Authentic Connection & Trust!
The trading floor, where I spent the first decade of my career, is a battleground. Most standard societal norms cease to exist when one finds herself working on a trading floor. In my first job as an interest rate sales analyst at Lehman Brothers, my boss told me that I was not allowed to use articles (i.e., couldn’t say the words “the”, “a”, “an”) because “it wasted time and time is money.” My role was to execute multi-million-dollar transactions on behalf of clients (banks, hedge funds, pension funds.) If I made even one mistake, it could cost the firm and my traders millions of dollars within seconds. Speed, precision, and excellence were nonnegotiable. My days could consist of up to 100 transitions within an eight-hour period, considerable market fluctuations, and a range of emotions wide enough to put a Shakespearean play to shame.
Struggle to delegate? Three behaviors to watch out for
My first job out of undergrad was on the Lehman Brothers interest rate sales desk. I sat on a trading floor amongst some of the best financial professionals who transacted multi-million dollar deals on a daily basis. The work was incredibly stressful and required a tremendous amount of attention to detail and accuracy. If you made a mistake, it typically cost at least $50,000. I worked in a team consisting of 3 senior salesmen, an associate with three years of experience and myself – a clueless college grad. At first, no one trusted me to do much of anything except get coffee and make copies. Over time, I began to take on more client facing responsibilities (writing trade confirms, answering phones and writing market commentary). Executing one of those multi-million dollar trades was off limits though. I didn’t have the skills yet, and no one was interested in losing money due to my lack of experience.