Frances Hesselbein's Drive
We’ve just lost one of the world’s greatest leaders, but her vision of a Bright Future for all and her other guiding principles will endure forever.
Read or listen (narration by Wayne Lane).
In his foreword to Frances Hesselbein’s autobiography, My Life in Leadership, best-selling author of Good to Great Jim Collins describes the tremendous respect the former Girl Scouts CEO commanded by all who knew her.
Flash back to 2007. General Lloyd J. Austin III, who would go on to become the first African-American to head the U.S. Central Command, and who today serves as the 28th U.S. Secretary of Defense, enlisted Frances’ help in preparing and motivating his senior officers. Collins, who was there to lead the interview, describes Frances in the seat of honor at one end of the long conference table in the bombproof room at the headquarters of the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. At the other end of the table was General Austin, who at the time was responsible for 35,000 soldiers who were about to redeploy for the third time to Iraq. Austin had assembled the group of one- and two-star generals and some colonels to meet with Frances to invigorate their purpose and inspire their passion to serve.
Frances had retired 17 years earlier as CEO of the Girl Scouts. Austin held her in high esteem because her principles-based servant-leadership had been so successful, leading to a tripling of the Girl Scout’s minority membership, and growing the world’s largest organization of girls and women by more than 500,000, to 2.3 million.
During her tenure, Frances also added 130,000 volunteers, people rewarded not by money but by the sense of fulfillment they derived by serving the Greater Good in furtherance of the Girl Scout’s revamped mission. Not that Frances didn’t know how to make money! The Girl Scouts’ cookie business became a $300 million operation, which she plowed back into transforming the Scouts from top to bottom, including by adding science and engineering merit badges to go along with camping and baking.
It’s for the scope and scale of her achievements that General Austin said: “Frances Hesselbein is one of the most visionary leaders I have met during my military career—on or off the battlefield.”
The guest of honor began speaking in her thoughtfully measured manner about her ancestors, the seven Pringle boys, all of whom left the farm to heed President Abraham Lincoln’s call to free the slaves; about her Army father, who had served courageously in many theaters; and about her beloved Army son, her only child, who had likewise exemplified the Army leadership paradigm: “Be, Know, and Do.”
She spoke for two hours, making eye contact and being present with every person there. She told them that they were the best the country has to offer, and that greatness requires sacrifice. All the while it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
When she was finished, she issued her battle cry: “To serve is to live!”
The room erupted—“HOOAH!”
Many esteemed leaders have high regard for Frances’ leadership. Seven U.S. Presidents and dozens of the world’s top CEOs, executive coaches, and chaired professors likewise sought out Frances for her leadership advice, guidance, and role-modeling. On its cover BusinessWeek hailed her as “America’s Best Manager.” President Reagan asked her to join his cabinet, but she declined in order to continue her pioneering outreach to minority and immigrant girls. President Clinton awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. West Point invited her to serve as its Class of 1951 Chair for the Study of Leadership; she was the first woman and The Military Academy’s first non-graduate to serve in this role. Patrick Gallagher, Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh, said “Frances’ actions and example shaped generations of leaders at a time when smart and sensible governance has never been more critical.”
Starting with a chance meeting at a conference, Frances forged a close bond with Peter Drucker, the founding father of modern management, who said she was the greatest leader he’d ever met and could run any company in America. Shortly after departing the Girl Scouts in 1990, along with Bob Buford (head of Buford Television in Texas) and Dick Schubert (president of the Points of Light Foundation and former president of the American Red Cross), Frances approached Peter with the idea of founding the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management. He was on board—provided Frances “be the president and CEO and run it, or it won’t work.”
Frances chaired the Drucker Foundation's board of governors and served as its founding president and CEO. In subsequent years, the Drucker Foundation became the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute, with its stated mission to strengthen and inspire social sector leaders and their partners in business and government by connecting the public, private, and social sectors with curated resources and relationships to serve, evolve, and lead together. Today, the Institute lives on in the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Forum at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.
Frances’ infectious positivity and enlightened principles have had a huge impact on the study and advancement of servant leadership, including by informing influential Thinkers50 Hall of Fame inductee Marshall Goldsmith, who says Frances inspired much of his potent philosophy
But who and what inspired Frances? What principles did she learn as a youth in western Pennsylvania that drove her to be one of America’s greatest leaders ever?
Principle 1. To serve is to live.
Frances is revered as a model of servant leadership. Secretary Austin, Peter Drucker, and so many other exemplary leaders have considered her a visionary because she recognized early on that service wasn’t a burden or “cost of living”—but a privilege, and the only way to live a truly rewarding and fully emancipated life. She also recognized that to actualize that gift required confronting reality head on, and building a better reality based on respect, civil discourse, and a shared mission.
Her leadership and service journey began in the late 1940s when, as the 27-year-old mother of one son, she assumed what she believed would be a temporary role as leader of a troop of 30 girls, as a favor to a neighbor. She agreed “only until you find a permanent leader.” That one month turned into eight years of service to Troop 17, propelled by the enthusiasm, ingenuity, and commitment she saw in the girls. It was during this period that Frances became an impassioned champion of empowering girls with more practical and impactful leadership opportunities.
Principle 2. Respect for all people.
As she’d done on countless occasions, one day when she was just eight years old Frances again asked her maternal grandmother, “Mama Wicks,” to bring down the pair of beautiful vases that were high up on a shelf in the great room, that she’d never been allowed to touch. “I want to touch the vases!” Mama Wicks put her arm around Frances and said, “Let me tell you the story of the vases.” It went something like this:
“Long, long ago when your mother was just seven years old [about 1894], there was a Chinese laundryman in our little town of South Fork, Pennsylvania.
“Every Tuesday, he picked up your grandfather’s shirts and then brought them back on Thursday beautifully washed, starched, and ironed. Sometimes your mother and her sisters would come home from school crying, because the bad boys were chasing Mr. Yee. They would call him ‘chinky’ and far worse and try to pull his queue.
“One day, there was a knock on our kitchen door and there was Mr. Yee, with a large package wrapped in a newspaper. I invited him in to have some tea. Mr. Yee stood still and then handed me the package saying, ‘This is for you.’ In that carefully wrapped newspaper were those two beautiful ancient Chinese vases sitting high up on the shelf.
“Mr. Yee looked at me and said, ‘I want you to have them. I am going back to China. I've been here ten years and they won't let me bring my wife and my children here, so I’m going back. Ten years ago, the only thing I brought with me were my vases and I want you to have them.’ I asked, ‘Why do you want me to have them?’
“This wonderful Chinese gentleman looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, ‘Mrs. Wicks, I have been in this town for ten years and you were the only person who ever called me Mr. Yee.’ I told him, ‘I will hold these vases for you until you return with your family.’”
Frances often told people how she cried her heart out in her grandmother’s arms when she heard that story, and how the story of Mr. Yee and his vases was one of the most defining moments in her life. She learned to respect all people.
Principle 3. Leadership is circular.
Frances is well-known for her non-hierarchical “circular management” philosophy. Keenly aware that she didn’t have, nor could she magically obtain, all the knowledge it would take to transform the Girl Scouts, with Peter Drucker’s principles in mind, and his books under her arm, she dismantled the stifling Up-Down leadership structure in favor of what she called the circular approach. Rather than rungs on a ladder, staff at all levels would be beads on concentric bracelets, with multiple contacts who could advance ideas from local councils toward the national decision-makers at the center of the organization. By developing leaders at every level of the organization, and getting everyone to think horizontally instead of vertically, she showed the world how circular management liberates the human spirit, and propels innovation.
This philosophy can also be traced directly back to her early mentors, especially Mama Wicks and other elders, who would get down on one knee, peer into Frances’ eyes and ask, “So, what’s your opinion?” That she was just four or five years old didn’t matter. She deserved a seat at the table, even if it was a booster-seat. Her appreciation for the wisdom of youth would later lead to the creation of the Daisies, the branch Frances created in the Girl Scouts for girls as young as 5, a year earlier than permitted by the Brownies.
Principle 4. Communication isn’t saying something, communication is being heard.
Frances often described her maternal grandmother as “having 14 grandchildren, but no matter how large that number it didn’t matter because when Mama Wicks looked at you, you were the only person in the room.” Frances couldn’t not hear what Mama Wicks said.
Though “gentle and quiet,” Mama Wicks made sure her message was heard. So did Frances’ father, Burgess Harmon Richards, who by all accounts was a terrific writer and mesmerizing parable-teller. In 2011, Frances wrote how his “stories live with me today and still guide me.” She believed that “Language is the greatest motivating force,” saying often: “You can phrase something positive and inspire people to do their best, or negatively; they’ll respond in kind.”
Principle 5. Work is love made visible.
This favorite quote of Frances’ is from Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet. Frances often said, “Retire is a four-letter word.” And so she never did.
She continued to inspire and serve until her passing on December 11, 2022. She loved mentoring students, giving keynotes, advising leaders, and meeting friends from around the globe virtually and at her office on 320 Park Avenue in New York City. She created an award-winning journal, Leader to Leader, and served as its Editor-in-Chief for more than a quarter of a century, using it as a platform for leaders to share practical advice with their colleagues across the public, private, and social sectors. Her final column, co-authored with her co-Editor-in-Chief Sarah McArthur, was published just a few days before she passed. In “The Elephant in the Dark,” Frances and Sarah note that our points of view are informed by our own limited experiences, and they urge readers to consider others’ perspectives and work to find common ground with civility and kindness. By so doing, everyone can help actualize—and enjoy—Frances’ vision of a Bright Future: where people of all creeds and colors are pursuing their dreams; living in a safe community, in harmony with their neighbors and Nature; learning from wise, loving teachers and other mentors; working and serving in ways that pay well and confer dignity.
Who could argue with that illuminated ideal?
To the end, Frances kept a small flashlight on her desk. She’d pick it up from time to time, turn it on, and recall the words of her hero, Abraham Lincoln:
I am not bound to win, But I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, But I am bound to live Up to the light I have.
Frances Hesselbein, a Life in Pictures
Special Thanks
In addition to Frances, I’m deeply indebted to to the wonderful and talented Julia Santucci, who provided invaluable archival material, terrific editing, and other assistance. I’m also indebted to her University of Pittsburgh colleagues, most especially at the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Forum and the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, which is home to the Forum.
The Forum, which evolved from the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute, is today a renowned center for teaching and applied research, where leaders and aspiring leaders from around the world gather to advance the art and science of leadership. The Forum is an important bearer of Frances’ legacy, passing along her principled approach to leadership to future generations who want to make a difference through public and nonprofit service. As such, it sponsors an annual lecture series, executive coach, and leadership development programming for students; and also publishes the prestigious quarterly journal Leader to Leader. To learn more about the Forum, please visit www.hesselbeinforum.pitt.edu or email hesselbeinforum@pitt.edu.
Sources & Recommended Readings
Five conversations and dozens of emails between October and December 2022.
“The Elephant in the Dark,” Frances Hesselbein, Sarah McArthur, Leader to Leader, Issue 107, Vol. 2023.
“The Greatest Threat to Democracy,” Frances Hesselbein, Sarah McArthur, Leader to Leader, Issue 105, Vol. 2022.
“How to Be, Not How to Do,” The Center for Leadership Studies, You Tube, 2019.
Work Is Love Made Visible: A Collection of Essays About the Power of Finding Your Purpose from the World's Greatest Thought Leaders, eds. Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith, Sarah McArthur, foreword Alan Mulally, 2018.
“Frances Hesselbein: A Lifetime of Leadership,” Amy Unger, Lehigh Valley Style, 2017
Peter Drucker's Five Most Important Questions: Enduring Wisdom for Today's Leaders, Peter Drucker, Frances Hesselbein, Joan Snyder Kuhl, 2015.
“Fearless Leadership,” TEDxMidAtlantic, YouTube, 2012.
“Lessons from a Great Leader: Frances Hesselbein Part 1” Marshall Goldsmith, YouTube, 2017.
My Life in Leadership: The Journey and Lessons Learned Along the Way, Frances Hesselbein, foreword Jim Collins, 2011.
“Learning from Peter Drucker and the Girl Scouts,” Colleen Leahey, Fortune, 2011.
“To Serve Is to Live,” Cindy Gill, Pitt Magazine, 2010.
Be, Know, Do: Leadership the Army Way, Frances Hesselbein, and General Eric K. Shinseki, United States Army, Ret., 2004.
Hesselbein on Leadership, Frances Hesselbein, foreword Jim Collins, 2002.
The Leader of the Future, Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith, Richard Beckhard, 1996.