The Beauty of Working in Groups

Imagine working on a difficult accounting or microeconomics problem. You are tearing your hair out and no matter how many times you re-read the text, you have no idea what the author is trying to say. Now, think about that same scenario but now you have 2 or 3 lifelines that can rescue you at any moment. That is the beauty of study groups. Of course, everyone can contribute their knowledge because otherwise, why would you have been admitted to a top school? However, when you are stuck, your best buddies are your study group mates. As a matter of fact, one of my male friends swore off dating. He said, “The only dates I go on are study group meetings.”

The most important aspect about being in a study group is choosing the right people. I know not all business schools allow students to choose their study groups and most of the time, you have the same study group for all of your classes but for those of you who go to schools like Booth, where you can make that decision, choosing the right combination of people is key. Right now, I am in 3 study groups. One group I was asked to join. Another group, I built and the last group was formed by magic. In all of these groups, every person on my team has a different work or cultural background. Diversity in thought leadership is incredible and it manifests itself best through group work. You thought you did your due diligence and then your teammate points something out and you have that “Aha” moment.

The most interesting part of study groups is what happens when you are no longer working on a homework or project. You learn so much about the people around you. You learn about their family, culture, interesting (sometimes strange) experiences they have had and more. In addition to study groups, you also spend a lot of time with people you are recruiting with, the people in your student groups and cohort buddies. Because of frequent interactions, you become close friends with people you would never have even spoken to before. Some people call it networking. I call it connecting.

Female Leadership

So here is an interesting debatable topic, I have not covered yet: What is it like being a woman in a leadership role? Earlier this week, I had dinner with 2 powerful women, both alumni of the Kennedy School of Government; that same afternoon, I attended a luncheon for women in business at Chicago Booth. Both groups of women broached the topic of being a woman and how that impacts their leadership style.

I went to an all girls’ boarding school, where I held many leadership positions and subsequently at Columbia, I was more willing than some of my female peers to take on leadership roles. Despite my willingness to be a student leader, I had a slightly difficult time adjusting to being a woman in power in a co-educational setting. Sometimes, I felt that my decisions were second-guessed by my peers or that members of an organization would defer to the male opinion regardless of the authority that was granted to me as a leader. Not all student groups worked this way and it depended on the students that were involved in those groups but it was still an interesting phenomenon considering I was in college from 2002-2006. One would think that most people, especially in my generation, would suspend any form of female stereotyping.

Now, a bit older and hopefully much wiser, I am a woman in business school where there are only 35% of us. I expected women to be less represented due to the social pressures of competing with men. I though leadership positions would be overwhelmingly filled by men but as a matter of fact that is not the case. I am my cohort’s president on the Graduate Business Council and noticed that 3 of us were women (30%), which shows that we are fairly representing the female voice. In addition, you barely notice that women are a minority at Booth. In activities such as Random Walk (6 women, 10 men), my squad (2 women and 5 men), the women are respected and our male counterparts enjoy hearing our perspectives as much as other students.

However, I would say that being a woman in business school is different than being a woman in corporate America. I have not yet experienced this but the Harvard alumni I mentioned earlier explained the difficulty of being overly assertive in politics and senior management positions. They conveyed the fact that if you are not a threat (competing for the same job or on track to a very lucrative role), mentors will support your career success. However, once you seem to be overly successful or you surpass peoples’ expectations, those people that supported you earlier may begin to challenge your authority.

Women are still underrepresented in top leadership roles. For example if you look at MSNBC article about women CEOs, the author cites, “Women account for only 3 percent of the CEOs at the helm of the biggest 500 U.S. companies and that number hasn't budged over the last three years.” This may also be accounted by the fact women’s leadership style is different, which is discussed in the book, “The Female Vision, Women's Real Power at Work” by Sally Helgesen, Julie Johnson and Marshall Goldsmith. This book describes how women’s visions are different that those of their male counterparts and how having a different leadership style can sometimes positively impact the bottle line. Nonetheless, women’s leadership may not be accepted in male-dominated environments.

Since my current experience of working with male colleagues has been positive, my hope is that men will continue to respect and acknowledge women as leaders. I also hope that women who do want to be in top executive positions do not crack under the pressures faced by women in the workplace and are able to maintain success throughout their careers.