Tough Cookies E-Book

Kathy Cloninger

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 200

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Fundamental principles for how Girl Scouts USA is run and why it's so successful Millions of American businesswomen, thought leaders, and politicians received their first lessons in salesmanship, money management, marketing, teamwork, and fulfillment in the Girl Scouts. The Girls Scouts has shaped the lives of more than 50 million alumnae alive today. Eighty percent of American female senior business executives and business owners are former Girl Scouts. In March 2012, the Girl Scouts will celebrate their 100th anniversary. Tough Cookies captures the essence of this iconic organization and the principles that have allowed them to build and sustain a 100-year-old organization. Under current CEO Kathy Cloninger's leadership, the Girl Scouts has transformed and enhanced its ability to develop leadership in young women. Tough Cookies outlines the rise of the Girl Scouts, this recent and dramatically successful shift, and lessons that are applicable to make any business or organization a success. * An inspiring story of the Girl Scouts founding, along with leadership and business lessons that can be applied to organizations of any size * No other organization compares to Girl Scouts in size, experience, and resources devoted to developing leadership skills * Publication coincides with the 100-year anniversary of GSUSA What can your business learn from the Girl Scouts?

Leseprobe

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: Leadership out of Balance

Cookies and Confidence

A Different Perspective

Don’t Blow Your Own Horn

The Need for Change

The Message We Send

We Can Do This

What Numbers Tell Us

Chapter 2: How I Got Here

Continuous Learning

A Gap in the Résumé

The Hand of Fate, Part 1

Right Opportunity, Wrong Place

The Hand of Fate, Part 2

Imagine a Girl

Lady from Savannah

“Something for the Girls”

A Place of Our Own

Learning to Lead

Chapter 3: Talk Less, Listen More

Mirror, Mirror

Beauty and the Cosmo Girl

Self-Esteem

What We Learn in School

Friend Me

Leadership

A Different Approach

A Personal Adviser

Chapter 4: A Logical Conclusion

A New Majority

The Norway Experiment

Being Yourself

Support (or Not) in the Workplace

Making Impressions

Chapter 5: Facing the Brutal Truths

Time for Change

Brutal Truths

Our Program Delivery Was Fragmented

Our Organizational System Needed Restructuring

Our Traditional Funding Model Wasn’t Sufficient

Other Competition for Girls’ Time and Attention

All Together Now

Chapter 6: “Trust Me, This Is Going to Work”

Who’s the Customer?

The Mission Statement

Designing Our Strategy

Closing the Gap

The Elephant in the Room

Damage Control

Redrawing the Map

The Human Factor

On Beyond Planning

Chapter 7: What to Keep, and What to Let Go

The Girl Scout Promise

The Girl Scout Law

The Magic Circle

Dressing the Part

Gathering the Troops

Outreach

Pathways

Taking New Journeys

Chapter 8: Oh, Yeah? Prove It!

Starting to Measure Outcomes

Vision, Constant Learning, and Optimism

Not a Solo Act

Patience

Communication, Trust, and Self-Awareness

Chapter 9: Shaking the Money Tree

A Question of Priority

Nonmembers of the Tribe

A Culture of Philanthropy

Tomorrow’s Scientists

A Billion Dollars for Girls

The Year of the Girl

Chapter 10: Girl Scout, Phone Home

This Is Safety?

Seizing the Decade

Crossing the Bridge

Let’s Make It Happen

A Smoother Pathway

Going Where Others Won’t

Girls in Trouble

Once a Girl Scout, Always a Girl Scout

About the Author

Index

Copyright © 2011 by Girl Scouts of the USA. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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ISBN: 978-1-118-00004-5 (cloth)

ISBN: 978-1-118-12963-0 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-12964-7 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-12962-3 (ebk)

PREFACE

I’m on a plane, wearing my Girl Scout pin. The man in the next seat sees the pin and says, “Girl Scouts! Oh, yeah, Thin Mints!” Immediately I think two things: One is that it’s great to work in an organization with such a visible, universal brand icon. The other is: “I wonder if he knows that the annual Girl Scout cookie sale is a unique and powerful $700 million education program that brings to life Girl Scouts’ true brand: developing leadership in girls.”

Like most folks, he doesn’t know beans about that. All he wants to talk about is how good those Thin Mints taste.

It makes me want to write a book. . . .

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Heartfelt thanks to:

GSUSA Board Chair Connie Lindsey and former chairs Patricia Diaz Dennis and Cynthia Thompson. Their support and inspiration, their vision and partnership, and their courage to do what’s right for girls during every tough step of the Girl Scout transformation kept all our heads high when our backs ached.

Fiona Soltes. Her ability to bring my thoughts and feelings to the written page and to propel me from “I don’t have anything to say” to “Golly . . . we’ve got a book!” seems as amazing as everything we did at Girl Scouts.

Peter Johnston. With a big picture eye and wry humor that kept us all on task, he hatched this book project and managed it every step of the way.

Mike Williams. My dear husband’s love and support and foot rubs and masterful editing—being CEO, let alone writing this book, would be beyond me if it weren’t for him.

Sue Cloninger. My mother’s leadership of my Girl Scout troop, from 1959 to 1963, is one of many millions of Girl Scout volunteer success stories. Many millions of girls, including me, thank each of those amazing women.

Chapter 1

Leadership out of Balance

How well do we trust our leaders?

Not too well. A national survey1 says nearly two-thirds of Americans think there is a leadership crisis in the country.

Not only do we doubt the abilities of those who make the nation’s decisions, but we also fail to understand the mix of qualities that create great leadership, and the strengths that girls and women can contribute to that mix. (We might better understand if, for example, women—who make up half the population—were more than 3 percent of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies or more than 17 percent of the U.S. Congress.)