...about "Lean In." Sandberg hits some useful notes in her sections on how hiring managers talk to women about family decisions. Actually, she really does hit her stride - and offer the most useful contributions - not when she offers advice to the vast majority of the female rank and file, but rather to their management (unsurprising, since that's where she has the most experience). Even if I can't be Sheryl Sandberg, I wouldn't mind having a boss like her.
There's a really interesting section in the book that details how Sandberg hired Priti Choksi into a fairly senior role at Facebook. Apparently Choksi considered declining the offer, but changed her mind when Sandberg asked her point-blank if she was planning to have children soon. This is just not a conversation I could ever imagine going down between a man and a woman, no matter how well-intentioned they both were. Nonetheless, there should be a better paradigm for approaching women's fertility - and its consequences for career advancement - than the de facto "don't ask, don't tell" that has evolved in the modern workplace.
Sandberg does seem kind of endearingly clueless about a lot of the real world, however. In a very brief segment on the whole Larry Summers thing, she mentions an episode when she and LS were on a work trip. She went to his hotel room to iron out a presentation, and by the time they were done it was 2 am. They were in a quandary - what would people think if they saw her leaving his room at that hour?
She presents this anecdote in order to emphasize the point that men should be able to mentor women without being suspected of ulterior (ie sexual) motives. Great, but in a world of Phaneesh Murthys, how exactly does she propose that people go about assuming the best? This may be one of those cases where the 1% spoil it for the other 99% - or it may not.
Finally, she cites sympathetically the example of a fellow CEO (male) who called HR on a female manager who asked for a promotion and said that she felt she was being paid less because she was a woman. I was dissatisfied with Sandberg's superficial treatment of this episode, where she didn't present any positive alternatives to an admittedly difficult scenario. She admits that the the female employee was "speaking her truth" but also says the CEO had no choice but call in lawyers. Okay, maybe, but what would have been a better way for either of them to handle this? Sandberg stays mum. Not helpful. The entire message of the book up until now has been "speak your truth or you won't get ahead" and now it's "okay maybe don't always speak your truth." Also, she totally lets the CEO off the hook. When someone makes this kind of accusation, the correct first response is to examine the facts and determine (privately maybe) if the woman's claim might actually be true.
Anyway, that's the last of my "Lean In" posting. And now on to other topics...
(Picture of Sheryl Sandberg from the World Economic Forum)
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