Sheryl Sandberg, the author of Lean In, worked in different organizations like Department of Treasury, Google and now in Facebook as a Chief Operating Officer, this gave her the opportunity to explore the challenges women are facing not to go to the top leadership positions. Other than her personal experiences, she also refereed different researches which were conducted by different institutions and people, which can be taken as the strength of the book. The way she wrote the book is also simple and understandable, like a story.
Overview of the book,
Even if the representation of women in the middle and top position shows progress but the problem still exists, we still need more women in those positions.
Some of the reasons she addressed in this book that hold-back women not to go to the upper position are:- the ambition gap, lack of self-confidence, stereotype, pulling back than lean in etc..
“career progression often depends up on taking risks and advocating for
oneself – traits that girls are discouraged from exhibiting. This may
explain why girls’ academic gains have not yet translated in to significantly
higher numbers of women in top jobs”. .. p.15
The author tried to show with different cases that women need to have the confidence in going forward: she explains this with the following example:
“what I noticed over the year was that for the most part, the men reached for opportunities much more quickly than women. When we announced the opening of a new office or the launch of a new project, the men were banging down my door to explain why they should lead the charge.” “ the women, however, were more cautious about changing roles and seeking out new challenges. I often found myself trying to persuade them to work in new areas. I have had countless conversations where women responded to this encouragement by saying, “I’m just not sure i would be good at that,” or “that sounds exciting, but I have never done anything like it before”sor “ I still have a lot to learn in my current role” …p.34
The Author also pointed out what things to change to have more women in those top leadership positions:- Lean In: Sit in the table, make your partner a real partner, building confidence, working together for equality are some of them.
“Taking risks, choosing growth, challenging ourselves, and asking
for promotions (with smiles on our face, ofcourse) are all important
elements of managing a career”…p63
“The more women help one another,
the more we help ourselves.
Acting like coalition truly does produce results.” …p.165
The author focused more on the United States experiences, it would be more nicer if she covered from other countries view’s too, what are the challenges women are facing in other countries and related things.
What kind of leader do I want to be?
Different situations may need different leadership style to handle the cases, but I want to be a democratic leader, because I believe in power sharing, participatory decision making or team work, motivation and feedback. And communication is also the key part in democratic leadership. Together We can bring Change.
