Businessmen might not seem like the primary audience for Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, but a recent New York Times article demonstrates the positive effect the book has had on male leaders’ attitudes toward women in business.
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“I don’t read a ton of business books, but I thought it was crazy that there aren’t more women in finance. I look around at my team of seven people, and one of them is a woman. That is not the right ratio. How do I fix that?” James Dominick, who oversees $1 billion in assets at a South Korean bank in New York, tells the Times. Later, he said, “After reading the book, I now understand that women are promoted on achievements and men are promoted on promise, which is something from a behavioral bias standpoint just worth knowing.”
Dominick isn’t alone. The Times spoke with several men who have been inspired by Sandberg’s book. One, a founder of a technology company, hired the first female member of his management team, thanks to Lean In. Men are joining Lean In circles and bringing them to their companies, including top executives at companies like Cisco and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
None of this is a mistake.
“Early on, I was thinking of having one chapter just for men, but then I decided to have all the chapters speak to men,” Sandberg tells the Times. “We have to tell men why equality is good for them, at any income level.”
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