Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

"I haven’t heard as much about this book in the last few years, but when it came out it was really impactful, not just because Sheryl is incredible, but also because it had some really pragmatic examples and tips for what it means to be a woman in the workplace. More important for me is what it tells us about how to be a man in a workplace with women. The title of Lean In is based on this moment Sheryl walks into a conference room. The women are at the back and the men are at the table and she’s like, ‘What? Get to the table!’ And the equal and opposite side of this is that men have to make room at the table, physically and metaphorically. What is our obligation as leaders? To create an environment where women feel they belong, get equal opportunities, and can thrive. This isn’t a passive activity. This is hard work. The world has so many built-in biases toward men that I didn’t notice until I started looking for them. For me personally, Lean In was the start of my realization that building a great company is more than just inventing products and selling them and being a unicorn. It’s also taking a hard look at how the leadership team acts, including the board. Are there women in the room? Are they first-class citizens? Are we promoting women the right way? Are women getting opportunities for special projects, for speaking engagements? And on and on. All of this is foundational cultural change and requires convincing men to lean into this work. So Lean In began years of evolution. We’re not there yet. I don’t think men are doing enough. We’ve opened some doors but there are lots more to open. Anyone in a leadership role, especially in technology companies, needs to read this book and others like it that talk about how it feels to be a woman at work and then do something about it. I’ll give you a concrete example of this. At AppNexus, I realized that I was mentoring some men and some women, but I kept hearing that it was harder for women to find mentors and get to work on special projects. So I decided to only mentor women on the thesis that men had plenty of opportunities, and that this would have the most impact and maybe set an example for others to check their own biases too. It turned out to be a huge educational experience for me because I got to understand so much more about what it’s like to be a woman in my own organization. I credit Lean In for making a lot of these issues mainstream. There are other great books, but for me this one started my journey towards wanting to be a much more aggressive ally for women and for nurturing women leaders. I think that’s one of the powerful things about books. Lean In did completely change the narrative. We’re a memetic society, memes are powerful, we all want to be like each other in some way. I do think it gave us an opportunity to be part of something. Going back to Crossing the Chasm , in a way we jumped across with that book. It’s not a side thing anymore. If you’re a leader and you’re not actively focusing on gender issues, you’re behind the curve and putting your business at risk. Your board is reading Lean In, your team is reading Lean In, your potential employees are reading Lean In . It’s why newspapers are great. If you’re not reading the New York Times today, then you’re missing out on all these stories. If you’re not subscribed to The Browser , if you’re not reading Five Books , you’re missing out. I sound really smart in meetings because I read them! Lean In did that on a massive scale. The entire corporate world was listening to Sheryl Sandberg. That was an incredibly powerful step forward, a big step change for an industry that wasn’t going fast enough (and still isn’t!)."