n WORTH NOTING
buzzwords
lean in
READERS SOUND OFF
IN THE COMMENTS
/lēn - in/
To grab opportunities
without hesitation
BY Vanessa Labi
ILLUSTRATION: Jason Balangue
Dial In, Link Up
I
n 2013, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg wrote, “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will
to Lead,” a manifesto directing women to take charge of their careers.
Countless criticisms followed, with powerful women pushing back against the no-
tion that they simply needed to try harder, rather than a necessary shift in the flawed
standards of corporate culture. Or as Meghan Phillips, CEO and founder of Sacramento-
based marketing firm Honey, says: “I don’t know if I could lean anymore without falling
flat on my face in a pile of mud.”
THE BUZZ
Poor Time Management is
Bad for Your Health
Glenn Mandelkern: I once heard this observation
that we really can't manage time. In many other
forms of management, we make progress by
either adding or trimming, e.g., increase sales or
cut costs to generate more profit. Yet with time,
there's nothing we can really do to gain or lose
more than the 24 hours we get each day. We
can't acquire a 25th hour. The suggestion was
then made that while we can't manage time, we
can indeed manage priorities. We can then de-
cide what we will spend more of our time on and
consequently what we will choose to do less of.
This [makes] us more available to what matters to
us and others we deem important in our business
and personal lives. We'll also be more effective.
Have something to say? Email us.
[email protected].
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comstocksmag.com | March 201 9
Sandberg told women to demand a seat at the table, make their voices heard, delegate
work and believe they deserve success. Women, she suggests, can grab opportunities
as they come their way with careful attention to the paradigm shifts needed to balance
work and family.
Her message seemed to be that if women would just lean in, they could accomplish
everything and have it all — you know, things like an illustrious career, ideal family life,
marriage, spirituality, and all with the perfect pilates body.
But Sandberg was forced to reexamine her own message four years after publishing
the cultural zeitgeist, when her husband died unexpectedly and she found herself the
single working mother of two children. On the role of supportive partnerships, she told
Time in 2017, “I got that wrong.”
THE WORD
Phillips says support is essential to an ability to “lean in”— but women shouldn’t have to
be married to get it. “If you have a partner, that’s incredible. But [support] comes from
friends, it comes from a village of people to be supportive of a medley of things.”
As a business owner, Phillips tries to support her staff by providing flexibility
and maintaining what she describes as “familial core values,” meaning leadership
with an empathetic attitude toward employees — and their need to balance life’s
many demands.
"We’re extremely flexible with work hours,” she says. “I believe if you need to get out
of the office and take your laptop somewhere, you can do it. Everybody [is on a] 'get your
work done' basis.” One of Phillips’ employees, currently pregnant, will have the option of
bringing her infant to the office once she returns.
Having this flexibility helps employees, particularly women, to lean in. Phillips, her-
self a working mom, knows how empowering that level of flexibility can be, whether
you’re a parent or not.
“I hate that women have to question if they have it all, because no one does,” Phillips
says. “It’s really about being fulfilled in what you do.”
Victoria Ipri: I was thrilled to see the phrase
"living and breathing document" in this article.
I've been saying this to my job seeking clients
for 13 years. They know what a resume is for, but
don't really understand the nature of the LinkedIn
profile. Great read!