Thread by David Epstein

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  • Dec 12, 2022
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1/🧵 It's been a week. The woman in my profile pic, FrancesHesselbein, passed away yesterday — at 107. (Was still working at leadership institute she founded in NYC.) That's me w/her 👇. She's 103.5 in that pic (taken by @mkonnikova). Not. Bad. I want to share a bit about her...
2/ Frances grew up in Johnstown, PA. Bookish. Dreamed of becoming a playwright. Went to Pitt's jr. college ("Junior Pitt"). Her father died her freshman year — she was 17, oldest of three — stroking his cheek when he passed, promising to care for the family. So she dropped out..
3/ She worked as an "adman's assistant" at the Penn Traffic Company dept store. Got married. Her husband reported to the Navy during WWII. He was a combat aircrew photographer. When he came back, he set up a photo studio. Frances became the studio's jack of all trades...
4/ She loved Johnstown's diversity, but learned some ugly lessons. Her husband, John, was on the new Pa. Human Rights Commission. When a barber claimed he didn't have the right tools to serve Black customers, John said he'd better buy them. Frances developed a mantra...
5/ ...about an inclusive community: "When they look at us, can they find themselves?" If the answer isn't "yes," there's a problem. ...
6/ When she was 34, Frances was approached to lead Girl Scout Troop 17 as a volunteer. She said no. The previous leader had left, she was told, so the 30 10-yr-old girls from modest families who met in a church basement would just have to disband. Ok, I'll do it, Frances said.
7/ She read up on @girlscouts, and was stunned to learn it was founded 8 yrs before women could vote, and the founder had reminded girls that they could be "a doctor, a lawyer, an aviatrix, or a hot-air balloonist." Frances ended up w/Troop 17 for 8 yrs, till they graduated h.s.
8/ Afterward, she kept picking up Girl Scout roles she didn't seek out, but responded to. She later described her life philosophy as "doing what's needed at the time." She chaired a local United Way campaign at a time when that role was as foreign for women as aviatrix had been
9/ In 1970, she declined request to run the local Girl Scout council. She'd never take a "professional" job, she said. Then she was told the council would lose the United Way partnership if finances weren't fixed. Ok, she said, I'll do it for 6 months until you get a real leader.
10/ And so, as she told me, she took her "first professional job" at the age of 54. She stayed four years, and fell in love with learning about management. Unfortunately, the overall picture for Girl Scouts was bleak. Society had changed...
11/ But Girl Scouts hadn't kept pace. Girls needed info on thorny topics like sex and drugs, and preparation for careers. Membership fell off a cliff. The national CEO position went vacant for nearly a year. Frances was invited for an interview. She declined...
12/ Previous CEOs had staggering leadership credentials. One was founding director of the US Coast Guard Women's Reserve. Another had an MIT PhD and worked in wartime tech research. Frances was one of 335 local council leaders. But John told her that if she wanted to say "no"...
13/ ...he would drive her to NYC and she could say "no" in person. So she went. W/nothing to lose, she told the committee everything that needed to change. They needed math and science; to lose the one hallowed handbook and get material that appealed to different demographics..
14/...and to dismantle the hierarchical leadership structure in favor of her "circular management," where staff are like beads on concentric circles, with many contacts at adjacent levels through whom they could get and give feedback...
15/ And when girls of all backgrounds looked at Girl Scouts, they would have to find themselves, just like any inclusive community. ...Well, Frances arrived in NYC on July 4, 1976 as CEO of a 3 million member organization. ...
16/ Out went the lone handbook in favor of multiple targeted at different ages. She did research on effective messaging, that led to poetic marketing. A poster that targeted Native Americans read, "Your names are on the rivers." Diversity was great, Hesselbein was told, but...
17/ ...it was too much too soon. Fix org problems first, then worry about diversity. But she decided that diversity WAS the org problem, so she kept going. She tripled minority membership. She also added a 130K volunteers. Those are people she paid in sense of mission...
18/ She added badges for math and science. This one is among my souvenirs, binary code for girls learning about computers. She turned the cookie biz into hundreds of millions per year, and weathered a hoax scandal about needles in cookie boxes...
19/ She made tough decisions, like selling campgrounds that volunteers and staff adored from their youth but that were not longer getting enough use. Ultimately, she remained CEO for 13 years. When she retired, Peter Drucker called her the greatest CEO in America. But...
20/ ...she wasn't much of a self-promoter, so you probably haven't heard that. In 1990, when the CEO of GM retired, Drucker was asked who should take over. "I would pick Frances," he said.
21/ But Frances retired. She stayed retired for approximately 30 hours, before chairman of Mutual of America offered her an office to do...something with? Seemed odd, but by that time she realized she'd never had long term plans, always doing what's need at the time. So...
22/ ...she took it, and started a leadership institute, where she worked up until she passed away yesterday. She also taught at West Point into her hundreds. To me, though, here's most impressive thing I gleaned while spending time w/her (initially interviewing her for Range):...
23/ ...she just made you want to be better. One day we went to a lunch counter, and someone in front of us was rude to the server. Frances said nothing, but when it was her turn, she says to server: "It is just so busy at lunch hour here! ...
24/"This must be so difficult! You're doing a fantastic job. You must be great at handling pressure. That person who was obviously having a bad day, you were so calm. I'm not sure everyone could do that. We're lucky to have you here. Thank you." ...Loud enough so all could hear
25/ Ya think everyone behind is in line was suddenly extremely polite? ;) That was the thing, basically you (and by you I mean "I") just couldn't help but be a better person around her. so I want to end my longest-ever (by a lot) thread with two sayings she had on repeat:...
26/... "Leadership is a matter of how to be, not how to do."

And

"You have to carry a big basket to bring something home."

(Translation: a mind kept wide open will take something from every new experience.)
27/ I want to write more about her soon, but for now, I'm processing my thoughts. I wrote about her for her last birthday if you're interested in a bit more. Thanks for reading, didn't realize I'd go on that long. END 🧵

davidepstein.substack.com/p/happy-106th-bday-to-the-greatest-21-11-23
...So yeah I did 27 tweets and forgot to mention she also won the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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