彼得•德鲁克和女童军教给我的管理课

    二十出头的时候，法兰西斯•贺赛苹接到一个电话，对方邀请她领导宾夕法尼亚州约翰斯敦市的女童军17团。当时她已为人妻，还带着一个8岁儿子，觉得自己没有能力管理一群叽叽喳喳的10岁女孩。但她把这支队伍带了8年之久，而且最终来到宾夕法尼亚州约克市，领导州一级的女童军团。在那里，她开始实施管理学大师彼得•德鲁克的哲学——她是在约翰斯敦的坎布里亚免费图书馆（Johnstown's Cambria Free Library）浏览书籍时，偶然发现这个宝藏的。贺赛苹的成功引起了全国性女童军组织的重视，她后来成为这个组织的CEO。在执掌美国女童军团的13年中，她带领这家组织成功转型，并且跟德鲁克建立了直接的工作关系——1990年，德鲁克聘用贺赛苹管理他的领导人学会（Leader to Leader Institute），当时的名称是彼得•德鲁克非营利事业管理基金会（Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management）。现年96岁（没错，96岁）的贺赛苹已失去了她的导师，但她依然担任着该学会的CEO。2012年初，这家学会将改名为法兰西斯•贺赛苹领导力学会（Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute）。今年2月份，贺赛苹出版了一本自传《我的领导生涯》（My Life in Leadership）。近日，她接受了《财富》杂志记者科琳•黎黑的专访，与我们分享了她的领导心得。

抓住机遇

    1976年，我受邀参加了美国女童军团（Girl Scouts of the USA）CEO一职的招聘面试活动。此前的64年，该组织从未有一个来自地方理事会的CEO，这一领导人选总是来自组织外部。所以，我确定不能把这件事太当真了。遴选委员会问我：“要是你担任这个职务，你会采取哪些措施？”我描述了一下这家世界上最大的女孩和妇女组织全面转型的愿景。倘若我当时知道他们是认真的，我或许会更审慎一些。几天后，他们打来电话，要求我接受这项职务。由于我在他们给我工作之前就已经描述了女童军团的转型和改革前景，我也就没法子推却了。

明确使命

    开始的时候，我带着彼得•德鲁克的5个经典问题（我们的使命是什么？我们的客户是谁？客户重视什么？我们追求的成果是什么？我们的计划是什么？），重新审视了一下女童军团的使命。我们将其提炼为一个简短有力，令人信服的句子：“帮助每个女孩实现最大的潜能。”我们就女童军领导者真正想要和需要的事物做了扎实的研究工作，并且在1989年认真地完成了一个研究项目《美国儿童的信仰和道德价值观》（The Beliefs and Moral Values of American Children）。它关注的是儿童真正珍视的事物，而不是告诉这些孩子他们“应该”珍视什么。我们的调查广泛而深入，调查得出的结论反应了孩子们自己的心声，而不是我们的意愿。那真是一段生气勃勃的时光。变革的氛围无处不在。

    Frances Hesselbein received a call to head Girl Scout Troop 17 in Johnstown, Pa., in her early twenties. Married, with an 8-year-old boy, she felt unequipped to manage a gaggle of 10-year-old girls. But she led the troop for eight years and eventually moved to the state level in York, Pa. There she implemented management guru Peter Drucker's philosophies -- which she had stumbled upon while browsing Johnstown's Cambria Free Library. Her success caught the attention of the national Girl Scouts organization, and Hesselbein became its CEO. In her 13 years with the group, she led a turnaround and worked directly with Drucker, who recruited her to run his Leader to Leader Institute (then called the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management) in 1990. Hesselbein, 96, yes, 96 years old, has outlived her mentor but remains CEO of the institute, which will be renamed the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute in early 2012. The author of an autobiography published in February, My Life in Leadership, she shares her lessons with Colleen Leahey.

If a door opens, walk through it

    In 1976 I was invited to interview for the CEO position of the Girl Scouts of the USA. In 64 years there had never been a CEO from a local council -- they were always from the outside -- so I was very sure it was not serious. The search committee asked, "If you were in this position, what would you do?" I described the total transformation of the largest organization for girls and women in the world. I might have been more discreet if I had thought they were really serious. A few days later they called and asked me to take the job. Because I had described the transformation and the changes before they ever offered me the job, there was no pushback.

Have a clear mission

    At the beginning, I revisited the Girl Scouts' mission, remembering Peter Drucker's five questions [What is our mission? Who is our customer? What does the customer value? What are our results? What is our plan?]. We distilled it so that it was short, powerful, compelling: "To help each girl reach her own highest potential." We did solid research on what the Girl Scout leaders really want and need. And we did a serious study in 1989, "The Beliefs and Moral Values of American Children." It looked at what they actually value, rather than telling them what they should value. Because we included everyone, it became theirs, not ours. And it was an exuberant, exuberant time. Change became the climate.