Quotes from Frances Hesselbein

When it comes to communicating change at any time, the mission must be clear, and it must inspire.

Management is the set of skills that can help get things done. Unfortunately, its practice is too often a bag of manipulative tricks to advance someone's own interests, which creates cynicism.

One of the management imperatives in the '90s is managing diversity. Whatever the organization, when the constituents of that organization look at the board and management staff, they need to find themselves.

I lost my son in late 2011. He had been totally incapacitated from his neck down for the last eight years of his life, but his mind was alive and brilliant in those years. He even wrote a book, 'Allegheny Mountain,' lying at home in his hospital bed.

It takes courage for a leader to identify and confront self-imposed barriers, to put in place the personal strategies required to unleash the energy, innovation, and commitment to self-development.

Simple questions can be profound, and answering them requires us to make stark and honest - and sometimes painful - self-assessments.

At one time, there was a stereotype that your Girl Scout leader was the mother of a Brownie, but increasingly, we are having young businesswomen and professional women who are not mothers but care about children.

When people are speaking, they require our undivided attention. We focus on them; we listen very carefully. We listen to the spoken words and the unspoken messages. This means looking directly at the person, eyes connected; we forget we have a watch, just focusing for that moment on that person.

Organizations exist to make people's strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant. And this is the work of effective leaders.

It's not hard work that wears you out, but the repression of your true personality, and I've found a way of working that does not demand that.

The Millennial mindset is one on the pulse of changing technology. They multi-task and enjoy a challenge. They need projects that utilize their knowledge and skills that can connect with their philosophical or deeper interests.

Practice self-awareness, self-evaluation, and self-improvement. If we are aware that our manners - language, behavior, and actions - are measured against our values and principles, we are able to more easily embody the philosophy, leadership is a matter of how to be, not how to do.

When you see a roadblock or challenge as an opportunity, it is amazing how you are already halfway there.

Social-sector organizations have to be better managed than for-profit organizations... because they have no margin of error.

Selling cookies is usually a girl's first exposure to the world of business. She learns how to meet the public, talk about a product, sell the product, and is responsible for collecting money, giving change, and delivering the product. That's quite a business venture for a 7-year-old.

Communication is not saying something; communication is being heard.

When I choose what I do, I ask, 'Does it make a difference?'

The leader for today and the future will be focused on how to be - how to develop quality, character, mind-set, values, principles, and courage.