Frances Hesselbein is one of my favorite leadership thinkers. She helped reinvent The Girl Scouts of America and it thrived under her leadership. Of late she is involved with the Peter Drucker Foundation and writes and speaks on leadership issues. She is a livewire and a delightful person. Here are some of her ideas I’ve found insightful:
Leadership is a matter of how to be, not how to do it
When the great Duke Ellington wanted to describe a remarkable artist or an extraordinary work, he would say, “Beyond category.”
Perhaps the biggest question in today’s world is, “How do we help people deal with their deepest differences?”
It is the leader’s job to identify the critical issues in which his or her organization can make a difference, then build effective partnership based on mission, innovation, and diversity to address those issues.
Peter Drucker reminds us that organizations exist to make peoples’ strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant.
Today part of every leader’s job, whether in business, government, or social sector, is to help people see the full value of what they contribute.
