Postcards

Career advice from Sheryl Sandberg and Amex CEO Chenault

Here's a workplace dilemma: How does a male boss mentor a woman in a world where 64% of men are afraid to be in a room alone with a female employee?

Ken Chenault has no fear. "You've got to develop relationships. You can't do things just in a formal context," says the American Express (AXP) CEO, who promotes informal mentoring at his company.

Here's Chenault and Facebook (FB) COO Sheryl Sandberg talking with me MORE

Podcast: Sheryl Sandberg on men and Lean In

Want to hear my interview with Sheryl Sandberg about what men can learn from Lean In...and how the Facebook (FB) COO applies her book's message to her own family? Click here.

Senior exec at GE steps down

First Facebook (FB) COO Sheryl Sandberg told us to Lean In.

Now New York Magazine—on its cover this week—tells us about "leaning back."

In the spirit of the latter, General Electric (GE) announced this morning that Charlene Begley, once viewed as the company's youngest rising star, is stepping down from her two big jobs: Chief Information Officer and head of the $8 billion Home and Business Solutions unit.

Begley, 45, is taking a MORE

Advice from a male CEO: "We all need to Lean In"

In the crazy media buildup to Monday's release of Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, author/Facebook (FB) COO Sheryl Sandberg was surprised that men didn't chime into the public discourse. That changed in the past few days. PIMCO CEO Mohamed el-Erian wrote a wise commentary on Sandberg's crusade. I interviewed Sandberg about her message to men. Next week, I'll share with you my interview with Sandberg and MORE

Sheryl Sandberg's message to men

Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead seems to be a book for women only.

Maybe it's not.

New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) Jamie Dimon threw book-promo bashes for Sandberg this past week.

This morning, I met with Sandberg and American Express (AXP) CEO Ken Chenault—another male master of the universe whom the Facebook (FB) COO has captured on her Lean In bandwagon.

Maybe it's feminist MORE

Is Sheryl Sandberg's "stagnation" claim true?

Sheryl Sandberg's evangelism—take risks! go for the big job! Lean In, sister!—hinges on her claim that women aren't moving up in corporate America. Is the Facebook COO-cum-feminist champion right that we are in a state of stagnation?

"There's stagnation at the very top," Sheryl Sandberg told an audience last evening at the Time Warner (TWX) Center in New York.

Here and at just about every stop on her marketing blitz for Lean In: MORE

While Sheryl Sandberg Leans in, Marissa Mayer lies low

A look at Silicon Valley's two most powerful women from a journalist who has known both for nearly a decade--and offers news about Mayer's controversial HR policy and nursery at Yahoo

Never in the history of book marketing has there been a crusade quite like Sheryl Sandberg's. Last Thursday in New York, the Facebook (FB) COO hobnobbed with former U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, film director George Lucas and Barbara Walters MORE

Ex-Lehman CFO Erin Callan stirs the pot on women and work

Facebook (FB) COO Sheryl Sandberg and Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Marissa Mayer aren't the only ones stirring up debate about women in the workplace.

Sunday's New York Times featured an unexpected guest writer: former Lehman Brothers (BCS) CFO Erin Callan on "Is There Life After Work?"

As you may recall, ex-Lehman CEO Dick Fuld pushed out Callan and President Joe Gregory in June 2008, four months before Lehman crashed into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. MORE

Martha Stewart reformed, style-wise at least

When Martha Stewart appeared in court in downtown Manhattan today--her first time in a courtroom since 2004, when she was convicted of lying about a stock trade to the government--she took a brand new tack, style-wise.

In place of the extravagant Birkin handbag that critics clutched upon to cast Stewart as a diva hardly relatable to her middle-class customers, she carried a bag that ordinary folk can afford: a walnut-colored Avery MORE

How AOL got its new brand chief

The straight path to success has never much interested Susan Lyne.

Starting as a journalist, she went from creating magazines for Rupert Murdoch to running ABC Entertainment for Walt Disney (DIS) to heading Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO)--then led online fashion retailer Gilt Groupe.

So Lyne's arrival today at AOL (AOL), as CEO of its Brand Group, comes as a surprise…and not.

"This represents a convergence of all that came before--print, video, technology MORE