Get the latest tech news

Frances Hesselbein's leadership story (2022)

A life by example

She learned that the organization was founded eight years before women could vote in the U.S., and that the founder had reminded girls that they could be “a doctor, a lawyer, an aviatrix, or a hot-air balloonist.” Frances thought back to second grade, when she announced that she wanted to be a pilot and her classmates laughed. They needed to dismantle the hierarchical leadership structure in favor of her “circular management,” where staff members are like beads on concentric circles, with many contacts at adjacent levels through whom they could get and give feedback. Not to mention a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the U.S. (When President Bill Clinton conferred it, he jokingly asked Frances to “come forward,” rather than “up,” because she didn’t like hierarchical language.)

Get the Android app