Recently, I met Kanika Gupta, who told me: “I am passionate about social entrepreneurship because I am a social entrepreneur.” According the Stanford Social Innovation Review, “Growing numbers of young people are making an about face—turning their backs on working for “the man” and creating their own ventures.

Firsthand, Kanika has been through the struggles of launching multiple social ventures, and she knows how daunting and difficult it can be. While in her second year of building Nukoko, a Canadian nonprofit which sends over 600 girls to school in west Africa annually, she became frustrated by the lack of resources at her disposal. So she reached out to 50 social entrepreneurs for guidance. All lamented the lack of practical, resource-based support they found when starting their ventures. In hearing their experiences echo her own, the need for a comprehensive resource became immediately apparent, the potential to build it immediately inspiring. Kanika decided she would dedicate herself to encouraging and supporting young people who may be afraid to launch their own social venture.

Read our PROFILE in Innovation on the interactive online resource SoJo. 

"When we look at the world through the lens of HOW, we see leaders shift, and others even transform, their habits of leadership from "command and control" to "connect and collaborate." It's a move from exerting power over people to generating waves through them."

One focus of Dov Seidman’s new book, How: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything, acknowledges the strong and immediate impact of social media on our business culture. People now have instantaneous access to the innermost workings regarding organizational conduct. In addition to all the elements of possible exposure, competition in the market has become quick to easily reproduce better, faster, and lower priced products and services.  Customers are quick to compare qualities, features, and price points; making it increasingly difficult to be distinguished.

Mr. Seidman distills a major factor; a spectrum of variation known as the “how.” He defines this as “the realm of human behavior—how we do what we do.”  The “how” provides the critical element of differentiation where organizations can “outbehave the competition and create enduring value.”

Through case studies, research, anecdotes and interviews, each chapter brings the reader closer to understanding the importance of creating more self-awareness among an organization’s culture. In particular, he focuses on “the ways of conducting ourselves in an internet worked world: transparency, trust, and reputation,” and why these aspects are essential to achieving global success.

"Stakeholders want to know HOW our organization behaves in all of its relationships, HOW our company creates the products and services they deliver, HOW profits can be generated in a sustainable manner and HOW we as  leaders intend to ensure that our company will thrive in a resilient way despite historically high economic volatility." 

The Girl Scouts of the USA National Young Women of Distinction recipients are recognized as some of the most remarkable emerging leaders in the nation.

Drawn from a pool of hundreds of Gold Award recipients—an honor as old as the Girl Scouts organization itself and a Girl Scout’s culminating experience in the form of a social service project—10 remarkable young women, ages 14-17, are recognized each year for their commitment to service and leadership as Young Women of Distinction. 

Individual projects have ranged from implementing state-level congressional legislation to increase safety on a particularly dangerous road, to the innovative Pallets-A-Plenty, which fashions waterproof, environmentally-friendly sleeping pallets for the homeless.

These young women are innate leaders and have already changed the world as high school students.

Learn about Girl Scouts in ACTION.

If you missed the annual Bachmann Book Series last month, you’ll have more chances to see it as HEC-TV begins airing the series at 8 p.m. Wednesdays beginning Dec. 7.

The 2011 Bachmann Book Series featured Frances Hesselbein, author of “My Life in Leadership: The Journey and Lessons Learned Along the Way,” and Becky James-Hatter, president and chief executive officer of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri, discussing their experience in leadership. John Bachmann, a senior partner at Edward Jones, led the discussion, which took place on Nov. 8 in the Century Rooms at the Millennium Student Center at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

From The Huffington Post, The Genie Is Out of the Bottle, by Michele Hunt | December 2, 2011

Excerpt: 

As we look around our world we see a plethora of outcries, protest and revolutions demanding change. On the surface they seem to be very different groups with different agendas, from vastly different cultures, different races and even different generations. The remarkable thing however, is that this phenomena is happening almost everywhere, in the same timeframe and at a volume unlike anything we have seen in the history of humankind. This should cause us to ask some very important, fundamental questions:

• On a deep level, could there be some common yearnings in people that connect all of these cries for change?

• Why now and why everywhere; is there a common cause beyond the obvious economic and political conditions?

• Could there be a shared vision of life's possibilities and potential growing in the hearts and minds of people around the world?

Read Full Article

"It is jarring to go public for the first time about my own experiences: The looks, the snide comments—particularly from the adults, who are supposed to know better—make me flush with shame and cry at night."

Rachel Lloyd's story is powerfully gripping, as told in her recent memoir, Girls Like Us. Strikingly real because the author herself successfully escaped the lifestyle she now fights to end, Girls Like Us is the true story of how Rachel Lloyd left her life as a sex-industry victim, established GEMS (Girls Educational and Mentoring Services) in 1997, and took it from a two-woman operation to what is now one of the most innovative and groundbreaking nonprofits in the United States, helping more than 300 girls a year in the New York City area.

Lloyd is able to present the harsh reality of an unthinkable business in the United States: the sexual exploitation of women and young girls. In a tone both poignant and clinical, Lloyd recounts her personal history, growing up in Europe and emigrating to the United States. Interwoven in the painful details of her own life, Lloyd introduces girls like Aisha, Jennifer and Miranda, victims of abuse, homelessness, neglect and, ultimately, sex trafficking—all of whom are United States citizens. Paralleling her own story, Lloyd depicts the girls’ initial defensiveness, writing that “the girls are surprised, and then relieved, when they realize I won’t judge them.”

Lloyd explains that “according to a 2001 University of Pennsylvania study, an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 adolescents are at risk for commercial sexual exploitation in the United States each year,” yet the common perception is that these girls choose to work as prostitutes and therefore don’t often receive the attention or help they deserve. Lloyd dispels this misconception almost immediately, recounting a late-night meeting with a tough, jaded, experienced eleven-year-old sex trade victim.

Although Lloyd’s story is heartbreaking, eye-opening and at times painful to read, her ultimate success founding and growing GEMS allows the reader a sense of victory over a cruel reality. Lloyd’s own maturation throughout the book is mingled with small victories, stories of girls she has helped and the lives they have been able to establish after escaping the sex trafficking world.

Girls Like Us offers a raw, honest and detailed account of a reality that many Americans could never understand. Lloyd’s work with GEMS is shown as a critical necessity in the United States while the industry’s many victims are proven resilient, powerful and full of potential.

What is your defining moment? Share your story with us.

“When I returned to Argentina, my main mission was to lose myself in its culture. I got used to wearing the national shoe: the alpargata, a soft, casual canvas shoe worn by almost everyone in the country.

Toward the end of my trip, I met an American woman in a café who was volunteering with a small group of people on a shoe drive – a new concept to me. She explained that many kids lacked shoes, even in relatively well-developed countries like Argentina, an absence that didn’t just complicate every aspect of their lives but also exposed them to a wide range of diseases. Yes, I knew in the back of my mind that poor children around the world often went barefoot, but now, for the first time, I saw the real effects of being shoeless: the blisters, the sores, the infections – all the result of the children not being able to protect their young feet from the ground.

I wanted to do something, but what?”

This is one of Blake Mycoskie’s most defining moments as a leader, as told in Start Something That Matters, the story behind the popular, socially-conscious company, TOMS Shoes. Mycoskie founded the for-profit company with an innovative twist: for every pair of shoes that TOMS sells, a pair of shoes is given to a child in need.

Leader to Leader Institute would like to invite you to submit a reflection on your own defining moment – the moment that you started on the path to becoming the leader you are today. Your defining moment can be anything; every leader’s journey is unique. With your submission, you will be entered to win a copy of TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie’s book Start Something That Matters. Both written and video responses are encouraged, so feel free to be creative in sharing!

To enter the giveaway, post your defining moment on our blog or facebook by December 2, 2011.

What a great video documenting Frances Hesselbein's journey in leadership. From where she began to where she is now, can you believe everything she has accomplished? Check out Frances' interactions with Ford CEO Alan Mulally, author Jim Collins, West Point staff and cadets, and so many others. In what ways do her philosophies and achievements speak to you?

To serve is to live.

Fortune magazine, a publication covering modern business’ trends, companies, ideas and people, published a feature article today detailing Frances Hesselbein’s lifetime of service and her ongoing contributions of leadership philosophy to the social, private and public sectors. The article highlights Hesselbein’s career as CEO of the Girl Scouts, her professional relationship with the father of modern management, Peter F. Drucker and Leader to Leader Institute’s work and 2012 renaming initiative.

Fortune also recently ran a cover story on author Jim Collins. Collins listed Frances Hesselbein as one of only a few Level Five Leaders, whom he defines as the peak of leadership excellence.

For more of Frances Hesselbein’s leadership knowledge, view To Serve is to Live , a short film chronicling her life in leadership.

“Remember, in this era when so many of us spend our work and personal hours sitting alone with our computers and digital devices, people want to be part of something that throws them back into the world and connects them to other people – even if they won’t make money on it.” This timely and broad observation drives the narrative in Blake Mycoskie’s Start Something That Matters, the autobiographical account of the unique philanthropic business model behind TOMS shoes: for every pair of shoes you purchase, TOMS gives a pair to a child in need.

Threading throughout Mycoskie’s entrepreneurial advice and experience is a push to find your own story. Start Something That Matters is the true account of how a trip to Argentina, a friendship with a local tailor, a Venice CA apartment and a half-dozen enthusiastic interns invented a new and impressively successful business model. Mycoskie credits that success to the TOMS story, a clearly communicated mission tied to every pair of shoes sold. Mycoskie writes that “stories are the most primitive and clearest form of communication… smart, future-oriented companies use this ancient impulse in new ways, by telling stories that people can watch on YouTube and share on Facebook.” Philanthropic ventures, by nature, have the kind of story that people want to engage with, making that a powerful selling point when leaders are looking for innovative avenues of communication and funding.

Mycoskie offers sound start up advice, saying “an early and unearned sense of security can be the worst thing to happen to a business.” Mycoskie’s anecdotes aren’t all successful, however. He clearly outlines the cause and effect in multiple business failures; things that failed to take off in TOMS and his past business ventures as well as over-funded busts during the dot com bubble. The lessons he describes directly translate into authentic and conscientious leadership practices.

Start Something That Matters is a fast and engaging roadmap for navigating the outset of a business idea, overcoming fear and defining an organization’s identity and leadership. Stories have the power to draw support from any area and, as outlined in the book, “supporters beat customers every time.”