The book Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, made tremendous waves when it was published in 2013. It was a clear call from a successful woman to other women mainly about managing their careers more intentionally, more boldly, and paying attention differently to the rules of the game. I appreciated Sandberg’s call to step up, not to play small, and not to hesitate in negotiating salary or moves up the ladder.
In her TED Talk, Sandberg described how women unintentionally hold themselves back in their careers and urged them to be fearless and bold. She expanded upon these ideas in Lean In: “Women need to shift from thinking, I’m not ready to do that,to thinking, I want to do that -- and I’ll learn by doing it.” I would define the restraint or “I’m-not-ready-ness” as the collateral impact of stories we tell ourselves about our worth, our value and