In this episode of the Better Together Arizona podcast, ONE Community President and Co-Founder, Angela Hughey is joined by Co-CEOs of Girl Scouts–Arizona Cactus-Pine: Mary Mitchell and Christina Spicer.
Mary and Christina talk about their unique leadership structure of having two female CEOs and how the two of them came to embrace the power of shared leadership and pass that down to troop leadership.
“It’s all about the power of ‘more than 1’,” explains Mary. The power of multiplying collective voices and efforts.
Demonstrating shared leadership and collaboration also gives the Girl Scouts the opportunity to see a different way of leading. “You have to scrub your ego and learn how to work in a collaborative space, not a competitive space,” says Christina.
The Girls Scouts as an organization is about unity and a sense of belonging, and their programs are built around that mission. They are also focused on strengthening the opportunities for women in leadership and empowering future leaders of tomorrow.
The National Girl Scouts Institute conducted research around how girls want to lead, and unsurprisingly, the girls polled didn’t like what they were seeing in leadership: one person at the helm, usually a white man. They wanted a different model. And Mary and Christina have been able to provide a real-life model of collaborative, female leadership.
The way that women find their way toward a shared solution adds valuable depth in terms of how that decision came about and makes the solution more sustainable. This is one of the lessons Girls Scouts–Arizona Cactus-Pine is working to pass down to their members.
Under Mary and Christina’s leadership, Girls Scouts–Arizona Cactus-Pine signed the ONE Community UNITY Pledge.
“A lot of what lives in the UNITY Pledge mirrors who we are as an organization,” says Mary. “If we want equality for all people and we want to do that in a way that’s visible–why wouldn’t we sign? If this is really who we are, we need to show up and make a stand that we are with you.”
Learn more about the UNITY Pledge and sign today as an individual or business: UNITYPledge.com.
About Better Together Arizona: Better Together Arizona podcast shares stories that teach us how to value one another as neighbors, to value people who live differently than us, and to seek unity over division. The Better Together Arizona podcast includes people from all walks of life, working in often surprising ways to make a positive impact in the lives of others.
Better Together Arizona is supported by ONE Community and filmed at the Full Swing Studios podcast studio in Midtown Phoenix.
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