Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg (December 2018)
When I first read Lean In, I never imagined that the ensuing years would see Sheryl Sandberg’s career pull her away from the path she seemed to be on in this book. As it stands now, my perception is that most associate her with Facebook’s recent (and very public) struggles, particularly as it relates to the company’s role in the polarizing aspects of social media and internet culture. However, this book remains a vital work within a larger genre of management reading and I would recommend it to anyone who hasn’t given workplace gender equality enough thought.
One of the first lessons I learned from attempting to apply an idea from Lean In was about the word ‘bossy’. Sandberg notes that men are rarely described with this word and its use reinforces a stereotype that women are not expected to become leaders. I considered banning the word in my team and took a few informal straw polls. What I quickly realized was that banning 'bossy' would be seen as my unnecessarily pointing fingers at people who simply didn’t know better. If the word did reinforce a negative stereotype, it was essentially happening by accident as people simply spoke using the vocabulary available to them. I settled for simply speaking to team members in private if I thought their language was reinforcing a discouraging stereotype and used the conversation as an opportunity to teach as needed. Most importantly, I would sometimes have these conversations outside the office if I thought it was more appropriate for a given situation. What I learned from the experience was that many of the problems experienced within the workplace are not born in the office – rather, they are manifestations of problems rooted in the larger societies that support these organizations. The challenge of overcoming such obstacles means measured, consistent, and incremental effort while both on and off the job.
My only criticism of the book after this reread is its tendency to speak of factors relevant to tech companies as if they applied to organizations of all kinds. Sandberg notes, for example, that fast growth matters in a new job, but it would be ridiculous for me to relay that insight to my friends who teach middle school science. Of course, I hardly fault Sandberg for writing about what she knows from her experiences but I disagree with the idea that a tech company is a good representation of what it’s like to have a job. Tech companies compete quickly, publicly, and ruthlessly – this might make for more interesting storytelling but hardly guarantees that its writing contains more insight into management than writing about a less public field.
One up: I liked the idea that overcorrection is the best way to change a natural tendency. Business culture has established a number of such tendencies that have lost their original value and applying the overcorrection concept could lead to good results. One immediately applicable example comes from group meetings – these settings encourage interruptions and it’s easy for the group to simply move from one point to the next as the newest speaker sees fit. People can counter this tendency by stopping the conversation and pointing back to someone who had been cut off, perhaps by saying ‘before we move on, I would like to hear what ___ was going to say.’ Leaders can also change their approach in group settings to call on reluctant speakers instead of always leaving the floor open for volunteers.
One down: Data, data, data – everyone is obsessed with data these days and many organization require evidence in the form of a dataset before moving forward with any major decision. Unfortunately, this means lazily gathered data can be used to perpetuate myths and reinforce stereotypes. One note from Lean In suggests that since men have historically been more likely to remain in the workforce, institutions tend to invest more in men. There might be data to support this allocation of resources but such evidence would hardly explain why bringing parity to investment levels wouldn’t change the results of future datasets regarding employees remaining in the workforce.
Just saying: A big obstacle to applying the ideas from Lean In is a natural preference most of us have for fitting in. The workplace is no exception – I’ve yet to meet a new employee whose stated goal on Day One is to stick out like a sore thumb. However, this mentality places undue pressure on members of underrepresented groups and the resultant discomfort of feeling out of place can have real consequences. Organizations must find ways to combat this tendency so that they can bring the best out of anyone they identify as a good fit for the team.
