Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg

Sheryl Sandberg (born August 28, 1969) is the COO of Facebook and the first woman to be on its Board. She has an MBA from Harvard and served as chief of staff for the United States Department of the Treasury. She followed it up with a stint at Google.The world sat up and heard her talk at TED called “Why we have too few women leaders” where she said that besides societal factors that prove to be a barrier, women also have internal barriers that they need to fight. They have lower ambition and then they don’t ask for what is rightfully theirs, they agonize over their shortcomings and make room for others to go ahead. All this supported by research, data and her own observations.Why did she choose “Lean In” for a book title? The dictionary says, to ‘lean in’ means “to incline or press into something. You have to lean into the wind when you walk or you will be blown over. As you walk into the wind, lean in a little bit.” That’s what she advises women do if they wish to take up leadership roles at the top. Of the 195 independent countries in the world only 17 are led by women. Only 4% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women. “A truly equal world would be one where women ran half the countries and companies and men ran half our homes.”The book is packed with ideas that anyone would do well to think about. The book opens with the question, “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” and then goes on to advice that success and likeability are closely linked. When a man is successful he is liked by both men and women. When a woman is successful, people of both genders like her less.The advice I found most valuable was the metaphor she uses to describe careers. The average American had eleven jobs from the age of 18-46 years. “Careers are a jungle gym and not a ladder”. There is only one way to get to the top when you use a ladder. A jungle gym has many ways. You can forge your own unique career path after taking dips, detours and even dead ends to have a very fulfilling career.She advises people to find themselves a mentor (people who will advise them). Better still find a sponsor who will use his or her influence to be your advocate. Mentors and sponsors will naturally gravitate towards the person they support, based on the performance and potential of the protégée. This can be a mutually rewarding and beneficial relationship. This is the other must read chapter of the book.Ms Sandberg certainly pushes all her achievements in your face right through the book to let you know that she has the credibility to say what she does. She lets you know that in August 2011, Forbes magazine listed her as the fifth most powerful woman in the world after Angela Merkel, Hillary Clinton, Dilma Rousseff and Indra Nooyi. That makes her more powerful than Michelle Obama and Sonia Gandhi.There are some funny moments about how her younger siblings pointed out that they were Sheryl’s “first two employees” who at the ages of one and three were disorganized and lazy. “She took us under her wing and whipped us into shape.” They go on to add“When our parents went away on vacation, our grandparents used to baby sit. Before our parents left, Sheryl protested, ‘Now I have to take care of David and Michelle and Grandma and Grandpa too. It’s not fair!”There is no doubt that we need to have many more women leaders at the very top. That number is not growing fast enough. Women need to be more ambitious and speak up for themselves. Men need to learn how to play a more supporting role to help women realize their potential. The social messaging that underlies our beliefs about gender roles is a big area that I wish she had addressed. In all the countries that see more participation of women in the workforce, the gender roles are believed to be equal.There is a direct correlation between parenting styles, the beliefs that we ingrain in our children and the comfort of organizations in crafting career paths that are different for men and women. So it is diversity of career paths and leadership styles that needs to be accepted in the mainstream that will lead to more women leading organizations. While Lean In does a fabulous job of dissecting the problem, the solution lies in addressing social and cultural norms in the society and in organizations. That may be the subject of her next book.Overall recommendation: Must read.Watch her address to the class of Harvard <click here>-----------------------------Also published on my blog at The Conference Board & on Times of IndiaJoin me on twitter @abhijitbhaduri