Option B by Sheryl Sandberg: Book Review

28 Jun Option B by Sheryl Sandberg: Book Review

Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant. Following the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl Sandberg plumbed the depths of grief and despair. Afraid that her children would never find joy again Sheryl Sandberg, together with friend Adam Grant, a psychologist at Wharton, decided to write a book that presents the latest research around resilience.

Sheryl Sandberg writes with heart wrenching honesty about her personal journey with grief. Sandberg Includes a chapter on building resilience in children. Prepare for your heart to ache as Sandberg shares her children’s response to the news of losing their father and the raw grief in the months following.

Sheryl Sandberg also explores the consequences of not supporting employees facing adversity in the workplace. Whether it is death of someone close, divorce, illness, racism, bullying or sexism. We all at sometime struggle to function at work in the face of adversity. As Sandberg states “The sad truth is that adversity is not evenly distributed among us; marginalised and disenfranchised groups have more to battle and more to grieve.” The very least that employers can do is to provide a supportive environment for their employees to work through grief or adversity in their own way.

Our Recommendation

Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy is recommended reading for anyone who has experienced the death of anyone close or is facing adversity. Should you want to support someone having a tough time Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy will provide the neccesary information. Simarily, if you have lost someone close and feel you haven’t moved on in your grief process then this book provides many ‘a-ha’ moments.

Sheryl Sandberg uses her personal story, together with stories from a board range of people to explore the latest research into resilience. Building resilience is a learnt skill and a skill that can be developed like a muscle. The more you ‘exercise’ it the more resilience will become. Resilience can be strengthened individually, in families, communities and in workplaces. Option B is a handbook for those wanting to take steps towards building  resilience to help create a better world.

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, Sheryl Sandberg’s previous book (see our review here), Sandberg was criticised for not being able to relate to single mothers. In Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy Sheryl Sandberg acknowledges, with heartfelt honesty, that she simply couldn’t relate to single mothers when writing Lean In. Now with her experience as a single mother, albeit a well resourced single mum, she acknowledges it is challenging and society as a whole needs to increase support to single parents. At a minimum address the disparity between male and female wages. See here for the current statistics from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (Australia).

Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy is not a light read, however it is an engaging read because of the clever integration of research, with Sandberg’s and other people’s stories of adversity.

Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy is rated a 4 out of 5 stars.