I believe that at the heart of a company's culture, and ultimately the firm's success, is an expectation that we all possess a sense of personal ownership. We talk a lot about the power of teamwork but this shouldn't undermine the importance of individual accountability, because to me the two are inseparable. Being part of a team in no way absolves you from taking responsibility. In fact it increases the importance of your individual contribution.
This is not an easy path. In order to succeed, this model requires continuous effort. It's not optional behavior and there is no room for apathy or detachment. Instead we must create a sense of mutual agency: a realization that any action, or indeed lack of action, on the part of an individual will impact their team, their division and quite possibly the firm as a whole.
By choosing this operating model, by having high expectations about people's level of individual ownership and accountability while pursuing collaboration and consensus, we ultimately create an organization that is much greater than the sum of its parts. Equally importantly, we create a firm that is much more rewarding and enriching from a professional and personal standpoint.
This is my simple advice: know what you bring to the table, know the firm's strategy, and dovetail the two such that the decisions and actions you take are commercial by definition because they are optimized to help the firm achieve its ultimate objectives.
· Know what you bring to the table: You were hired for a reason, don't forget that. Put your talents and experience to good use every day. Don't rest on your laurels; seek opportunities to grow and to expand your skills. The firm expects this of you and is relying on you to foster innovation, to be creative and to write your own chapter in our history.
· Know the firm's strategy: The firm goes out of its way to push information out to its people. We have the intranet, voicemail, town halls, and easy access to the business and leadership. It wasn't always like this. It used to be difficult to feel as connected to the firm or understand its strategy as we can today, but now we encourage a culture of curiosity. We can't force you to take advantage of the information that's available, but trust me — the more you know about the context in which you operate, the better we'll all be.
· Be commercial: This can be interpreted in many ways, and importantly it does not require that you exist at the P&L event. That said, there are traits we can all adapt from the revenue side of the firm.
· While the outside world might reduce our business to doing deals and printing trades, the last thing our clients actually want is for us to be purely transactional. your own clients are the same; they want to build trust and a long-term relationship.
· Be opportunistic and innovative, take risks personally but manage the firm's risk tightly. Develop a deep area of expertise but don't work in a silo, nothing is "someone else's problem." All of these traits are commercial and apply just as much to building out a new technology platform or developing your team.
If you follow these principles you will evolve in your area of specialty and increase your contribution which will in turn put the firm — and your career — in a better place.
