硅谷两大女强人成功之路大比拼

    现年43岁的桑德伯格和37岁的梅耶尔在谷歌共事时关系和睦，但并不亲近，部分原因在于她们在公司的不同领域工作。桑德伯格的工作关乎钱和规模——打造全球销售和运营团队，帮助谷歌成为一个赚钱机器。梅耶尔是工程师的女儿，她拥有斯坦福大学（Stanford）的计算机科学硕士学位，1999年毕业后就直接进了谷歌。身为谷歌首位女性工程师，她每周工作100个小时，指导产品的外观和体验，很是享受工作的每一分钟。

    两位女性都有远大的梦想。2008年，桑德伯格离开谷歌、成为马克•扎克伯格Facebook的二把手；而梅耶尔留了下来，相信自己出色的工作表现能推动内部晋升之路。自认有些腼腆的技术专家梅耶尔告诉人们，她认为职业就像“爬阶梯：如果你准备向上走到高一级的台阶，或者说承担更多责任，不妨现在就开始做上一级的工作。升职就会水到渠成。”她的理念或许有些幼稚，因为她在谷歌工作的最后两、三年里，她被晾到了一边。去年夏天，雅虎（Yahoo）董事会物色CEO人选时，她已经有孕在身，但还是准备接手这项全新的工作。

    桑德伯格是一位骄傲的女权主义者。众所周知的一点是，大多数时候，桑德伯格下午5点半就下班回家去带两个年幼的孩子。她崇拜女权主义领导人格劳瑞亚•斯坦尼姆，依赖CEO丈夫大卫•高德伯格分担家务，认为扩大影响圈“是一种女权宣言”。只比桑德伯格小7岁的梅耶尔有时似乎属于另一代人。她说：“我不会认为自己是一名女权主义者。”在美国公共广播公司（PBS）记录美洲女性崛起的纪录片《创造者》（Makers）中，她解释说，她认为“女权主义者”是个“负面词汇”。

    桑德伯格在努力改变这个世界的同时，梅耶尔有其他更重要的事情。她正在一心一意地要扭转雅虎的命运。或许，也没有那么一心一意。去年秋天她告诉我，她眼中的事务优先顺序是：“上帝、家庭和雅虎——这就是她的顺序。”

    梅耶尔拒绝公开讨论她新推出的人事政策——就在上上周，我批评了她宣布禁止在家办公的声明。有几个事情值得关注：这个政策只会影响到雅虎1%的雇员。梅耶尔准许有特例。（她和负责人事的执行副总裁杰基•雷瑟斯在过去一周一直在审核申请。）经理们如果希望留住那些表现优异的远程办公人员，在特定情况下将允许下属在家工作，或者支付安置费用，把这些人员安排到雅虎办公室工作。随着上上周百思买（Best Buy）宣布正在按雅虎的做法调整公司政策，针对梅耶尔决定的愤怒情绪开始消退。

    Sandberg, 43, and Mayer, 37, were friendly but not close to one another at Google, in part because they worked on different sides of the company. Sandberg was all about money and scale—building the global sales and operations teams that has helped make Google a financial machine. Mayer, an engineer's daughter who has a Masters in computer science from Stanford, joined Google straight out of grad school in 1999. The company's first female engineer, she worked 100-hour weeks directing the look and feel of the products, enjoying pretty much every minute of it.

    Both women dreamed big. But while Sandberg quit Google in 2008 to become Mark Zuckerberg's No. 2 at Facebook, Mayer stayed, trusting that great work would propel her inside the company. Admittedly a shy geek, Mayer told people that she views a career as "a step function: When you're ready to take the next step or take on more responsibility, you should start doing your job at the next level. The promotion will come naturally." Her philosophy may have been naïve, since Mayer got sidelined in her last couple of years at Google. Last summer, when Yahoo's board was looking for a CEO, she was pregnant and ready to step into a big new job.

    Sandberg, who famously leaves the office at 5:30 pm most days to go home to her two young children, is a proud feminist. She adores Gloria Steinem, leans on her CEO husband Dave Goldberg to share housework, and considers Lean In "a sort of feminist manifesto." Mayer, who is only seven years younger than Sandberg but sometimes seems to be of another generation, says, "I don't think I would consider myself a feminist." In Makers, the PBS documentary about the rise of women in America, she explains that she considers "feminism" a "negative word."

    And while Sandberg endeavors to change the world, Mayer has other priorities. She is singly focused on turning around Yahoo. Well, maybe not singly focused. Her priorities, as she told me last fall: "For me, it's God, family and Yahoo—in that order."

    Mayer has declined to speak publicly about her new HR policy—and last week I criticized the delivery of her message announcing the no-work-from-home decision. A couple of things worth noting: The policy affects about 1% of Yahoo's workforce. Mayer is allowing exceptions. (She and EVP Jackie Reses, who oversees HR, have been evaluating requests this past week.) Managers who want to keep high-performing telecommuters will, in certain cases, permit some work from home or they will pay to relocate employees to a Yahoo office. As Best Buy (BBY) disclosed last week that it is revamping its policies along the lines of Yahoo, the widespread anger over Mayer's decision began to dissipate.