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Sheryl Sandberg new book urges women to ‘lean in’ and own their power in the workplace

As top brass at one of the planet’s biggest companies, Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg has helped keep the nine-year-old social media network firmly upon its world-domination trajectory – no mean feat for any web-based endeavour.

At 43, her resume is as outstanding as her work ethic. While still in her 20s, she became chief of staff to Larry Summers, then the United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Bill Clinton. In 2001 she moved on to Google, where as Vice President of Global Online Sales & Operations she contributed to the company’s $250 billion net worth.

In the process, she’s become an inspirational figure to women across that same planet, many of whom admire her success, vision and drive. Yet she remains one of the few females at the helm of a major U.S. company.

To that effect, Sandberg's new book released Monday addresses women in the workplace. More specifically, “Lean In” discusses why there are so few of them in serious leadership positions at the office.

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She spoke to 60 Minutes correspondent Norah O’Donnell to talk about why that continues to be the case in 2013 and what we can do to keep busting down that door.

“Women attribute their success to working hard, luck, and help from other people. Men will attribute that-- whatever success they have, that same success, to their own core skills,” she says.

Women tend to be more concerned with being liked at work than men, a factor that often prevents them from acting assertively and instead choosing to “play it safe,” she maintains.

Couple that with a lack of self-belief and the pressure of having children and many women start to “lean back.” Sandberg’s advice is for those same women to push back and “lean in” instead.

“I'm not blaming women,” Sandberg continues. “My message is not one of blaming women. There's an awful lot we don't control. I am saying that there's an awful lot we can control and we can do for ourselves to sit at more tables, raise more hands.”

Men still vastly outnumber women in top jobs, and Sandberg suggests that this is a systemic issue as much as a logistical one.

“Plenty of women are as ambitious as men. What I am saying, and I want to say it unequivocally and unapologetically, that the data is clear that when it comes to ambition to lead, to be the leader of whatever you're doing, men, boys, outnumber girls and women,” she says.

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Part of breaking that ideological mold is to start encouraging our girls to take control instead of ceding their power in order to fit the cultural idea of a “good girl.”

“This is deeply personal for me. I want every little girl who someone says they're bossy to be told instead, ‘You have leadership skills,’” she says. "Because I was told that [I was bossy]. And because every woman I know who was in a leadership position was told that.”

It also means learning how to speak up and demand the same things men appear to have much less problem demanding – anything from a raise to a promotion.

“The things that hold women back from sitting at the boardroom table and they hold women back from speaking up at the PTA meeting,” she tells 60 Minutes.

And it’s the single mom as much as the woman in management positions at work that she wants to address.

“Knowing how to ask for a raise successfully, it's probably more important to [the single mom] but certainly just as important to her as it is for a woman in the executive suite.”

But Sandberg’s fighting words haven’t come without the requisite blowback.

Critics have taken her to task for writing from her lofty perch in the billionaire’s club and others who espouse a more “traditional” view of the world have blasted her for her values, arguing that children suffer when women are too busy running companies to raise them.

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Arianna Huffington even penned a Wall Street Journal editorial that suggested women may be jeopardizing their health by aiming too high.

“[W]omen in stressful jobs have a nearly 40% increased risk of heart disease and a 60% increased risk of diabetes than their less-stressed colleagues. According to the latest study from the American Psychological Association, women are more likely than their male colleagues to feel stressed during a typical workday, due to many factors, including feeling underappreciated in the workplace,” she writes.

Instead, she says, we need to learn how to “lean back” and not allow career to overtake everything in life to the detriment of health and family.

“The world needs women to redefine success beyond money and power. We need a third metric, based on our well-being, our health, our ability to unplug and recharge and renew ourselves, and to find joy in both our job and the rest of our life,” Huffington adds.

Where do you sit on the debate? Add your thoughts in the comments section below.