“Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men & the other 999 follow women.” -Groucho Marx
We love this quote because while great leaders can be found among men and women, women seem to take the helm more often, in crazy situations and under an unbelievable amount of stress.
For example, who is more likely to head the annual school PTA fundraiser to build a new playground, while volunteering at the church and running a corporate department? Or who is the most likely pick for leading the carpool of after-school cheerleaders, while planning the family vacation and training the new hire? Yep, it’s the one wearing the skirt.
So, like Groucho Marx so aptly put it, most men are following women, and it’s not just because we’re pretty and smell nice. It’s because we’re out in front.
Since we have so much respect for girl power, our client, Eris Thomas, CEO at Coral Gables Executive Physicians, found this interactive Harvard Business Review article about the disparities, trends and random facts about women in the workplace. The article is relevant, interesting and at points, disturbing. Some changes, such as more female Fortune 500 CEOs, give us hope; but others, like the stubborn discrepancy in salaries and C-suite career tracks, give us pause.
What do you think? We think we need to re-air more Groucho movies and take a lesson from a man who obviously gets it.