Why I'm Not the Boss of Me

I was touring a wedding group at Lambeau the other day: bride was a big Packers' fan, and the groom from Illinois was a Bears' fan. When a couple of women with the group found out that weddings happen all the time at Lambeau, they were disappointed to have missed out on the opportunity. I posed the question as to why this particular wedding was being held elsewhere in Green Bay, and they responded with the facts about divided loyalty. "Yes," I said, "but doesn't the woman get he final say in weighty decisions?" They stood, momentarily taken aback, before the realization hit them. "You're RIGHT!" they said in unison. "Something is definitely wrong with that girl! How could she let HIM make that decision?"
Having sown enough discord to thoroughly disrupt the post-ceremony imbibing, I remarked that I made all the decisions for me,too, after getting the OK from my sweetie. "As it should be," they replied.
Carol Smith, Senior Vice President and Chief Brand Officer for the media company Elle seemed to echo those exact statements in an interview recently in the New York Times in which she was asked about gender differences when it comes to managing.
"Women are better managers, advisors, mentors and rational thinkers," she said. She added that females are better "...list-makers; they prioritize their to-do lists, and they make sure everything gets done. They are also the first to confront problems head on."
Men, according to Smith, love to hear themselves talk and, as a result, waste too much time at the beginning of meetings talking about golf, football and telling jokes. She prefers to get to meetings chaired by men at least fifteen minutes into the purported agenda so she doesn't have to waste her time. Men, it seems, are on the hook for wasting time with water cooler discussions of little importance.
Not that she lets women completely off the hook, either. She notes that women take things too personally while men are much better at letting things roll off their backs, as it were.
All in all, Smith feels that a mixed-gender environment is the best solution, but added that when one is at work, one should be working, not wasting time.
While I'm not so sure about the "confronting problems head on" idea, I fully concur with Smith on the rest of her outlook. Testosterone can be a negative, especially when differing ideas emerge.
I'm perfectly content to have a manager because I know that there will always be a completed to-do list lying about...to my benefit.
Actually, I'm a rather effective list-maker and completer as well, but not as good as most women I know.
Vive le difference!