A640.8.2.RB - Women in Leadership

A640.8.2.RB - Women in Leadership

Sheryl Sandberg’s Ted Talk covers many of the issues and challenges facing women leaders today. Sandberg briefly mentions some topics that companies use (mentoring, flextime and training programs) that she did not discuss in depth in her talk. Evaluate either Sandberg’s discussion of the importance of messages (self-talk and words we share with others) or one of the methods that she did not focus on. Use the elements of thinking to frame your discussion and provide any examples (personal or theoretical) to your explanation.

            Women in Leadership is such a hot-button thing for me. Watching this TED Talk I was nodding my head along with the women in the audience. Working in the aerospace business is mostly about trying to challenge the ideas of yesterday. It’s also about the good ‘ole boys club. In my organization, I can see things just starting to change for the better. Our site leader is a woman. She has a strong personality without being masculine. She is caring and tough. She is a woman in leadership. We need more female leaders who are unafraid of bringing up more females with them. Other explanations for the lack of representation of women in the top levels of management include women having fewer developmental opportunities, having less responsibility in the same jobs as men, having less access to mentors, and being in jobs that do not lead to leadership positions. (Rowe & Guerrero, 2013) Women can be petty and competitive when we should be supportive and collaborative.

            Sheryl also talks about partners being real partners. She says, “I think, as a society, we put more pressure on our boys to succeed than we do on our girls.” This means that we don’t put enough pressure on girls to succeed. We as a society have not adequately challenged our little girls. We give them Barbies with impossible beauty standards and tell them they are sweet princesses but we don’t praise them for being smart or clever. We dress them in pink and tell them to be nice – nice doesn’t challenge their brains and bodies. We have to be equal partners with our men. We have to partner with each other and take up the slack where we can for each other. Mutually and without judgement. In order to do that, we have to make sure that our girls and boys are raised as equals. And that the societal roles of men and women are allowed to evolve. [A]as companies…instate paid paternity policies — it’s worth keeping in mind that a law or on-the-books rule is just the first step in encouraging dads to take time away from work. Just as important are those fathers who are willing to actually use their paid time off; their actions can set a lasting and meaningful precedent for other men, even many years down the road. (Gavett, 2014) If we talk about equality, it means for everyone – men who want to stay home and watch the kids or women who want to run the world. We need to cut down archaic societal norms and expectations for everyone.

            Sheryl talks about sitting at the table. I do this. I always sit at the table, if it’s a room full of managers and I’m just support, I still sit at the table. I don’t worry if there are enough seats for all of the managers, I just sit at the table. I listen and I take notes. My colleagues don’t always do this. To be honest, I do it because it’s easier to hear everything and write when I’m at the table. I didn’t know it was something that is actually helping my career. But now I see how it diminishes them to be sitting on the sidelines when the action is taking place…at the table. Why does this matter? Boy, it matters a lot. Because no one gets to the corner office by sitting on the side, not at the table, and no one gets the promotion if they don't think they deserve their success, or they don't even understand their own success. (Sandberg, n.d.) I don’t always keep my hand raised though. This is something I’m going to do in the future, literally and figuratively. This is excellent advice.

            So yes, women in leadership is a very hot-button topic for me and I try to not get defensive or up on my soapbox. I should be more unapologetic for my passion about it though because the women who fought for our place at the table would be so disgusted with us for taking it all for granted. The thing is though - now we’re at the table. We’re there. We’re even sitting at the head of some of those tables. We don’t need to posture or bully people anymore. We don’t have to act like men to be equals. We can begin to develop as women leaders – different from male leadership. Different – not better or worse. Just different. And isn’t that the point? Isn’t that prospect exciting? I think so.

References:

Gavett, G. (2014). Brave men take paternity leave. HBR.org. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2014/07/brave-men-take-paternity-leave

Rowe, W. G., & Guerrero, L. (2013). Cases in leadership (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

Sandberg, S. (no date). Why we have too few women leaders. TED Talk. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders