Women
in Leadership
It is true, fewer than 6
percent of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women (Rowe & Guerrero, 2018). This number has barely changed since 2002 and
the change has been in the wrong direction (Sandberg, 2010). Similar numbers apply to all the top
leadership jobs regardless of profession.
Sheryl Sandberg (2010) asserted that “women are not making it to the top
of any profession anywhere in the world” (0:36). She calls this a “real
problem” (0:35). I have to agree with her.
Sandberg (2010) explained
that women have more difficult decisions to make than men when it comes to
professional success versus personal fulfillment. Because of this, women may be dropping out or
choosing to stay home since upward mobility seems out of their reach at
work. Sandberg’s question at issue is,
how do we fix this and change the numbers at the top?
In her TED Talk, Sheryl
Sandberg (2010) looks at this problem not from the point of what business can
do to correct the problem, but from the point of what women can do as
individuals to help correct the problem.
To that end, Sandberg offers three messages to women to help them
achieve greater success in climbing the corporate ladder: 1) Sit at the table,
2) Make your partner a real partner, and 3) Don’t leave before you leave.
Sit at the table
addresses the fact that women tend to underestimate their abilities. As such, they rarely negotiate for themselves
and any success they achieve, they attribute to other people. Sandberg (2010) suggests that women need to
believe in themselves and their abilities, negotiate their own worth, and own
their success. Women need to have enough
confidence in themselves to sit at the table and be heard.
Make your partner a real
partner addresses the hard choice women have between staying at home and
returning to pursue their career. The
workload in homes where both partners work is unbalanced and weighs heavily on
the shoulders of the woman. Balancing
that workload will make it easier for the woman choose to continue their
career. In homes where the workload is
balanced, the divorce rate is lower and intimacy between partners is greater
(Sandberg, 2010).
Don’t leave before you
leave addresses the tendency for women to throttle back on their career the
minute they begin to think about starting a family. They stop looking for promotions, turn down
important projects, and begin to lean back in order to make room in their life
for a baby. Many do this much too
early. Sandberg (2010) asserts they should
stay fully engaged and moving forward up to the day they have to leave to care
for a child or whatever reason they have for leaving.
Sheryl Sandberg (2010)
addressed this issue and presented her message with passion. I have no doubt that her concern is genuine
and she wants to be part of the solution.
Unfortunately, I do not believe her message takes the correct approach
especially ‘sit at the table’. There
other two messages are actually pretty good advice.
I spent the majority of
my career in the military. Most people
would consider this a male dominated environment. In some ways, they would be
correct. However, in terms of leadership, this was not my
experience. During my 24-year career, I
had the privilege of working with numerous women leaders. I would estimate at least half of the leaders
I worked for were women. Men and women
are different. And, men and women are
different leaders. According to Rowe and
Guerrero (2018) research shows that women are more effective than men in
business and educational settings.
“Women are more likely to use transformational leadership, which is
positively linked to performance (p. 334).
This was my experience.
I offer a few
observations of my own. Women leaders do
not bring their ego to the table; men do.
Women leaders listen to really understand the problem, then offer
suggestions that may help. Male leaders
have solved the problem before it has been fully explained. One works with a woman leader, but works for
a male leader. I was blessed with great
leadership throughout my career, male and female. Women approach situations differently. They are more compassionate and
empathic. Men lead from the brain and
women lead from the heart. Neither is
wrong and organizations need both styles of leadership.
This is why I believe
Sandberg is wrong. Her sit at the table
message is encouraging women to be more like their male counterparts. We need women leaders because of their ways,
not despite their ways.
There are many things
that contribute to women being underrepresented at the top. Things like the glass ceiling, having to
choose between raising a family or pursuing a career, gender differences,
prejudice, lack of leadership and mentoring are all alive and well and play a
part in keeping the numbers at the top skewed (Rowe and Guerrero, 2018). Addressing these issues will help. However, instead of getting women to behave
more like their male counterparts, organizations should make the attempt to
understand and appreciate what women bring to the table just by being
themselves. There is a long way to go
before this issue is solved. We need to
make certain that we change the right things.
~Pete
References
Rowe, W. G. &
Guerrero, L. (2018). Cases in leadership
(5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publishing.
Sandberg, S. (2010,
December). Why we have too few women leaders [Video file]. TEDWomen 2010.
Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders
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