Lean in is a book I’ve always wanted to read from the first day I saw it. The three words at the cover caught my attention – Women, Work, and Leadership.
These three words have unique interconnectivity that I just could not resist. I’ve been looking forward to reading this book and I gripped it from the moment I found it on the shelf.
Sheryl Sandberg is the Chief Operating Officer for Facebook where she has worked in since 2008. She has also worked with Google and lots of major brands.
She began her career as a staff at the US Treasury Secretary, Larry Summers, since then she has climbed the corporate ladder and is now the only female at the board of directors for Facebook.
Her book –Lean In encourages women to be more assertive in the workplaces, stock filled with her experiences on motherhood, leadership, and career. Lean in is a book I encourage every Motherland Mogul to read.
Here are some few tips I picked from chapter 1 alone. I hope it wills you to pick up on this book from the shelf.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WEREN’T AFRAID?
Statistics show that:
At the top fifty colleges, less than a third of Student Government Presidents are women
Profession ambition is expected of men but is optional, or worse, sometimes even a negative-for women
“And for all the progress, there is still societal pressure for women to keep an eye on marriage from a young age,” She wrote in her book.
Sheryl shares the story of her first marriage. She married early expecting that it would secure a happy life for her. “In my head, 24 is the perfect age to get married, I think it’s time I do some rethinking”. She said.
[bctt tweet=”For all the pressure to be successful, I felt a higher pressure to get married early – @sherylsandberg” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”]
“Many women still see ambition as a dirty word,” she says
That’s true. Just the other day I told my friend that my sister was very ambitious like it is a bad word. She works with a large editing firm and when I tell people that, they go “hey that’s cool, she should think of getting married’.
They honestly do not expect more from her. She has proved her point, she has worked hard, now it’s time to get married.
“Leadership roles are not the only way to have a profound impact.” – Sheryl Sandberg
Hellen Keller says “Power is being able to make a decision in the thing that matter to you” sometimes being a CEO may not be the thing that matter most to people.
Sheryl closes the chapter saying – “Writing this book is what I would do if I weren’t afraid”
Now you, what would you do if you weren’t afraid?
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