Quotes from Frances Hesselbein

In the future, it will not be the one big message, the one big voice, but millions of us, in our own way, healing, unifying, and experiencing that one defining moment when we recognize that sustaining the democracy is the common bottom line - whoever we are, whatever we do, wherever we are, the call is to sustain the democracy.

If you are building a corporate culture of greatness, you have to define culture on your own terms and with the people you work with.

An exceptional career is one that provides an opportunity to serve. It is a satisfying career in which you can't wait to get up in the morning to begin! You have a sense of purpose and mission. You know why you do what you do. It is a response to a call to serve. Once we do that, everything flows positively.

In my life, I don't have roadblocks and obstacles. I might have something you would call a 'challenge.' I throw that out the window, and I call that a wonderful opportunity.

Some corporations are extremely well managed; some nonprofit organizations are. It has nothing to do with the sector. It has to do with quality of management.

Girl Scouts helps girls make decisions that are right for them and offer support.

Leadership flows from inner character and integrity of ambition, which inspires others to lend themselves to your organization's mission.

I'll meet people and tell them what I do, and their first reaction is usually, 'Oh, I love Thin Mints!' And you know, they are awfully good.

Women are working for part or all of their adult lives now. The possibilities are limitless, but you need to prepare.

Carry a big basket. In other words, be open to new ideas, different partners, and new practices, and have a willingness to dump out the old and irrelevant to make room for new approaches.

We see change as a challenge, not as a threat.

Dispirited, unmotivated, unappreciated workers cannot compete in a highly competitive world.

Not long after I was married, World War II began. My husband John volunteered for the Navy and was sent to Pensacola for training as a Naval Combat Air Crew photographer. It seemed a strange assignment for a young newspaper editor and writer, already exempt, but off he went, saying goodbye to our 18-month-old Johnny and me.

With a growing number of one-parent families in the country, the Girl Scout troop can be an indispensable and powerful positive factor.

Donors do not reward good intentions.

Leadership is a matter of how to be, not how to do it.

People want to feel what they do makes a difference.

A single person doesn't change an organization, but culture and good people do.

Age is irrelevant.

At a young age, I learned from my grandmother that I should respect all people. Her lessons were defining moments in my life and determined the type of leader that I would become.

I did not want to take a troop. I was the mother of a little boy. I knew nothing about little girls.

Leadership is not a basket of tricks or strategies or skills that you pull out. Leadership begins with the quality of the person.

I never had any question about the direction we were going in at the Girl Scouts. We shared our mission and research with all levels of leaders from the very beginning - a concept I created, using cups and saucers, called 'circular management.' Everyone was on a team; there were no superiors or subordinates. There was respect for all people.

The real leader redefines or defines the mission in a very powerful way so that people understand it; it permeates the organization.