Calm Determination vs. Disruption

Sylvia Acevedo

01.10.20

Disruption is occurring at a rapid rate, faster than ever before in history. As CEO of the Girl Scouts, Sylvia Acevedo focuses on calm leadership and establishing common ground as the key tenets to steering the ship and calming fears.

Summary:

Disruption is occurring at a rapid rate, faster than ever before in history. As CEO of the Girl Scouts, Sylvia Acevedo focuses on calm leadership and establishing common ground as the key tenets to steering the ship and calming fears.

When everything is coming apart, you want a calm, steady hand at the wheel. Sylvia Acevedo talks with Thuy about how she works to help the Girl Scouts weather disruption.

Thuy

You're at the helm of the Girl Scouts at a time of tremendous change, do you have any tips or tricks on how to stay focused when change - big changes -happen or when chaos strikes?
Sylvia_Acevedo

Sylvia Acevedo

You know that is something that you have to really understand that you know you're the leader and you can always get help so you don't have to do it alone so I think if you're somebody who says oh my gosh I have to do this all by yourself not the case at all but you really are the one who is really setting the tone and being a calm leader, putting a vision forward that matters so much but you know it is also important to be a good communicator because these are really challenging times and we've been through this amazing time in the United States of just unparalleled success, prosperity and suddenly it's being disrupted at such a rapid rate and for people that puts them in fear and so how do you make sure that people feel calm it's you have to share with them a vision and you have to be able to communicate what's changed and how you're going to handle that in a way that relieves their fears. You know that's not easy to do but that's so important. It's also important to remember to help people understand that we have more in common and to come together and at Girl Scouts we work at that quite a bit in fact we have a badge for that it's called “Finding Common Ground”

Thuy

It's almost like there's an app for that you have a badge for a lot of things
Sylvia_Acevedo

Sylvia Acevedo

We have a badge for that, that's true.