{"id":5254,"date":"2018-12-09T02:53:43","date_gmt":"2018-12-09T02:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/how-the-star-of-sheryl-sandberg-dimmed\/"},"modified":"2018-12-09T02:53:43","modified_gmt":"2018-12-09T02:53:43","slug":"how-the-star-of-sheryl-sandberg-dimmed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/how-the-star-of-sheryl-sandberg-dimmed\/","title":{"rendered":"How the star of Sheryl Sandberg dimmed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div property=\"articleBody\">\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width lead\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" alt=\"Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg gives the commencement address at the 2018 Massachusetts Institute of Technology commencement in Cambridge, MA on June 8, 2018\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/8D0C\/production\/_104680163_gettyimages-969818910.jpg\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\"\/><span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><figcaption class=\"media-caption\"><span class=\"off-screen\">Image caption<\/span><br \/>\n                <span class=\"media-caption__text\"><br \/>\n                    Sheryl Sandberg is one of the world&#8217;s most powerful women in business. But the calls for her to go are getting louder.<br \/>\n                <\/span><br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Facebook is in crisis. And the firm&#8217;s chief operating officer, once the golden girl, is taking the heat.<\/p>\n<p>It has been a sharp turn for Sheryl Sandberg.<\/p>\n<p>Just last year, the Facebook executive was touring to promote her latest bestseller, basking in the glow of being a global business celebrity, frequent presence on most powerful women lists and rumoured US political candidate.<\/p>\n<p>But as Facebook has lurched from scandal to scandal over the past 18 months, investors, customers and and lawmakers alike have been looking for a scapegoat.<\/p>\n<p>And with Mark Zuckerberg &#8211; who founded the social network out of his Harvard dorm room in 2004 &#8211; perceived as nearly untouchable, the pressure has mounted on his second-in-command.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Zuckerberg and Facebook&#8217;s board have said they stand by Ms Sandberg, resisting calls for her to step down.<\/p>\n<p>But when former First Lady Michelle Obama used uncharacteristically loose language to dismiss Ms Sandberg&#8217;s career advice catchphrase, &#8220;lean in&#8221;, she seemed to underline just how far Ms Sandberg&#8217;s star had fallen.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not always enough to lean in because that [expletive] doesn&#8217;t work,&#8221; Mrs Obama said.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the anger directed at Ms Sandberg makes sense.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                 <span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Ms Sandberg, who helped develop Google&#8217;s ad business before joining Facebook as chief operating officer in 2008, is a key architect of the world of online advertising.<\/p>\n<p>That industry is now reeling from a series of scandals related to the collection of personal data, election interference by foreign governments and discrimination complaints.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Sandberg has overseen Facebook&#8217;s response to the controversies, which has seen the firm publicly pledging to do better, while privately hiring a hard-nosed opposition research firm to investigate critics and competitors.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/amp\/technology-46235818\" class=\"story-body__link\">Tech Tent: Has Facebook reached peak crisis?<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/technology-44206996\" class=\"story-body__link\">Who&#8217;s policing Facebook?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The strategy has failed to quell the criticism.<\/p>\n<p>Facebook&#8217;s market value has plunged by nearly $200bn since July, US authorities have re-opened investigations and lawmakers appear increasingly inclined to pass new rules regulating the firm.<\/p>\n<p>Recent reports in the New York Times that revealed some of the more unseemly details of the campaign &#8211; such as queries about whether investor George Soros stood to gain financially from his criticism &#8211; only aggravated public outrage.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Shame on you, Sheryl. I believed in you, I leaned in. You are a fraud. You were supposed to be the adult supervision, but you are just another corrupt, corporate shill,&#8221; one woman, Carol Tiernan, wrote recently on Ms Sandberg&#8217;s Facebook page.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                 <span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><figcaption class=\"media-caption\"><span class=\"off-screen\">Image caption<\/span><br \/>\n                <span class=\"media-caption__text\"><br \/>\n                    Ms Sandberg was known around the world. Here, she poses with students in China in 2015<br \/>\n                <\/span><br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Few would argue that the fault lies with Ms Sandberg alone.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Zuckerberg, who has been called to testify before lawmakers in numerous countries, has stumbled repeatedly on questions of privacy, with flare-ups on the question that date to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecrimson.com\/article\/2003\/11\/19\/facemash-creator-survives-ad-board-the\/\" class=\"story-body__link-external\">earliest days of the site<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>But Mr Zuckerberg&#8217;s status as founder and controlling shareholder has offered him a measure of protection. <\/p>\n<p>And the public long ago wrote him off as a robot, characterised by an uncomfortable amalgam of confidence and awkwardness.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Sandberg meanwhile has cultivated a celebrity profile with a 2013 bestseller, Lean In, which counselled women to embrace their career ambitions; as well as a 2017 follow-up, Option B, which grappled with the sudden death of her husband.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/technology-46231284\" class=\"story-body__link\">Mark Zuckerberg, missing in inaction<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-31727796\" class=\"story-body__link\">What impact has Lean In had on women?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The books offered up Ms Sandberg as a role model, which may be why her part at the firm feels to some like such an unsettling betrayal.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I had so much respect for you, not any more,&#8221; Daniel Marein-Efron, wrote recently on Ms Sandberg&#8217;s Facebook page.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-with-caption\">\n<div class=\"player-with-placeholder\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"media-placeholder player-with-placeholder__image narrative-video-placeholder\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/images\/ic\/720x405\/p05hl4s9.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Media playback is unsupported on your device<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><figcaption class=\"media-with-caption__caption\"><span class=\"off-screen\">Media caption<\/span>100 Women: Sexism in tech is like &#8216;a thousand little cuts&#8217;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In some ways, the anger directed at Ms Sandberg represents a familiar story.<\/p>\n<p>Repeated academic studies have shown that firms are more likely to install female leaders at times of crisis &#8211; a phenomenon known in academic world as the &#8220;glass cliff&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>And ultimately, many of those women end up taking the fall for problems &#8211; even when they bear less responsibility for them than Ms Sandberg does.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-44310225\" class=\"story-body__link\">Top 10 worst excuses for not appointing women executives<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/1\/hi\/magazine\/3755031.stm\" class=\"story-body__link\">Introducing&#8230; the glass cliff<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Female leaders are also subjected to personal attacks of a sort that men like Mr Zuckerberg tend to escape.<\/p>\n<p>In this case, media accounts, quoting anonymous employees, have provided detailed studies of Ms Sandberg&#8217;s leadership flaws, faulting her for things like creating a clique-y environment hostile to negative feedback.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That is very much consistent with the kind of blame and scrutiny that women corporate leaders receive when they are managing their companies through crisis,&#8221; says Christy Glass, a professor of sociology at Utah State University, who studies women in business.<\/p>\n<p>But Ms Glass said that while the some of the vitriol directed against Ms Sandberg is clearly &#8220;gendered&#8221; &#8211; she also presents a special case.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She is exceptional in the extent to which she has cultivated a very public corporate personality and by doing so, she&#8217;s a household name in the way that [chief operating officers] of other companies are not,&#8221; Ms Glass says.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                 <span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">AFP\/Getty<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><figcaption class=\"media-caption\"><span class=\"off-screen\">Image caption<\/span><br \/>\n                <span class=\"media-caption__text\"><br \/>\n                    Mr Zuckerberg has been called to testify before lawmakers<br \/>\n                <\/span><br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Brenda Darden Wilkerson, president and chief executive of AnitaB, a charity that works to increase diversity in the technology industry, says she worries the heat attracted by Ms Sandberg will discourage other companies from appointing women to positions of power.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When people like Sheryl come under undue scrutiny, it creates a culture that impacts our ability to move forward with an inclusive and diverse workforce,&#8221; she says. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not to say that these criticisms that are being [lobbed] against the company aren&#8217;t valid. It&#8217;s just that they need to be [lobbed] in a way that are not personal to the female leader and more objectively to the male leader.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/technology-40465519\" class=\"story-body__link\">Silicon Valley&#8217;s women have spoken. Now what?<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/technology-46367\" class=\"story-body__link\">Facebook and its \u2018black people problem\u2019<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>No board wants to be the one that fires one of the few female technology leaders &#8211; especially while letting her boss escape without consequence, says Scott Galloway, professor of marketing at New York University&#8217;s Stern School of Business.<\/p>\n<p>But he says the way to resolve what has become a tortured public debate over whether Ms Sandberg should stay or go is simple: Fire Mark Zuckerberg as well.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It <i>is<\/i> unfair that now everyone is calling for her head,&#8221; he says. &#8220;The appropriate response is to call for the head of the CEO and the COO.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s ok,&#8221; he adds. &#8220;CEOs and executives are fired all the time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mr Galloway says he expects Ms Sandberg to leave the company within the next 12 months.<\/p>\n<p>But he cautions: &#8220;To a certain extent, all of this naval gazing and existential crisis around Ms Sandberg is a side show.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This problem will not go away unless there is a dramatic change in the approach and culture of the firm and the only way you do that is by removing the CEO.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-46445909\">Source<\/a> by <a href=\"\">[author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Sheryl Sandberg is one of the world&#8217;s most powerful women in business. But the calls for her to go are getting louder. Facebook is in crisis. And the firm&#8217;s chief operating officer, once the golden girl, is taking the heat. It has been a sharp turn for Sheryl Sandberg. &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}