In December 2010, she gave a TED talk titled "Why we have too few women leaders." She followed that up a few years later with the best-selling book, Lean In, in which she discusses not only workplace barriers that blunt women’s leadership roles, but also the internal, self-created and societal gender role barriers.
Lean in, she says, to break down barriers to female leadership. Let your voices be heard in business and politics.and go for leadership roles. Lean In Circles have been established globally so that women can help each other with these issues.
What interested me the most about her thesis is how women unintentionally hold themselves back in their careers.
Do we fear we’re being too direct, which is not a negative for men? In meetings, do we speak up or wait for the men to speak? Do we sit at the table, or along the sidelines where we won’t be so visible? Do we tell ourselves “we’re not qualified,” that we’re an impostor? Do we take the first salary offer or do we negotiate? Do we hear our own ideas ignored, and then given credence when delivered by a man? Do we discount our achievements?
As an example, she was listed fifth most powerful woman on Forbes annual “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” in 2011, following German chancellor Angela Merkel, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Brazilian president and the CEO of Pepsi Co. She was embarrassed, shocked and horrified, and when congratulated, declared the list “ridiculous.” Her executive assistant admonished her about revealing her insecurity. Instead, just say “thank you.”
It brought back a memory of myself, a freshman in college, walking across campus to get my grades at Carnegie Tech and a classmate, walking with a boy I admired, called out: “Hey, I heard you got a 4.0.” And the boy said, “What a brain!” And of course that was a negative for a girl, even though Carnegie Tech was considered a brain factory for the guys. I was embarrassed rather than proud of my accomplishment. At other times I would hide my intelligence, until some teacher would notice my writing and hold it up to the class as a great example. Embarrassed again!
Sandberg wrote of muting her own achievements, starting at a young age. “I instinctively knew that letting my academic performance become known was a bad idea.” Why is this? Because culturally we associate men with leadership and women with nurturing and being “nice.” If a woman is competent, intelligent and successful, she may not be “liked.” And so it’s a challenge to own one’s success, to claim credit for what one has accomplished.
So how does Science of Mind fit into this? Although Sandberg is advocating for women, men can learn from her also. Men, as well as women, may put limitations on themselves. She asks, regarding the leadership-ambition gap: “What would you do if you weren't afraid?"
Without fear, we would be confident...confident to grow and challenge ourselves, to express ourselves completely. As Ernest Holmes says: Fear is the negation of confidence; it brings limitation and lack in its wake rather than the full, rich life we desire. And there is noting wrong in our desire for self-expression. God is more completely expressed through the person who lives largely than through the one who lives meagerly.
He also says: “To overcome fear and to live without limits is the greatest adventure of the mind of man”...and of woman!
And so it is.
