Excellence in Operations - Follow up 1 to the series. Mentoring and Reverse Mentoring

In the introduction to this series, I pointed out that my father and Mike Quinlan, a former CEO of McDonald’s, were great friends and because of that friendship, I was the fortunate recipient of Mike’s mentorship. As I’ve grown older, I’ve come to realize how incredibly privileged I was to receive that level of mentorship. 

I recently wrote an article about The Power of Mentoring from the standpoint of being a mentor vs. being the mentee. In my interaction with Mike Quinlan, I was on the receiving end of the mentorship. When you’re a respected leader, people listen to you in multiple ways, taking note of your every word and action.  From the time I was a teenager and all through college and graduate school, Mike mentored me in three ways:

·       By proxy

·       Directly

·       Indirectly. 

Mentored By Proxy

My father and Mike became great friends through working together. He would talk about everything from what Mike was reading, to their social interactions, challenges he faced and how relentless he was about quality. I read Deming’s book on Total Quality Management and took a TQM course in college, which I wouldn’t have done without this mentoring, and directly applied the 8 TQM principles to work I was doing at General Motors at the time – writing machine vision software to improve their wire harness quality – and have continued to use them throughout my career to deliver quality results. 

Mentored Directly -The Importance of Listening

One of the many things Mike taught me during our time spent together was how to actively listen. He walked-the-talk, too, asking me for advice! According to a recent study by MIT/Sloan and Cognizant on The Future of Leadership, strongly purpose-driven organizations are 7x as likely to have reverse mentoring programs in place, where mutual mentorship improves the digital savviness of top management. This knowledge has also motivated me to be self-aware, ask questions, and have a succession plan. 

Mentored Indirectly.

His actions followed his words. Mike was in the news quite often and I observed him through the media doing exactly what he coached me to do, including giving back. Mike said his experience working on the team that established the Ronald McDonald House Charities influenced his outlook on leading a purpose driven organization. “If your actions don’t live up to your words, you have nothing to say”. Mike’s actions always matched his words and inspired me to be on Philanthropic Boards such as Big Brothers and Big Sisters. 

I was certainly fortunate to have Mike as a mentor, but the fact of the matter is that we all have it within us to make a difference in people’s lives. Purposeful and reverse mentorship have the potential to completely change the course of someone’s life and organizations.