As executive director of the Girl Scouts of the USA, Frances
Hesselbein saw social changes, including the increase in mi-
norities, and envisioned how her organization could prepare
for them: “So girls’ needs are changing, and we’re exploring
different ways to meet those needs and deliver our services. I’m
establishing a center for innovation. It isn’t a place. It’s people
and a concept. The team... will work directly with Girl Scout
Councils in developing models through which we can reach
highly diverse communities and locate and train indigenous
leadership, which will be increasingly important.”
Bryant, Schubert, and Hesselbein each took a whole-brain
approach in leading their nonprofit organizations out of tradi-
tional patterns and into innovative modes. Not coincidentally,
all three of them had been previously successful in the private
sector and made major career changes in midlife. And all three
said they’d never done anything that they enjoyed as much as
their nonprofit assignments. Schubert said succinctly, “This is
the most exciting, challenging thing I’ve ever done.”
Scientist Mathilde Krim, who also moved from the private
to the public sector, said, “Growth requires curiosity to experi-
ence both the difference and the synchrony, to explore and im-
merse yourself in new surroundings, to be able to contemplate
your experiences and get something out of them.”
A part of whole-brain thinking includes learning to trust
what Emerson called the “blessed impulse,” the hunch, the vi-
sion that shows you in a flash the absolutely right thing to do.
Everyone has these visions; leaders learn to trust them.
I want to remind you here of something Norman Lear said
regarding the profound influence that Emerson’s “Self Re-
liance” had on his growth as a leader: “Emerson talks about lis-
tening to that inner voice and going with it, all voices to the
On Becoming a Leader