Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg flew to Beijing on Saturday to share her insights on leadership during her commencement speech addressed to the graduating class of Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management.
Sandberg began her 20-minute speech with an apology that she doesn't speak Chinese like her boss Mark Zuckerberg, who sent his congratulations to the class, in Chinese, of course.
She then went on to encourage the graduates to not be afraid of taking risks, citing as example Zuckerberg, who dropped out of Harvard College to build what is now the biggest social network in the world, and herself, who quit her job at the U.S. Treasury Department to find her fortune in Silicon Valley.
"I hope if you find yourself on one path but longing for something else, you find a way to get there," she said. "And if that isn't right, try again."
Sandberg also paid tribute to her late husband, Dave Goldberg, who passed away during a vacation trip to Mexico in May. She says true leaders are not those who win the minds of people, but those who win their hearts, and Goldberg, then the CEO of SurveyMonkey, is the best example of a man who truly won the hearts of those who worked for him.
"Dave was a truly inspiring leader," she said. "He was kind. He was generous. He was thoughtful. He raised the level of performance of everyone around him."
Sandberg also urged the graduates to value feedback, not just from their bosses but also from their co-workers and subordinates. Again, she cites her relationship with Zuckerberg as an example of one that is built on honest-to-goodness feedback.
"I always thank the person who has the guts to answer me honestly, often by praising him publicly," she said. "I firmly believe that you lead when you walk side-by-side with your colleagues."
Lastly, Sandberg made her case for gender equality and challenged the Chinese concept of sheng nu, or leftover women who are not yet married by the time they reach the age of 27. She also questioned society's inclination to to call a girl qiang shi, or bossy, when she takes over the reins.
"We can walk up to someone who calls a little girl 'bossy' and say instead, 'That little girl is not bossy. That little girl has executive leadership skills,'" she said.
Sandberg is not the first English-speaking person to address the graduating class of the School of Economics and Management. In 2013, Richard Levin, president of Yale University, addressed the graduates. He was followed by Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba, in 2014.
