Page 163 - Everything I Know About Business I Learned

Courage

Lesson Learned

Have the courage to speak up calmly and in an organized
fashion to present your perspective, even if it seems to go
against the grain of your higher-ups. Leaders of well-run
organizations will usually respect your point of view.

One on One with Mike Quinlan, former CEO

he system thrived on straight shooters. Mike Quinlan was
Tno exception. I spoke with Mike at his home in Chicago about
the courage required in leadership. “If you tell the truth and you
deal straight with people, and that means the bad as well as the
good, you will probably get to the right point,” Mike told me. “Now
you have to temper that with political realities, and that’s a 133

learned skill.”
But as Mike pointed out, though it’s a difficult skill to learn it’s
important to do the right thing, even though that road is a tough
one. “It is always easier to take the easy way, the expedient way,”
Mike pointed out. “Give the C-operator the store, shut him up,
avoid the conflict, look the other way. Let a supplier slide, look the
other way when somebody isn’t quite getting the job done instead

of calling it right there.”
Mike noted: “Unfortunately you learn by experience that the
expedient way and the easy way in the long run is not the right
way. But you have to take a lot of things into consideration to
determine that.”
And one of the necessary traits needed is courage. “Those
don’t have courage in the long run will fail,” Mike said. Still,
“sometimes in the short run they won’t fail, they do the popular

thing.”