MNT2LEARN Leadership Primer Sheryl Sandberg
Why We Have Too Few Female Leader
Sheryl Sandberg is the COO of Facebook and the author of Lean In, Women, Work and the Will to lead, and Option B. She is the founder of the Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to build a more equal and resilient world.
“Taking initiative pays off. It is hard to visualize someone as a leader if she is always waiting to be told what to do”
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
Sheryl shares that women face harder choices than men between professional success and personal fulfillment citing a study of senior managers indicated that ⅔ of married men had children while ⅓ of married women had children.
Have you seen or experienced women having to make difficult choices in your workplace? What do you attribute that to?
Do you agree that women sometimes underestimate their ability? Does your workplace reinforce that mindset?
Sheryl shared that men attribute their success to themselves why women attribute success to external factors, help or luck. Have you had a difficult time owning your success?
How can you remain collaborative but still honor your own role in accomplishments?
Why do you think success and likeability are more positively correlated with men than women? How can you flip that paradigm?
Sheryl’s advice “not to leave before you leave” implies that women lean back because they are consciously or unconsciously thinking about future familial responsibilities. Have you experienced that yourself? How can you keep your foot on the gas pedal so you don’t lose potential opportunities?
Additional reading
https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017/12/05/on-gender-differences-no-consensus-on-nature-vs-nurture/
https://hbr.org/2018/05/what-most-people-get-wrong-about-men-and-women