Executive Summary The book Lean In was published March 12, 2013 by Alfred A.

Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. Sheryl Sandberg author of Lean In, wrote this for businesswomen who want to make it to the top. She received her BA in economics at Harvard, and her MBA from Harvard Business School. She is the Chief Operating Officer at Facebook, prior to that she was Vice-President of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google, and the Chief of Staff for the United States Department of the Treasury. I got this book from Barnes & Noble. I chose this book because I will be a woman in the workplace and I want to increase my chances of making it to the top. The Leadership Ambition Gap: What Would You Do if You Werent Afraid? Women need to believe in themselves, let go of their fears, and aim to lead. Fear is at the root of so many of the barriers that women face (Sandberg 24). So many fears we face inside, such as fear of: not being like, making wrong choices, overreaching, nagging, failing, being judged, disappointing, rejection, and most importantly being a bad wife/mother/daughter/sister. On top of all these fears, there is a pressure from society to get married at a young age and an assumption that being both a good mom and a successful professional is difficult to near impossible. Sit at the Table Women are facing a battle from within we tend to underestimate ourselves. In fact in a case done they found that women judge their performance as worse than it really is while men do the exact opposite. Women need to stop watching from the sidelines and feeling like they arent good enough and need to boost self-confidence. A great way to increase confidence is to simply fake it till you feel it. If you act more confident eventually you will feel more confident. Success and Likeability Success and likeability are positively correlated for men and negatively correlated for women. There was a gender case study done called Heidi-Howard, where they took Heidis entrepreneur story, and changed half of the papers to Howards name instead of Heidi. Results were that they both were equally competent, however Howard was more liked, and Heidi seemed selfish and not someone you would want to work with. This gender bias is why women are held back. In order to achieve more success we must own our success and take credit for it! Negotiating is a big problem because women dont want to ask for a promotion or increased salary and so on. Negotiating is like trying to cross a minefield backward in high heels (Sandberg 48). In order to succeed in negotiation, women must combine niceness with insistence, and provide a legitimate reason for the negotiation. For example: someone more senior suggested you try. Its a Jungle Gym, Not a Ladder You can only get to the top of a ladder one way, but there are many ways to the top of a jungle gym. Sandberg suggests when looking for a job create two concurrent goals, a long-term dream and an eighteen-month plan. Plus look for a job with fast growth or potential for growth because when companies are growing there is potential for you to grow with the company.

Dr. Iva Jeanne Sluder !

September 26, 2013

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Are You my Mentor? Mentorship and sponsorship are vital for career advancement. But dont ask a complete stranger to mentor you; you must build a relationship first. Women are outnumbered in the workforce and therefore senior men need to mentor both men and women. In order to make mentorship more equal companies are moving towards more formal mentorships rather than informal ones. Seek and Speak Your Truth Authentic and effective communication is essential for good business. We need be honest and remember that there are two points of view, my truth and his/her truth. Humor is a great tool for being an effective leader and can help in delivering honest and direct messages in a friendly way. Dont Leave Before You Leave Dont let your future plans of children and marriage impact current opportunities. Make Your Partner a Real Partner Women need to share the at home responsibilities with their partners. There needs to be a 50-50 split in order to have a successful and happy relationship. Sharing everyday tasks such as grocery store trips, laundry, cleaning, and cooking can make a big difference. Women need to let go of some control and encourage their husbands to help when it comes to child care and house care. The Myth of Doing It All No one person can do it all, which is in fact why it is a myth. We all have many responsibilities from working to taking care of the children to cooking to cleaning. In thinking that we can do all these task perfectly we are setting ourselves up for failure. We need to not focus on what we cant do and simply do what we can and not feel guilty for what we cant. Lets Start Talking About It Gender biases exist even if we dont acknowledge them. Nonetheless we do need to start confronting them. The F word, feminist, shouldnt have a negative connotation. A feminist is someone who wants equality between the sexes. In order to change the inequality we have to confront them. Moving towards a more equal world will increase everyones happiness. Working Together Towards Equality There are gender stereotypes and social norms, which even if we do not admit everyone does think about it. We need to fight these stereotypes and norms to reach equality. If a woman wants to stay at home and raise children rather than working then she shouldnt be judged by that and vice versa. The same goes for men, if they want to be a stay at home dad they should be supported and respected. We all need to work together towards true equality, to 50-50. Overall Evaluation I personally loved this book. I thought Lean In was very well written, sharing personal stories to make good points and offer helpful advice. I liked how at the end of each chapter she would tie the last paragraph back to the title of the chapter. This book has empowered me, and opened my eyes. Before reading this I didnt know how imbalanced the workplace is, and it makes me want to work even harder to help all of the women out there.

Dr. Iva Jeanne Sluder !

September 26, 2013

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Works Cited Sandberg, Sheryl. Lean In: Women, Work, And The Will To Lead. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013. Print.