In a recent interview on 60 minutes, Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer for Facebook, discusses why men still run the world. Despite the fact that women have been getting more college degrees than men for 30 years, they still account for only four percent of CEOs in America’s Fortune 500 companies. She also discussed this matter in her TED Talk a few years earlier. “I think [women] are stalled,” says Sandberg. “I think we’re stalled. And I think we need to acknowledge that we’re stalled so that we can change it.”
Now Sandberg admits she doesn’t have all the answers, but she believes the reason there are so few women at the top is actually the fault of the women themselves. Sandberg thinks the biggest problem is that success and likability are positively correlated for men, but negatively correlated for women. A woman who works as hard as men is often viewed as selfish and difficult. Sandberg argues this is because women underestimate their own abilities. We attribute our success to other external factors, including: help form others, luck, and extreme hard work. When men are asked why they are so successful, they will often respond with something slightly more eloquent than “I’m awesome, duh.”
Now of course this doesn’t apply to everyone, but it’s important for both men and women to own their success. And I believe owning your success has a lot to do with embracing creativity. Teresa Amabile, who has written several articles on creativity. She argues there are six keys to creativity: freedom, challenge, resources, supervisor encouragement, organized support and communication, and workgroup. If applied many of these keys of creativity, could help women get to the top.
Being creative is more than just coming up with ideas. It’s about asking questions, looking for leadership opportunities, and being fearless. Creativity means being uncompromising in order to get the best results. And it means staying motivated and engaged.
This is essentially what Sandberg is telling women to do. Work should be challenging and rewarding, and we should feel like we are making a difference. Sandberg wants more women to “raise their hands, look for promotions, and say “Me! I want to do that.”
Women need to stop putting limits on themselves, conscious or unconscious. And exploring creativity could be the answer. So yes, watch out, because women are about to work harder than ever. I truly believe success is in our own hands and if we want to make something happen, it will.
Sara Wynkoop 