Monday, November 21, 2011 1:18:00 PM

My first job out of college was as a Field Director with Commonwealth Girl Scout Council in Richmond, Va. It wasn’t something I sought out. I responded to an ad in the newspaper.
Little did I know that I was entering into an organization that would chose as its leader, a woman who had the vision and the ability to take a national, out of date volunteer organization and transform it into a contemporary and relevant entity. Girl Scouts under Frances Hesselbein set out to provide young women with the skills and insights that they would need in the upcoming decades that heralded new rights for women.

I personally benefited from Frances Hesselbein’s amazing vision and leadership. Under the culture she created, my Girl Scout colleagues encouraged me to leave and go get an MBA; me, an English major from a southern background where women stayed home. Girl Scouts under Frances Hesselbein let me know that women had the right and now the opportunity to expand their horizons and step into new arenas dominated by men.
I have had a remarkable career and journey as a leader, CEO, pilot and entrepreneur. When I am asked about “how I did it”, I go back and give due credit to the leadership at my first job at Girl Scouts USA.

I recently had the great honor of meeting Frances on a business trip to New York , 35 years after my early career jumpstart in her organization. We both recently published leadership books. We shared our books and inscribed them to each other. We talked, leader to leader (apropos to the organization she founded with Peter Drucker) , girl scout to girl scout and woman to woman.

She continues to impart great wisdom and exemplifies attributes that leaders, male and female should aspire to. She has the rare qualities of altruism combined with vision and strategic acumen.

Thanks goodness for Frances Hesselbein .You have done a great service to profile her in your magazine.

Betty Shotton
Speaker & Author LIFTOFF LEADERSHIP
Ocracoke, NC
November 18,2011

Betty Shotton