Lean In

If you are a woman, read this book. 

Lean In is a book by Sheryl Sandberg, who currently is the COO of Facebook (FB). She joined Google at its start up and was there for over six years before she joined FB to take the lead of someone who was only 23 at that point of time. 

I won't glamourise about her. I am just a third through the book and I cannot decide if I would like her until the end of the book. But I find so many lessons in the book that I wish fervently it has been published as a reading text for the girls in their college, tertiary education. Male readers would perhaps find this book very skewed, it could be because they are MALE? Much as I love my father, husband, brother and some of my male friends, there are certainly times when "The men don’t get it", just like what UOB lady's card said. 

But these aside, guys should read this book too for the advice that was dished out by some of the most talented people in the world, who are still alive and had proved that their attitude and thinking works.

Check out this advice dished out by Eric Schmidt, and I quote:

"...he explained that only one criterion mattered when picking a job - fast growth. When companies grow quickly, there are more things to do than there are people doing them. When companies grow more slowly or stop growing, there is less to do and too many people to not be doing them. Politics and stagnation set in, and everyone falters. He told me, 'If you are offered a seat on a rocket ship, you don't ask what seat. You just get on.' "

Whao, right? That solves the mystery of office politics!

Get onto the right rocket, and even if the launch mission is not successful, just being in that rocket would bring about a difference in thinking. The experience is not something that one can get from every job. 

I still remember my first job. It was a new start up, and though the launch mission failed, it provided a fantastic learning ground. The start-up team was one of the closest team that I had ever worked with throughout my career. There was totally no politics, we were working our ass off right from the start. Some of those on the team became the best friends I could ever have. When politics is out of the way, wonderful things happen. 

Sandberg believes in setting a long term dream and an eighteen-month plan. I love her eighteen-month plan that includes learning a new skill. This is something that I incorporate into my own mid-term plan too; it feels good to see this being advised in the book. Challenge yourself; everyone has room for improvement. 

I read reviews that some readers felt Sandberg belongs to a small elite group, and hence her talks in the book do not walk in the life of normal, day-to-day female. I personally felt this does not matter - if we are not in the elite group and know no one in that group, isn't it great to be able to read about how these people succeed in the comfort of your couch and bed? 

Lean In is available in Singapore National Library for a loan. 

Or get it and add to your home library from Book Depository or Amazon. Remember to take the shipping into consideration :)