Lean In

Fear is at the root of so many of the barriers that women face. Fear of not being liked. Fear of making the wrong choice. Fear of drawing negative attention. Fear of overreaching. Fear of being judged. Fear of failure. And the holy trinity of fear: the fear of being a bad mother/wife/daughter.

Without fear, women can pursue professional success and personal fulfillment—and freely choose one, or the other, or both.

What is your biggest problem, and how can I solve it?

ourselves react emotionally and feel whatever anger or sadness being criticized evokes for us. And then we should quickly move on. She points to children as her role model. A child can cry one moment and run off to play the next.

feeling confident—or pretending that you feel confident—is necessary to reach for opportunities. It’s a cliché, but opportunities are rarely offered; they’re seized

found that women who participate in multiple roles actually have lower levels of anxiety and higher levels of mental well-being

Mark and I sat down for my first formal review. One of the things he told me was that my desire to be liked by everyone would hold me back. He said that when you want to change things, you can’t please everyone. If you do please everyone, you aren’t making enough progress. Mark was right.

The ability to learn is the most important quality a leader can have.

We all want the same thing: to feel comfortable with our choices and to feel validated by those around us. So let’s start by validating one another.

Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.

author Alice Walker, who observed, “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”