Scout Councils around the country. Asked to take over the CEO
slot of the local council temporarily, she agreed. Six years later,
although she hadn’t applied for the job, she was made executive
director of the Girl Scouts of the USA. She and her husband
moved to New York City and set about reorganizing the Scouts,
to reflect everything she had learned on her way up the ladder.
“The first thing we did,” Hesselbein said, “was to develop a
corporate planning system in which planning and management
were synonymous. It was a common planning system for 335
local councils and the national organization. We developed a
corporate planning monograph to mobilize the energy of
600,000 adult volunteers in order to carry out our mission to
help young girls grow up and reach their highest potential as
women. Today, our people feel we’ve achieved more unity and
cohesion than anyone can remember.
“I just felt there was a compelling need to have a clear plan-
ning system that defined roles, differentiating between the vol-
unteers, the operational staff, and the policy planners, one that
permitted whatever was going on in the smallest troop—needs,
trends, whatever—to flow through to the policy makers, so they
had a clear idea of what was going on and what needed to go on.
We have three million members, and we really listen to the girls
and their parents, and we’ve devised ways to reach out to the
girls wherever they are. We say, ‘We have something of value to
offer you, but you in return have something to offer us. We re-
spect your values and culture, and if you open our handbooks,
even if you’re a minority, a Navajo, you’re there.’
“I think we have the best staff anywhere. They’re wonderful,
and my job is to keep opening up the system and increase their
freedom and scope. I can’t stand to box people in. Everyone’s in
a circle. It’s rather organic. If I’m in the center, then there are
Deploying Yourself: Strike Hard, Try Everything