the upcoming executives of PepsiCo? This fit
in perfectly with the corporate mission at the time, since it was esti-
mated that PepsiCo would need 1,500 new executives in the next few
years, who would have to be imported if they couldn’t be developed.
(The idea of importing ‘‘foreign’’ executives into Pepsi was about as
attractive as the Israelites recruiting the Philistines to maintain the temple in Jerusalem.)
From early in the morning until late at night for one week, Enrico
met with nine executives to share knowledge and ideas about how the
company had been run, how it could be run, new products, and other
important issues. All participants had to come up with a ‘‘stretch dream
project,’’ return to the workplace to work on the project, and then
meet with Enrico again to review progress. Ten workshops were run in
eighteen months, and several very profitable corporate initiatives (such
as the Family Meals campaign) were launched. The program became a
mainstay of PepsiCo’s leadership development efforts.7
Dick Stonesifer of GE Appliances was an executive who made men-
toring and coaching into a two-way process. Before he asked anyone to
expose their weaknesses or failings to him, he exposed his development
needs to them. Many of us have responded to our bosses’ requests to
give them 360-degree feedback, but how many of us have ever seen
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the entire feedback report? Stonesifer projected his feedback up on the
wall (both the brutal criticism and the ebullient praise) so his entire
team could see it, after which he asked them for help on remedying his
deficiencies.
Stonesifer then asked his people (in small groups) to share their data
directly with each other and to brainstorm suggestions for the improve-
ment of each person. Stonesifer was very blunt about the uselessness of
many 360-degree processes, and he wanted to make sure his was a good
use of company resources and time. ‘‘In the end, this is the only way to
get leaders to develop others,’’ he said. ‘‘We all know what we do well
or poorly. The issue here is: Am I going to help or am I going to bitch
about you over by the water cooler?’’8
We don’t know how candid Moses was with Joshua about his own
strengths and weaknesses, or whether he made Joshua discuss his per-
sonal weaknesses with the other members of his team. After all, this
was several thousand years ago, and assessment techniques were not as
sophisticated. But we do know that Joshua, like Dick Stonesifer’s le-
gions, received a strong dose of useful advice and candid feedback. This
enabled him to knock down some pretty daunting obstacles and march
into a territory literally known as the ‘‘Promised Land.’’
Mentor/coach selection is very important, however. Your initial ex-
citement at being assigned to a development program might be damp-
ened if you found out that your mentor was Ahab or Jezebel. Or
Samson, who could try to ‘‘teach’’ you brute strength but whose politi-
cal sophistication was rather low. Unfortunately, none of these would
have been a good candidate for being coached either. Samson, Ahab,
and Jezebel were perfect examples of the ‘‘Peter Principle’’—people
who had risen to their level of incompetence. They were essentially
undevelopable. The only direction for them was out, and they knew it.
Paul Russell of PepsiCo points out ‘‘the importance of the person
you put in front of an audience as the leader’’ and adds that, no matter
how highly placed, mentors must be ‘‘icons—world class people that
everyone looks to as the leader or expert.’’ Holding up an unethical
person (no matter how successful) or an incompetent person (no matter
how ethical) as a role model will only result in cynicism.
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Kermit Campbell, CEO of Herman Miller, is a strong believer in the
power of mentoring and developing leaders. He brought his thirty top
operating managers together so they could develop a strategy for action.
In the process, they developed each other as well. ‘‘The participation
was very intense, and it kept feeding on itself, and by the time the half-
day was complete, we had, as a group, gone to a much higher level
than we had ever achieved before. That’s what I feel I should be doing
as a CEO, taking each of us to a higher plane.’’9
Two leaders who took each other to a higher plane were Esther and
Mordechai. Esther had quite unexpectedly become the queen of all Per-
sia, when only the day before she had been just an attractive Jewish
adolescent. Mordechai, the ‘‘mentor,’’ had the advantage of more life
experience and access to the world outside the palace. Esther had the
advantage of her great beauty (which had grabbed the king’s attention
and loyalty), her position inside the palace, and a pretty clever head on
her shoulders. Unlike Ahab, Jezebel, and Samson, she was supremely
‘‘developable.’’
And working with her mentor, she accomplished the following,
which would look good on any young manager’s (or queen’s) perfor-
mance appraisal:
❖ Became the first and only Jewish queen of Persia
❖ Reversed a decree that would have resulted in the genocide of
her people
❖ Persuaded the king to offer her half of his kingdom
❖ Asked instead for the preservation of her people, and succeeded
❖ Succeeded in having her mentor led triumphantly around the
city on a horse by his worst enemy
❖ Succeeded in having her people’s worst enemy removed per-
manently from the organization
Neither Esther nor Mordechai could have achieved these goals with-
out the other, which is the essence of mentoring.
Norman Brinker is a restaurateur who knows the value of mentoring
and coaching from both ends. He started out as a prote´geóf Robert
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Peterson of Jack-in-the-Box, a fast-food chain. After receiving a share
of the company there, he opened Brink’s, which he sold, then acquired
Steak ’n’ Ale, which went public in 1971 with twenty-eight restaurants.
Five years later he sold it to Pillsbury for $100 million and bought
Chili’s.
In 1993, Brinker suffered a near-fatal polo accident. Ron McDougall,
president of Brinker International, was able to pick up the routine CEO
duties adequately. But what was missed most was Brinker’s mentoring
ability. He had developed a reputation for attracting good people, giving
them challenging assignments. He gave his prote´geś leeway to run their
own businesses while still offering them guidance when needed.
Brinker’s prote´geś now run large successful chains like TGI Friday’s,
Outback Steakhouse, and Spaghetti Warehouse. Much of that success
can be traced back to Brinker’s coaching and mentoring ability.
Brinker’s relationship with his prote´geś is reminiscent of Elijah’s and
Elisha’s in the Old Testament. When Elijah was about to be taken to
heaven, he asked his prote´geÉlisha, ‘‘Tell me, what can I do for you
before I am taken from you?’’ ‘‘Let me inherit a double portion of your
spirit,’’ Elisha replied. (2 Kings 2:9) Elisha could have asked for any-
thing: goods, money, powerful position. But what he asked for is what
mentors have the power to give to their prote´geś—the benefit of their
knowledge and life experience. When we give our prote´geś even a