The Problem is the People, but Which People?

In my second job out of college, my boss' boss would often say, "Wherever you go there's always a problem and the problem is always the people." I wondered to myself, "Yeah, but which people?"

In my previous post in this series, I recounted how reading Sheryl Sandberg's book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, reminded me of my grandfather refusing to let my grandmother pursue her master's degree because he didn't want her to have more formal education than he did; a sad example of a woman wanting to lean in to her career and a man not just failing to support her through passivity, but actively preventing her from achieving more.

I mentioned in that post that my motivation for reading Lean In was to become a better leader. Sandberg is an amazingly successful business leader. She was integral to building both Google and Facebook. Another motivator was that I want to be able to speak to my daughters about Sandberg's book from having read it, not from having read about it. 

Lean In came out in 2013 and was a number one international bestseller, but it wasn't without criticism. I'm not going provide a critique or a review as I'm not qualified to do so. I will share some of the things I thought were interesting and valuable to me. I encourage you to read it for yourself and to read the criticism also.

Sandberg tells us she wrote the book

"to encourage women to dream big, forge a path through the obstacles, and achieve their full potential. I am hoping that each woman will set her own goals and reach for them with gusto. And I am hoping that each man will do his part to support women in the workplace and in the home with gusto. As we start using the talents of the entire population, our institutions will be more productive, our homes will be happier, and the children growing up in those homes will no longer be held back by narrow stereotypes." (Sandbrerg, 2013, p. 171)

I mostly agree with Sandberg. There is some daylight between us around the heteronormativity of the statement, but in general, I agree that we should encourage and support women to reach their full potential. I want the same for anyone regardless of their gender or where they fall on the spectrum of biological sex. I think any good natured, rational person should want any other person to achieve their full potential.

Sandberg's reasons for writing Lean In beg the question, are women failing to reach their full potential? The book and a few minutes searching online make it clear that women are underrepresented in traditional positions of power, and are paid less than men for the same work. 

Women make up 50 percent of the population, yet they currently hold 10 percent of Fortune 500 CEO positions and that's a record high (Fortune, Hinchliffe). Kunal Modi, cited in my previous post points out that women make up only 17 percent of the U.S. Congress and 16 percent of C-suites. (Huffington Post, Modi)

"Women earn 57 percent of undergraduate degrees and account for nearly 60 percent of all graduate school enrollment. However, in the disciplines that continue to define America's economic future -- engineering, computer science, mathematics, and physical sciences -- women earn less than half of all degrees." (Huffington Post, Modi)

There's debate about the cause of these disparities. Recall the 10 page document authored by James Damore, "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber," where Damore presented evidence that biological differences between men and women may explain these disparities. As with so much of social science, here, the science is unsettled. (Wired, Molteni)

Damore's memo cites studies that show "men systematize, women empathize" and that this may be the reason for women's underrepresentation in technical or leadership roles rather than active discrimination. Yet even in high empathy roles like human resources where "76% of HR Managers are women, male HR Managers earn 40% more than their female counterparts." (Visier, Barron) Read that again. If it's not active discrimination, there are egregious sins of omission resulting in this pay gap. 

Given these facts, it's hard to believe anyone would argue in good faith that women are realizing their full potential. 

If we accept that there's a problem, what is the cause? My old boss' boss would say it's the people. Sure, but which people? Why are women underrepresented in leadership and how do we fix it? Sandberg has much to say on this and I'll dive into it in my next post. 

Until then, I'm taking inspiration from Beyoncé's going hard and slaying all day, maybe you will too.

Lean In for Yourself

Small family farming is a labor intensive way to go broke. 

When I was young I spent some weeks each summer with my grandparents. As farmers and cattle ranchers, my grandparents scratched out an existence. My grandpa was up before dawn feeding cattle and out working fields of corn, milo, sorghum, soybeans, and wheat until after sunset. There were too few boom years, and too many bust years. They had neighbors who lost everything. My grandparents survived.

One thing that helped keep them afloat was my grandmother's rural elementary school teacher salary. When we ran errands together we frequently encountered her former students and it was clear from the things they said that they loved and respected her.

At one point she decided to get her master's degree. My granddad stopped her. He didn't like the idea that she would have more formal education than he did.

I've been thinking about this bit of my family history lately, prompted by reading Sheryl Sandberg's book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.

My granddad may have perceived that his pride was spared by preventing my grandmother from pursuing her master's, but I've been thinking about the emotional, financial, and communal costs. Was my grandmother wounded by this? How could she not be? She would have made more money over her career and may have been a better educator, which would have benefited an entire community.

If he would have been supportive, allowed her to lean in to her career and leaned in more at home himself, how would things have been different?

As I said, my reflections on this were prompted by Sandberg's book, which I read because I'm a people manager and Sandberg is an incredibly accomplished leader and I want to pick up the lessons of great leaders wherever I can. 

I'm also a father to three young women. I want to support them in their careers and Sandberg is arguably one of the most successful business leaders of all time, perhaps I could learn something that would help me help my daughters.

This personal family anecdote came to me as I was thinking about this quote from Sandberg's book:

"Kunal Modi, a student at Harvard's Kennedy School, wrote an article imploring men to 'Man Up on Family and Workplace Issues.' He argued that 'for the sake of American corporate performance and shareholder returns, men must play an active role in ensuring that the most talented young workers (often women...) are being encouraged to advocate for their career advancement... So men, let's get involved now -- and not in a patronizing manner that marginalizes this as some altruistic act on behalf of our mothers, wives, and daughters -- but on behalf of ourselves, our companies, and the future of our country." (Sandberg, 2013, pp. 165-166)

Modi calls men to support "the most talented young workers," not out of altruism, "but on behalf of ourselves," Had my granddad supported my grandmother's pursuit of her master's degree, it would have been to his benefit, to the benefit of his family, and to the benefit of the community.

We should follow Modi's advice and ensure "that the most talented young workers (often women...) are being encouraged to advocate for their career advancement." We shouldn't do this out of altruism, as Modi suggests, we should do it because it will benefit everyone, including ourselves.

Note that Modi doesn't say we should do this for women only, he says we should do it for our "most talented young workers," and the implication is that that group may include women, and if it does, we should be encouraging them because they are the most talented. This doesn't appear to be about affirmative action or Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. It's about encouraging the best, period.

This is the first in a series of posts where I'm reflecting on Sandberg's book in an effort to synthesize my own understanding of the issues and to glean general management insights. In the next post, I'll offer evidence from Sandberg's book and elsewhere supporting her thesis that there is a problem.

I'll end this post with Taylor Swift's tribute to her grandmother, Marjorie.