Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

It is always great to read a book that makes you say, “yeah, very true, I guess there are things I need to do”… such was the case in Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.  Sandberg worked for Larry Summers, former President of Harvard, in the Treasury Department for the Government, key VP Operations at Google, and currently COO of Facebook.  And after many years of watching women “regressing” from the world she learned about from women in the 70s/80s, she now speaks up to remind women a series of lessons to “lean in” and don’t go quietly into the night.  The lessons she shares are directly from her work experiences, beginning with what are you afraid of and what would happen if you weren’t afraid?  Some of the other lessons include: why you should sit at the table, knowing who your mentor is, seek and speak the truth, and don’t leave your job before you really need to do so (such as when you plan on having children).  One of my favorite stories is her discovery that sometimes in your career it is beneficial to make a lateral move into a whole new field and it is not a bad thing to do, such as her move to Facebook from Google.  She entered a whole new industry and calls the move, careers are not necessarily about climbing ladders, they can be jungle gyms, that allow us to move around (most people have 9 jobs before they are 40!).  Don’t think you have to do it all, smart people use the tools and others in their organization when they have to do so.  Sandberg provides significant personal challenges in her career and gives the “forks in the road” that allowed her to reflect on the rationale for the choices made.  The data on the lack of growth of women in the CEO position within the Fortune 500 is startling, meaning not good.  Sandberg is a smart woman.  For more on her thoughts and speech, take a view of her TED Talks speech:  http://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders.html.   This is an inspirational woman who leads by doing.  For every male with a sister, mother, cousin, aunt, female best friend it is time to ensure that your female colleagues have a chance to share her thoughts, give equal time to females, it is something we need to do.  A great read which I would recommend for all organizations to pass the book around to their team.