(iStockphoto/400tmax)While summarizing comments to this same question asked about Jack Welch in last month’s column (shown below), I received word of Frances Hesselbein’s death.
Welch was regarded by many as the greatest CEO of the 20th century. Hesselbein, national executive director of the Girl Scouts of the USA from 1976 to 1990, was ranked by Fortune magazine in 2015, according to her obituary, as the “37th in its list of the world’s 50 greatest leaders, ahead of Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase.” Peter Drucker once suggested that she should succeed Roger Smith as CEO of General Motors because of her skills at turning around a large organization.
My colleague Regina Herzlinger, the Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, knowing that I was preparing materials for a course in service management, arranged for an introduction to Ms. Hesselbein in 1988. Case preparation, appearances in my classes, and writing for her later publications then followed.
"As Hesselbein put it, 'the power of language is so important in this job.'"
Welch and Hesselbein shared some of the same characteristics. Both could be very charming, but both could be very direct as well. Hesselbein, according to one account, once lectured a class of retiring CEOs that included Alan Mulally, who was out of a job at Boeing prior to becoming CEO of Ford, to stop “whining” about what they were going to do. She reportedly said, “Maybe you should think about serving other people instead of yourselves, and you’ll have plenty to do.”
Both used slogans and stories, repeated over and over, to lead change. As Hesselbein put it, “the power of language is so important in this job.” In her case, she “managed for the mission” of helping girls. She described her organization as “mission-focused, values-based (contained in the Girl Scouts Promise and the Law), and demographics-driven” (her code word for diversity). She once described to me a teeter-totter, writing a “$24 million expense budget, millions of handbooks, 334 local councils, and a (management development) conference center” on one end before writing the words, “one 10-year-old girl” on the other and announcing, “It balances.” The goal was not to enable girls in general, but rather to help each girl reach her full potential. I’m sure I wasn’t the first to watch her demonstration.
Both employed many leadership ideas and kept what worked. In Hesselbein’s case, I was most intrigued by the circular organization concept she introduced to the organization. Instead of a pyramid, it consisted of concentric circles comprising various organization positions with Hesselbein at the center, not the top. People weren’t promoted up; they approached the center. She maintained that it helped associates achieve a different mindset toward collaboration and hierarchy.
"Her bottom-line was always 'changed lives.'"
Hesselbein addressed several major challenges during her tenure with varied success. They included changing the white, middle-class “Betty Crocker” image of the organization, reversing membership levels, expanding leadership, building diversity, and fundraising. Declining membership was reversed. Leadership ranks were extended beyond volunteer moms, even including young men. Efforts were made to extend membership among girls of color. No ad appeared without girls from diverse backgrounds.
It achieved some success. The Boy Scouts consistently received more contributions than the Girl Scouts, reflecting the fact that males controlled more liquid assets and the assumption that the Girl Scouts paid for their operations out of money earned from cookie sales. It was a set of assumptions difficult to change; it mattered a great deal in an organization in which each of the 334 councils and the head office were charged with supporting themselves. As one executive put it to me, “Maybe because we are predominantly a female-oriented organization … we feel we have to manage ourselves a bit better.”
Both had to put out fires. In the case of the Girl Scouts, pins were alleged to have been found in Girl Scout cookies. Investigation of 500 complaints by the FBI found nothing, and the Food and Drug Administration issued no warnings. Hesselbein expressed her confidence that the American public would not let that stop cookie sales. They eventually rebounded.
Recognizing Jack Welch’s achievements, most responses to the question I posed about him last month nevertheless suggest that what worked for him in the 20th century would not work today.
Some might argue that what worked for Frances Hesselbein in a nonprofit organization would not work in an organization in which performance is bottom-line oriented. Her bottom-line was always “changed lives.” Although she had some small business, for-profit management experience, her reputation was built in the nonprofit world.
How would Frances Hesselbein’s style of leadership fare in today’s world? What do you think?
Share your thoughts in the comments below.
References:
- James L. Heskett, “Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. (A),” Case No. 9-690-044 (Harvard Business School Publishing, 1989)
- Richard Sandomir, “Frances Hesselbein, Who Transformed the Girl Scouts, Is Dead at 107,” The New York Times, December 16, 2022.
Your feedback to last month’s column
How would Jack Welch’s style of leadership fare in today’s world?
Regardless of how highly his leadership style was regarded just over 20 years ago, Jack Welch would face difficult challenges applying it today. He was a product of his time. Times have changed. So spoke respondents to last month’s column.
Andrea Johnson put it succinctly this way: “Jack Welch was a product of the economic and political forces of his time. Certainly, it is time for something better.” David William Baum added, “Jack would be too toxic in today’s ‘soft’ culture. He would last about 15 minutes and then he would be canceled.”
Others agreed that Welch was a product of his time. Susan Holliday said, “…society has changed a lot. That said, Jack Welch today would probably be different too. For me the worst criticism of him is that his successors all struggled.” Writing by email, Jeff Wilkins, former CEO of CompuServe, commented, “The world of management has moved on from ‘Neutron Jack,’ but he will always be remembered for causing all of us to think more creatively about management.”
Katherine Lawrence, formerly of the DuPont organization, provided a thought-provoking observation that, “When workers become fungible, a firm becomes an abstraction. We see today’s billionaires saying they want to give back. We had that too a generation ago. It was called a pension plan, and it gave back to the people who put the C-level folk in those mahogany offices. Welch was a product of the time when all that changed, and it is unsurprising he did what he did when the paradigm shifted.”