26
Dec
Sheryl Sandberg – Scent of a Woman
Sheryl Sandberg. She is a pragmatist in a one man’s world. Usually people name her as a leader they admire. Why?
Sheryl Sandberg is the chief operating officer at Facebook since 2008
who dramatically increased ad revenue by 21% in 2020 to 84,2 billion USD. In her book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, she is fighting for a more equal world and believes in encouraging girls and women to lead.
“I don’t pretend there aren’t biological differences, but I don’t believe the desire for leadership is hardwired biology, not the desire to win or excel. I believe that it’s socialization, that we’re socializing our daughters to nurture and our boys to lead.”
Sheryl doesn’t hold herself as a role model. She doesn’t believe that everyone should make the same choices but her wish is everyone to be able to choose without gender differences. But it is not so easy.
Women have to be more careful, to say yes to more things compared to men.
Once there are more women leaders, the stereotypes could be broken. But maybe women are not ready to take enough risks.
Why? Maybe because men are just “foot on the gas pedal”?
“We’re not going to close the achievement gap until we close the ambition gap”.
CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg walks with COO of Facebook Sheryl Sandberg after a session at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 08, 2021 in Sun Valley, Idaho. After a year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world’s most wealthy and powerful businesspeople from the media, finance, and technology worlds will converge at the Sun Valley Resort for the exclusive week-long conference. (Getty Images)
Sheryl Sandberg would like to forget that one part of her business career passed, rarely saying the word “women” in business and political context.
“The person on the other side of the table thinks you’re about to sue them or ask for special treatment, right?”
Is it right that nowadays women face double standards then men?
Let’s see…Men could be allowed to be confident and assertive but women are expected to be collaborative and nurturing.
When a woman pushes her ideas, she is often called “aggressive” and “ambitious.” When a man does the same, he is seen as “confident” and “strong.”
“If you ask men why they did a good job, they’ll say, ‘I’m awesome. Obviously. Why are you even asking?’ If you ask women why they did a good job, what they’ll say is “someone helped them, they got lucky, they worked really hard”.
In her book Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy, Sheryl describes her battle with grief.
After the sudden death of her husband, she felt that her family would never feel pure joy again. ‘I was in ‘the void, ‘” she writes, “a vast emptiness that fills your heart and lungs and restricts your ability to think or even breathe.”
Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and Katie Couric speak onstage during ‘Putting a Best Facebook Forward’ at Vanity Fair’s 6th Annual New Establishment Summit at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on October 22, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California.(Getty Images)
Her friend psychologist Adam Grant shared with her the steps people can take to recover and rebound. Option B is a combination of Sheryl’s personal insights with Adam’s research on finding strength.
Two weeks after losing her husband, Sheryl was preparing for a father-child activity. “I want Dave,” she cried.
A friend said to her, “Option A is not available. So let’s just kick the shit out of Option B.”
As a widow she had to understand that part of her didn’t die because she is still a mother of two children, activist for women rights and business woman, too.
