Leadership Tips from Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg

Sheryl Sandberg is the bestselling author of Lean In, a self-made billionare and the Chief Operating Office of Facebook. She also happens to be an excellent leader and manager.

With that in mind, below is our latest episode of IN:60 where we deconstruct some of the best leadership tips from Sheryl. Watch the short video, or read the transcript below.

Transcript: In today’s episode of IN:60, I’m going to talk to you about leadership tips from Sheryl Sandberg the COO of Facebook.

Let’s do this.

Sheryl Sandberg is the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook but she’s also known as the author of Lean In, the New York Times bestselling book about women, work, and the will to lead.

Here are 3 tips about leadership that Sheryl has shared with her fans around the globe that I wanted to share with you.

Check them out.

Tip #1:

“It is hard to visualize someone as a leader if she is always waiting to be told what to do.”

When I was younger, my father said, “Your boss always has 30 or 40 things on their mind that are stressing them out. If you can relieve them of 2 or 3 of those things, they’ll be grateful and will give you more responsibility moving ahead.”

It was great leadership advice then, and it’s great leadership advice now.

Tip #2:

“The upside of painful knowledge is so much greater than the downside of blissful ignorance.”

This involves being made painfully aware of your shortcomings. That’s not fun, because most of us would like to believe that we don’t have shortcomings. Or that people can’t see the ones we do have.

But people know about your shortcomings. So it’s better to know about them, and then learn from them.

And that leads to tip #3.

Tip #3:

“Done is better than perfect.”

I know that concept can be counter-intuitive, but here’s the way to think about it. In school, if you get a grade of 90, you get an A. If you get a grade of 100, you get an A+. But it takes twice as much effort to go from a 90/A up to a 100/A+.

So you do the math – get more stuff done, by getting a 90/A on everything you do, or strive for a 100/A+ and get less done and run the risk of burn-out.

My vote is a 90/A and it’s served me well throughout my career. 

That’s all we have time for today. To subscribe to my YouTube channel, just visit our home page and click subscribe: YouTube.com/60SecondMarketer

About Jamie Turner: Jamie Turner is an internationally recognized speaker, author, and management consultant who was recognized as one of the top 10 best speakers in the world by CarreerAddict (along with Ariana Huffington, Daymond John, and Gary Vaynerchuk). His client list includes The Coca-Cola Company, AT&T, Microsoft, Verizon, SAP, T-Mobile, and Holiday Inn. You may have seen Jamie in Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur, Business Insider or the Wall Street Journal. He’s also a regular guest on CNN and HLN where he contributes segments on marketing, persuasion, and leadership. He is an adjunct professor at both Emory University and the University of Texas and has been profiled in the world’s best-selling advertising textbook.