204 THE BIBLE ON LEADERSHIP
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 ́ge ́s leeway to run their
own businesses while still offering them guidance when needed.
Brinker’s prote ́ge ́s 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 ́ge ́s 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 ́ge ́Elisha, ‘‘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 ́ge ́s—the benefit of their
knowledge and life experience. When we give our prote ́ge ́s even a
singleportion of our spirit, we increase their ability to achieve organiza-
tional and personal goals, and we help the organization as well. It’s a
win-win. And to that we can also add a ‘‘win’’ for the mentor, who
usually grows from the experience and gets a tremendous sense of ‘‘gen-
erativity’’ by helping another person achieve his or her goals.
Talk to a mentor and a prote ́ge ́independently, and you’ll often find
that they are both committed to the same goals. When Noel Tichy
asked Larry Bossidy what his goals were, the answer was ‘‘customer
satisfaction, integration of activities and processes, and make the num-
bers/meet the commitments.’’ When he asked Bossidy’s prote ́ge ́, Mary
Petrovich, the same question, he got the same answer.^10
But Bossidy left Petrovich free to devise her own methods for reach-
ing the goals. Brinker did the same for his prote ́ge ́s. Mordechai did the