What would you ask Sheryl Sandberg?
What would you ask Sheryl Sandberg if you had the chance? Users of question-and-answer website Quora quizzed the Facebook chief operating officer on a range of topics, from how to boost numbers of women in tech, to how she organizes her day, to what she would have told her younger self.
In last week’s Q&A, she also opened up about a misunderstanding early on in her partnership with Mark Zuckerberg.
Here are some of the highlights:
Parents’ bedtimes
Sandberg, a mother of two, described joining Facebook as an experienced tech executive in 2008 when there were only 550 employees, and late-night meetings and all-night hackathons were a core part of the culture.
“I realized even before I started that I wasn’t going to totally fit it,” she said. “One night, as Mark and I were considering working together, I called him at 9pm. He said he was at a dinner and asked if he could call later so I told him I’d be up for another 30 minutes.
“The next morning he reached out asking if I was feeling OK; he assumed that I’d been sick, since I went to bed at 9.30pm. I explained that with two young children, 9.30pm was often my normal bedtime.”
Zuckerberg recently became a father for the first time and announced he would take two months of paternity leave to support his wife Priscilla Chan: “I love that Mark is now experiencing parenthood first hand! I don’t think he yet has a 9.30pm bedtime, but maybe one day he will,” Sandberg said.
She also revealed that tennis star Serena Williams is one of her role models, and that her bedtime is 9.30pm.
Career advice
Asked what she would tell her younger self, Sandberg listed three things: “Find work you love; believe you can do anything; and know there’s no straight path to where you’re going. When you believe in what you are doing, you can combine passion with contribution – and that is a true gift. Keep trying and you will find what you love to do… and once you do, you will crush it.”
Sandberg, the author of bestselling book Lean In and founder of non-profit organization LeanIn.org, which helps women achieve their goals, explains that believing you can do anything is important for everyone, and especially for women.
“Don’t let anyone say you can’t have both a meaningful professional career and a fulfilling personal life,” she says. “When you hear someone say you can’t do something, know that you can and start figuring out how. Ask yourself, ‘What would I do if I weren’t afraid?’”
Sandberg points out that you don’t have to know exactly where you’re going throughout your career, and that if you stick to one straight path you may be missing opportunities. “You don’t have to have it all figured out.”
She recommends adopting two concurrent goals:
- A long-term dream: It doesn’t have to be realistic or even specific. For example, you might say you want to work in a specific field, travel the world or have more free time. Even a vague goal can provide direction.
- An 18-month plan: Set personal goals for what you want to learn in the next year and a half. Ask yourself how you can improve and what you’re afraid to do (that’s usually the thing you should try).
‘Ruthless prioritization’
Sandberg writes that during the week, she plans her days around taking her children to school, going to work and getting home in time for dinner. Making meetings as productive as possible is an important part of that.
“At Facebook, we hang posters around our campus to inspire us. Two of my favourites say ‘Ruthless Prioritization’ and ‘The future belongs to the few of us still willing to get our hands dirty’. Those posters influence how I plan my day – I spend my time on what matters most, and I still get my hands dirty every day.”
She also revealed that Zuckerberg has improved the efficiency of meetings at Facebook this year. “He asks people to send material in advance so we can use the time for discussion, and we try to be clear about our goal when we sit down for a meeting – are we in the room to make a decision or to have a discussion?”
Supporting women in tech
The lack of women in tech is a major problem for the industry and the wider economy, Sandberg explained in response to a question about what men can do to support women in tech.
The number of women choosing a career in the industry has plummeted – women were 35% of computer science majors in 1985, but only 18% today.
“By 2020 the United States will have 1 million unfilled roles in computer science and engineering – if women majored in CS at the same rate as men, we could cut this gap in half.”
There is a huge incentive for men to support the growth of women in the workplace and many ways they can do it. She recommends training like the kind Facebook uses to educate employees about their unconscious biases.
“One of the most important things we can do to promote diversity in the workplace is to correct for the unconscious bias that all of us have. All of us – including me – have biases.”
She also suggests men join or start Lean In Circles for students and professionals in computer science and engineering. These are small groups that meet regularly to help people achieve their ambitions.
Men can also support women by being a “50/50” partner at home: “We cannot get to an equal world without men leaning in at home – and those who do have stronger marriages, and healthier, happier, more successful children.”
She adds: “If you’re a manager or leader, think about what you can do to make work work for parents.”
Do MBAs matter in tech?
Sandberg, a graduate of Harvard Business School, believes that business school is not essential or even very useful for people who want to work in tech.
Answering a question about whether her master’s in business administration was helpful or gave her “additional credibility or other advantages”, Sandberg said that while she benefited from doing an MBA and acknowledged it might be important “for some people and in some situations”, it wasn’t necessary at Facebook.
“I believe – and at Facebook we believe – that degrees are always secondary to skills. In hiring at Facebook, we care what people can build and do,” she writes.
She also reveals that Facebook tends to look for people with general skills over candidates who are highly specialized: “We don’t look for a specific background or skill-set when we make hiring decisions,” she wrote. “As my friend and Instagram COO Marne Levine says, we hire athletes and cross-train them.”
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Author: Rosamond Hutt is a Senior Producer at Formative Content.
Image: COO of Facebook Sheryl Sandberg speaks during the session “The Future of the Digital Economy” at Davos 2015. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich
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