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How Sheryl Sandberg’s Sharing Manifesto Drives Facebook
Article

How Sheryl Sandberg’s Sharing Manifesto Drives Facebook

The COO inspires her fans, and her employees, to talk about sadness, even tragedy, at work. That can be healing – and very good for business.


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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • For Beginners
  • Engaging

Recommendation

Is it okay to cry at work? Sheryl Sandberg has famously said yes, and in her book, Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy, she argues that workplaces should make room for even the most difficult emotions. Personal sharing boosts the bottom line, Sandberg says, forging bonds of trust between co-workers and customers and enhancing leaders’ soft power. Bloomberg News journalist Sarah Frier traces Sandberg’s rise from Google exec to globally influential workplace “culture shifter,” explaining how Facebook’s COO has come to embody the company’s mission “to make the world more open and connected.” getAbstract recommends this article to leaders, female professionals and anyone who wonders if emotions belong in the workplace.

Summary

Just before Facebook’s IPO in 2012, the company’s COO Sheryl Sandberg made a confession to a reporter: She regularly went home at 5:30 p.m. to spend time with her family. That admission made the news and reverberated throughout the corporate world. Female professionals sent her flowers in gratitude for her bravery. Later that year, Sandberg rewrote the manuscript for Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead to incorporate more of her personal experiences with women’s issues in the workplace. The book proved ...

About the Author

Sarah Frier is a San Francisco–based technology reporter for Bloomberg News, covering Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and start-ups.