In Facebook’s early years, the startup’s motto was “move fast and break things”.
This was before the Cambridge Analytica scandal, before the platform was used to spread disinformation about elections and COVID-19 vaccines – basically before we knew the social network’s real potential. how to break things. But the problem with messing up stuff is that eventually you need someone to come and clean up the mess.
Enter Sheryl Sandberg. Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg never hid the fact that he hired Sandberg as COO to handle “things I don’t want.” That includes figuring out how the company will make money, but also serves as an antidote to his hoodie-wearing, college dropout personality. Fifteen years older than Zuckerberg, Sandberg is literally and figuratively the adult in the room. The trio of Eric Schmidt, Larry Page and Sergey Brin popularized the term “adult surveillance” at Google, but it was Sandberg at Facebook who really embodied the term.
Sandberg resigns as COO of Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc. late last year, it was the first in a string of recent departures of senior women in tech and media, culminating in YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki and Vice CEO Media Inc., Nancy Dubuc, announced last month that they would be leaving their respective roles. Without jumping into new high-profile gigs, they leave behind a complicated legacy when it comes to women who have reached the top in the business world.
One of the key questions to address is why the path for these high-achieving women, especially in the tech world, often requires them to play Adult roles. It is a trademark that implies a certain type of operator; someone who makes sure everyone behaves properly and on schedule, who provides stability and reliability — but not necessarily with great vision. For a generation of women, it may be the only way in. But amid the recent departures, it’s time to consider how limited that label can be in perpetuating the false image of women as imperfect leaders and shouldering the “office housework” does not help career advancement.
It leads to this: If men in tech are the genius boy by default, it’s still way too often for senior women – especially at the top – to still be way too often for moms. office. Laura Kray, a professor of leadership at the Haas School of Business told me: “It’s disastrous. “It adds an extra layer of complexity to the job: Make us billions of dollars but be kind when you do it and make us cookies too.”
Take a look at Dubuc, who joined Vice from A+E Networks in 2018. At the time, the digital media startup was grappling with accusations of promoting a toxic brother culture under its rule. founder Shane Smith. “She is strategically portrayed as the mother hen,” AdAge wrote a year after she took over, “who purports to herd the cranky, skateboarding Vicers who previously had little supervision. adult supervision.” Never mind that in addition to changing the company’s culture, she was also tasked with the impossible task of turning Vice’s finances and selling off the company amid a struggling digital media industry. towel.
Even Wojcicki, one of the first Googlers, who in February said she was leaving the company in 25 years, has called all the things adult supervision is meant to signal — right. even when not openly pinned as an adult: “non-threatening,” “most measured person in tech,” “extremely ordinary, almost boring,” “not an investor visionary but an open and analytical person,” and “the mother of Google.” Never mind that she pushed the company to acquire YouTube and, as its CEO, turned it into a massive (albeit problematic) streaming business. And despite being the “mother of Google,” she never reached the top of the list at Alphabet Inc. When the board appointed Wojcicki colleague Ruth Porat CFO in 2015, the New York Times hailed that “adult surveillance is back at Google.” The article mentioned “discipline” nine times, noting that Porat was the perfect person for the job because “Google is maturing and seeking more credibility with investors.”
One reason adult surveillance is so rampant in Silicon Valley is the rise of founder-god thinking in the 2000s. This ethos is perpetuated by Andreessen Horowitz, who is credited with venture capital firm that has developed its reputation and business on the belief that the founders must remain the CEO to sustain the company’s mission. But that often means bringing in a seasoned executive who can fill any gaps that an inexperienced founder lacks — in other words, a Sheryl Sandberg.
This model became so dominant that Christa Quarles, CEO of software company Alludo, told me that when she was looking for the latest step in her career, she was shocked by the numbers. number of people telling her to “be someone Sheryl. Tick.” They wanted her to be CEO without title, economic or moral authority. She told me, “I don’t know how many men they’ll say this to. (It’s worth noting that while Schmidt seems to accept his adult supervisory duties at Google, he must at least become CEO.)
The chief executive then became one of the few high-profile roles that women in tech could fill, a phenomenon that my then-colleague Leigh Gallagher detailed. in a 2018 article in Fortune magazine. Gallagher questions whether the influx of female COOs will create a new generation of female CEOs, or instead transform into a kind of glass ceiling of their own — “a position from which successful female leaders can be found.” promote the development of the industry, in a permanent support role, without breaking into the club of CEO boys.
I followed COO Gallagher’s mention and, at least so far, the latter seems to be true. Few have moved into the role of chief executive officer. Even Sandberg, who was at one time touted as a possible candidate to lead companies like Walt Disney Co. Or even a presidential candidate. No one seems to talk about those options to her anymore. There’s still a chance she’ll become CEO of a Fortune 500 company. But it seems like she’s been so tainted by Meta scandals, yes, in many cases she has helps create, but is primarily responsible for cleanup.
If the tech world’s answer to this dilemma is that women should just start and run their own companies, then they might want to start by actually investing in them. Last year, startups founded by women raised 1.9% of all venture funds. However, there are signs that the old pattern of never replacing a founder with a more seasoned leader is finally starting to crack. Jana Rich, CEO and founder of executive search firm Rich Talent Group, told me she has never seen so much CEO hiring activity. That could eventually mean a new route for women to the corner office without the baggage claim that comes with adult labeling. If that happens, it could be a sign that Silicon Valley is growing up.
Beth Kowitt is the columnist for Bloomberg Opinion on American Companies. She was previously a writer and senior editor at Fortune Magazine.
