Business professionalism

Anyone who is familiar with Silicon Valley or kept up with the tech industry will no doubt recognize the name Sheryl Sandberg. She is arguably the most influential woman in Silicon Valley. She is a much sought-after speaker on effective leadership, specifically on issues of women in the tech industry. She is an unabashed feminist who believes that women can play a more active role in eliminating sexism by being more assertive. Rather than spending too much time blaming men for the issues of inequality and pay disparity facing women, Sheryl believes women should start taking responsibility for themselves. This is the thesis of her book, Lean In. In it, she implores women to act in their own behalf to break down institutional and personal barriers to success.

Sandberg released her most recent book on April 24, 2017, titled Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience and Finding Joy. Two weeks after losing her husband, Sheryl said she was preparing for a father-child activity. I want Dave, she cried. Her friend replied, Option A is not available, and then promised to help her make the most of Option B. As the title suggests, this planted the seed for her latest book. It is a powerful, inspiring, and instructional guide on building resilience and moving forward after lifes inevitable tragedies. As Sheryl points out, We are not born with a fixed amount of resilience. It is a muscle that everyone can build.

Her high profile and outspokenness have led some to wonder aloud if she is the one who can upend Silicon Valleys male-dominated culture.149 Ms. Sandberg has demonstrated her effectiveness as a leader not only in the way she has transformed Facebook into a highly profitable enterprise but also in how she has gone about it.

Sheryl Sandberg joined Facebook in 2008 after Mark Zuckerberg, the founder, spent the better part of 2007 trying to persuade her to join him in running the company. Before joining Facebook, Sheryl was Googles vice president for global online sales and operations. Upon her arrival at Facebook, Sandberg proactively set out to present a positive first impression to immediately calm her peers and subordinates alike. It was clear her attitude was very positive toward people and not just to those in top management. She showed an innate belief in people and their work ethic. Sheryl employs a participative, team-centered leadership style in how she runs Facebook. She will walk up to each person and introduce herself rather than wait for people to come up to her. She wants her subordinates to let their guard down and form strong positive social relationships with her.

To transform Facebook into a profitable enterprise, Sheryl engaged in extensive debate with key employees on the best way to achieve their goal. She did not issue orders. Facebooks business model had a compelling value proposition but a weak profit formula. In other words, it was not clear how it was going to monetize itself. Sandberg asked a series of probing questions: Should the company rely on advertising? On e-commerce? Should it charge a subscription fee? She then convened regular meetings with senior executives. During these meetings, Sheryl would go around the room and ask people, What do you think? She welcomed debate, particularly on the issues of advertising and revenue. Out of this consultative process developed a consensus that advertising was the best way to monetize Facebook. Sandberg and her team were convinced that with Facebooks growing subscription base, more and more companies would see it as an attractive advertising medium over traditional media such as TV. They were right; by 2010, a company that was bleeding cash when Sheryl arrived had become profitable. Within three years, Facebook grew from 130 employees to 2,500, and from 70 million worldwide users to nearly 700 million.

Another aspect of Sandberg that her peers and followers will agree on is that she has a real sense of self-concept: what others refer to as ones true self. She exudes self-confidence, positivity, and a high level of self-efficacy, qualities that endear her to many. As Sheryl puts it, I believe in bringing your whole self to work. We are who we are. Being open with your employees, she believes, means that nothing is a surprise to themeven if you fire them.150 She shares her life, both happy and sad times, with her friends and coworkers. Sheryl disagrees with the perception that leaders who get too close to their subordinates by being their true selves risk objectivity and the ability to make difficult decisions involving those same employees. Sandberg did not shy away from sharing her pain with the public when her husband, Dave Goldberg, died of heart-related causes in 2015. Even before her husbands death, Sheryl let her audiences know what a wonderful husband, father, and friend he was to her and their children. She described her marriage as a true partnership of equals.

Today, Facebook has over a billion users, beating analysts revenue and earnings expectations, quarter after quarter and year after year. In her eighth year of running the company as COO, Sandberg has seen Facebooks revenues grow by more than 65 times, from a $56 million annual loss to a nearly $3.7 billion profit, and it now ranks as the fourth-most valuable tech company in the world (after Apple, Google, and Microsoft) with a market value of more than $320 billion.1

1- What seemed to be Sandbergs attitude toward her coworkers when she joined the Facebook team?

2- What is your sense of Sandbergs self-concept, and how does it influence her leadership style?

3- How are values illustrated in the case?

1- What seemed to be Sandberg's attitude toward her coworkers when she joined the Facebook team? 2- What is your sense of Sandberg's self-concept, and how does it influence her leadership style? 3- How are values illustrated in the case? 1- What seemed to be Sandberg's attitude toward her coworkers when she joined the Facebook team? 2- What is your sense of Sandberg's self-concept, and how does it influence her leadership style? 3- How are values illustrated in the case