The much derided term ‘lean in' came from Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, but Jan Hills argues that the idea merits more praise
Whether you are a man or a woman to lean into your career means to give it all you’ve got, to work hard but also to plan your career to fit your life. This is not life-work balance but career and life planning; understanding when you need to push forward and when to hold back, to take a break or take a role that gives you time for family or caring. It also means companies acknowledging that there are different phases in peoples’ career and planning alongside employees. Makes sense to me, even if the book by Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg (Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead) is getting some very critical press. Whatever your gender recognising and having the sense to manage different periods of your work life can only help you and the company. It could even replace outmoded policies about life-work balance.
So maybe the idea of ‘leaning in’ is worth another look, especially if it builds confidence.
But will this approach make the difference in the leadership of business, particularly with respect to getting more women into senior roles? The MPF HR leaders event (http://www.mpfglobal.com/groups/human_resources.aspx) last week looked at the issue of gender quotas to get more women into top jobs in large organisations. The numbers are still pretty poor. There are just two female chief executives at FTSE 100 companies and in 2013 only 17.3% of women on FTSE 100 company boards. This is actually a fall in the percentage over previous years. Yet government targets call for 25% women on boards by 2015.
Research from Randstad about how women view quotas revealed that most (94%) did not want quotas and felt they would not help.
More interesting to me was the finding that 73% women felt the thing holding them back was self-doubt and a lack of confidence, while 84% felt this could be dealt with, but presumably their companies were not helping them with that? I would recommend they watch Amy Cuddy’s excellent video about how adopting confident poses changes the brain and ultimately confidence levels. You can also check out our Self Mastery cards, which are free at the moment, for tools and tips for gaining confidence and meeting your goals.