Kathy Cloninger, CEO, Girl Scouts of the USA

Speech Descriptions

Girls, Women, and Leadership

There’s a shortage of good leadership in this world, and as the world becomes more complicated, the shortage becomes more acute. One way to improve leadership is for men and women to share it: case after case shows that men and women working together provide better leadership and clearer vision than either gender can on its own.

In the US, however, as in most of the world, there are too few women in positions of leadership—and too few confident, leadership-ready girls and young women in the pipeline. Kathy Cloninger, chief executive of Girl Scouts of the USA, explains what her organization is doing to fill that pipeline, and how our nation can benefit from tapping into its greatest underused resource—the energy and brainpower of America’s women.

Transforming an Icon

In the 21 st century, change is the only constant. It’s also just about the hardest thing there is to do; people know they need to change, but they fight it all the way. Kathy Cloninger explains how the venerable, tradition-bound Girl Scouts of the USA not only learned to embrace change but put itself through a transformation that’s made it the envy of the nonprofit sector. With a combination of unsparing honesty and her own trademark Texas humor, Kathy shows step by step how the Girl Scouts did what was necessary—and how others can do it too.

On Beyond Tokenism

There’s been a lot of change in America over the past few decades, but one thing still holds true: the further up the ladder you go, the whiter it gets. Overwhelmingly, people of color in the boardroom and among top executives report feeling isolated and ignored—there to fill a quota, not to contribute as partners.

It doesn’t have to be like that. The Girl Scouts, drawing on a multiracial tradition that goes back to the 1920s, operates on the assumption that diversity in all ranks, from theboardroom and the senior leadership team down, isn’t just an obligation, or a duty—it’s an asset. Diverse organizations tend to be characterized by better decision-making, improved relations with their customer base, and better overall organizational performance.

Kathy Cloninger, chief executive of Girl Scouts of the USA, explains how her organization approaches diversity and why. “It’s the future,” Kathy says. “We’re just there ahead of the pack.”