PAM HYLAND
President/CEO
Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways
Sabbatical: Calendar Year 2013
“I am a better, stronger person and
as such my interactions with others
are more positive, direct, open, and
supportive”
M A R S E L L U S S A B B AT I C A L
PAM HYLAND
Thank you again for supporting my non-traditional approach in fulfilling the Marsellus Sabbatical
experience. Our council was entering a period of major change which, if managed skillfully, would
position the success of Girl Scouting in this area for years to come. This sabbatical experience supported my personal growth through multiple 360-feedback tools, and the counsel of trusted colleagues and coaches to process the feedback and develop leadership muscle in areas where I previously struggled.
Week One: Unrestricted Personal Time
I spent this week at home and focused primarily on learning how to use my new iPad, organizing
some personal matters that I needed to settle in order to fully focus on the work ahead.
Week Two: Kismet Inn in Bath, Maine
I spent this week at Kismet Inn in Bath, Maine. This is a
small healing retreat inn where I put together a retreat package with the help of the innkeeper. Each day started with a
personalized yoga class and a healthy breakfast prepared by
the innkeeper who prided herself in making meals that were
made from fresh local ingredients including non-sweet jams
she made using the most unusual ingredients (that I tried to
discern each day). Though the weather was rainy and cold
much of the week, I spent time each day walking and
breathing in ocean air.
January-December 2013: LeadFORWARD leadership program
I was recently asked by Productivity Leadership Systems
(PLS) and the Business Journal to write something about
my experience in this program and this is what I said:
“Lead Forward is an adult version of the Girl Scout leadership experience whereby I discovered a lot about myself
and connected with peers and coaches who helped me process feedback from several 360 tools.
Together, we became stronger and more balanced leaders for our businesses and more present to
family and friends.”
We started off the program with an “Intake” process that included rating ourselves on the four leadership quotients explored through the Lead Forward program:

PLQ - Physical Leadership Quotient (overall energy levels and regular rituals and
or practices that you follow for replenishing your energy)
M A R S E L L U S S A B B AT I C A L
PAM HYLAND
ILQ - Intellectual Leadership Quotient (intellectual agility and complexity of
thinking and ability to think both creatively and rationally on a regular basis)
 ELQ - Emotional Leadership Quotient (ability to make emotional connections
with yourself and key stakeholders)
 SLQ - Spiritual Leadership Quotient (ability to transcend conventional levels of
thinking and doing by creating opportunities to connect to the collective consciousness of the universe through regular daily practice of meditation, prayer,
yoga, etc.)

In my intake I rated myself lowest on the physical and spiritual quotients though I felt a need to
challenge myself in all of them.
I set the following personal goals:
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Drink more water
Fully heal the foot I broke in November so I could become more active
Be open to learning throughout this program
Be more attuned to fully understanding others
Develop more routine around yoga, meditation, and prayer to be more present to
people through greater internal peace and calm
I also established two major work objectives:
The divestment of camp properties and the reinvestment of funds in the four properties being retained
 Stronger work relationships with our leadership team

Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of participation in this program was working together with my
coach and peers in thinking through the hire of a new assistant for myself. I was able to hire someone who has been an absolute Godsend and who is partnering with me to accomplish the lofty and
sometimes unrealistic goals I set for myself.
Though I ended this experience not having accomplished what I had hoped for (probably having set
unrealistic expectations) I feel that I will accomplish the above goals in 2014. Most important to
me was having the support and coaching I needed following a particularly challenging year in
2012. Many CEO’s may have resigned following the experience I had in 2012, and I feel I was
able to transcend the experience and come out of it stronger than before.
In terms of the personal goals, my foot did fully heal and I am now working with the personal trainer introduced to us during the PLS program. I am taking yoga classes again, though not as frequently as I’d like given my work schedule. I am drinking more water and taking vitamins. In general ground that it took time for some of the concepts to fully sink in, but I am now integrating
much of what I learned in my daily life. Given this slower integration, I feel that the learnings are
more sustainable.
M A R S E L L U S S A B B AT I C A L
PAM HYLAND
The same is true with the work goals that were totally unrealistic. When I realized that I was expecting more from
myself than was realistic, I was also able to examine how I was sending unrealistic expectations out to my team. I still
have high expectations of both myself and them, but what is changing is that we are being more strategic and establishing more realistic timetables.
Perhaps the greatest benefit overall is that I recognize the value of job coaching as well as the concept of having a
“mastermind” group of trusted colleagues from whom I can learn. I have continued with the mastermind group that
was started out of the PLS experience and I have joined the local WPO (Women’s President Organization) which is
very much a mastermind group of people who support each other’s business growth.
My experience helped me achieve the objectives I identified through all four quotients identified above. I learned the
value of having balanced leadership through all four quotients and the 360-degree feedback instruments provided in all
four arenas helped me recognize the challenges I have in each quotient. There were also several exercises/readings that
supported our learning such as:
 Writing a letter to ourselves in the beginning of the Lead Forward program describing how we
envisioned feeling about ourselves a year from then with the idea that “you become what you think
about all day long—act as if”
 Creating a visioning board
 Balance through exercise, reflection, meditation
 Reading the following books: Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill; Power of Full Engagement by
Jim Loehr; Language & the Pursuit of Happyness by Chalmers Brothers; Leadership Agility by Bill
Joiner & Stephen Josephs; Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman, Anne McKee and Richard E.
Boyatzis; Quantum Leaps by Charlotte Shelton
The sabbatical experience has definitely impacted my organization because I am a better and stronger person and as
such my interactions with others are more positive, open, and supportive. As I teach the girls who participate in Camp
CEO, it’s not first about becoming a CEO with a company; rather it’s about becoming the CEO of your own life and
being fully accountable for how you show up in the world. Strength of leadership is an inside out job.
In Girl Scouting the leadership model is about first discovering who you are—your strengths and weaknesses then connecting with others with differing strengths and challenges; and together taking action to make the world a better place.
This Lead Forward experience was similar and because we became stronger as individuals and recognized the value of
learning from others in our mastermind groups and through coaching, we are better equipped to make a greater impact
in our communities.
I am deeply grateful for this sabbatical experience and really appreciated the opportunity to be non-traditional in the
approach through this year-long experience. I urge you to consider offering this approach to others. As much as I
would have loved to be “on sabbatical” for a full month, this would not have worked for our organization.
One way that the Marsellus program might be improved is to offer other options besides the full month and the twoweek programs and encourage applicants to decide if they want to develop a particular skill OR to do a deeper experience where they develop their internal leadership strength. If it’s simply a skill they wish to develop a sabbatical could
be a shorter experience. If it’s about developing muscle around their leadership core I think it needs to be a longer term
experience. If this suggestion is accepted then the applicant would complete one of two separate applications because
the outcomes of each experience would be very different.
Pam Hyland
M A R S E L L U S S A B B AT I C A L