Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In, is an enjoyable book. Her advice to be honest is good because it can be hard to honest to people at times depending on the situation. Sandberg brings up a office situation where people might be afraid to speak their mind because of their bosses or colleagues perception of them. She recounts a story about Mark Zuckerburg learning Chinese from employees who are native speakers. One employee tried to tell Mark about her boss. But he couldn't understand so he said simpler. The employee eventually said that her manager is bad. She furthers explains that this is good, if people were more honest and simpler with their words organizations would perform better.
She also says that give feedback to people is important to build good working relationships. She also says it is okay to share emotions because it builds deeper relationships. That emotions influences are decisions.
I feel this is important because people try to be detached from their personal lives at work but it cuts of this certain part of yourself. Once you share the other part of yourself with people you do build stronger relationships and it feel more comfortable to work with them.
In chapter 7, Sandberg talks about how women are expected to get married and have children at a young age and that some women plan for it before they should. Women tend to start leaning back and not taking new projects or promotions because they are worried about juggling work and having children. When women do return to work they don't feel accomplished and they feel unfulfilled. This is were she came up with the saying "don't leave before you leave" meaning that women need to keep working hard for their career until the child actually arrives. I believe that holds a lot of meaning for many women. Parents expect their daughters to settle down and have kids and put that in their mind at a n early age. I think that women need to keep pushing themselves forward even before the baby is born.
Your writing about honesty got me thinking. You've clearly been frustrated with your group, but you've not been able to find a way to get them to listen to you. It's possible that almost NOTHING would get them to listen, and we'll talk about this when we meet with your group during the evaluation. But think about why you've not been able to get yourself heard. You're not at fault here; that's not what this is about. But finding a way to push in (I'm not sure leaning in is really enough) is a real challenge. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
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