I love the New York Times' interviews with top business executives. It's fascinating how they arrange their lives and how they are so damned determined to achieve. I'm not saying that I would like to emulate them, but I do find them interesting.

This week Carol Smith, senior vice president and chief brand officer for the Elle Group, gives her views on women managers.

In my experience, female bosses tend to be better managers, better
advisers, mentors, rational thinkers. Men love to hear themselves talk.
I’m so generalizing. I know I am. But in a couple of places I’ve
worked, I would often say, “Call me 15 minutes after the meeting starts
and then I’ll come,” because I will have missed all the football. I
will have missed all the “what I did on the golf course.” I will miss
the four jokes, and I can get into the meeting when it’s starting.

Men also, they’re definitely better on the “whatever” side. Things tend
to roll off their back. We women take things very personally. We’re
constantly playing things over in our head — “What did that mean when
they said that?” — when they mean nothing. And I’m certainly not immune
to this. So there’s a downside to women.