There is a known gender gap in corporate leadership in the United States. Specifically, out of the fortune 500 companies, currently only 21 have females as CEO (Catalyst, 2013). Sheryl Sandberg, COO of social network giant Facebook, believes that women have failed to ‘lean in’ as she calls it. In her speech at the TED conference of December 2010, she conveys the common female identity in the workplace and the balance women often seek to create a family life amidst their work roles. In one of her highlighted points of the discussion she encourages women not to ‘leave before they leave’. What she means by this is that once a woman begins to consider expanding her family life such as having a baby, the female often begins to mentally abort her ambitions at work and recedes into her personal life plans mentally. Sheryl coins this approach to work life as ‘leaning back’ and instead encourages women to ‘lean in’.
Research suggested by Sandberg reveals that when men and women were surveyed on how well they have done with their grades women on average estimated lower than they actually have achieved and men over estimated their performance. The correlation drawn from these findings was that men’s confidence have translated to ambitious and successful performance and the opposite with women. Women underestimate themselves to the effect that they retract their ambition and lean back from going after their once sought after goals. Perhaps women have underestimated themselves because society has failed to help them identify ways in which they succeed best in the workplace from a leadership perspective. In other words, how can they best lead in the workplace so that their work can be recognized and they can advance into higher level roles.
According to Eagly, A.H.; Johannesen-Schmidt, M.C. & van Engen, M.L. (2003) women are found to be more successful than men in transformational leadership. It is of my opinion that organizations should take up this research to lead a hallmark initiative in their 21st century policies to help equalize the leadership field and balance the gender inequality in the workplace. A female leader could be delegated the role to spearhead a transformation leadership approach that would involve mentoring as well as designing the message of the organization to the staff that has a transformational focus.
Transformation leaders empower followers and help them transcend their own interests for the sake of others according to Northouse (2013). They become role models, center their vision on morals and help establish a sense of identity in the workforce. My case being, where women are empirically found to be strong leaders, they should be assigned to lead in those same faculties.
Transformational leadership is backed by a large volume of validated research. It also has a cross-cultural ability that is not limited to the United States. And lastly, transformational leadership is a skill that can be developed and fostered in followers. Perhaps this could be a major in-road to help equalize the gender leadership imbalance we currently see impeding progress in equality in the current global economy.
Sheryl Sandberg’s ‘Lean In’ speech at TED 2010
References
Eagly, A.H.; Johannesen-Schmidt, M.C. & van Engen, M.L. (2003). Transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles: A meta-analysis comparing women and men. Psychological Bulletin, 129(4), 569-591.
Knowledge Center | Catalyst.org. (2013, July 1). Catalyst | Catalyst.org. Retrieved July 29, 2013, from http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/women-ceos-fortune-1000
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Sandberg, S. (2010, December 1). Sheryl Sandberg: Why we have too few women leaders | Video on TED.com. TED: Ideas worth spreading. Retrieved July 29, 2013, from http://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_why