Frances Hesselbein is one of the most highly respected experts in the field of contemporary leadership development. In 1998, President Clinton awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America’s highest civilian honor, for her leadership as CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA from 1976-1990 as well as for her service as “a pioneer for women, volunteerism, diversity and opportunity.” From 2009-2011, she served as the Class of 1951 “Chair for the study of Leadership” in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the United States Military Academy. She is the first woman, and the first non-graduate to serve in this chair. Mrs. Hesselbein was named a Senior Leader at the United States Military Academy’s 2008 National Conference on Ethics in America. She is the recipient of twenty-one honorary doctoral degrees. She is editor-in-chief of the award-winning quarterly journal Leader to Leader and is the coeditor of twenty-seven books in twenty-nine languages. Mrs. Hesselbein has traveled to sixty-eight countries representing the United States. She is the author of “Hesselbein on Leadership, My Life in Leadership” and most recently, “More Hesselbein on Leadership.”
In this interview, Mrs. Hesselbein discusses how leadership has changed over the past 80 years, what she sees as the greatest hope for the future, how to be inclusive, and what West Point means to her.
