Hierarchy of Behaviors that will make you successful on Wall Street
The Babson Latin American Club hosted a terrific program this past week as part of the Wall Street Speaker Series. The topic of conversation was focused on top level executives sharing with students how to succeed in the financial services industry. One of the speakers was Alex Ehrlich who is a Managing Director, Global Head of Prime Brokerage at Morgan Stanley. Alex shared with the audience his 36 year career on Wall Street which includes 24 years at Goldman Sachs, 6 years at UBS and 6 years at Morgan Stanley.
Alex spoke of his belief of the Hierarchy of Behaviors that will make you successful on Wall Street. He laid out the 4-level roadmap (think of it as a pyramid with level 4 being the bottom) for students which I am going to summarize below. in addition, the below are important qualities that Wall Street companies look for when hiring candidates.
Level 4:
- Intellect
- Work Ethic
- Integrity
Level 3:
- Empathy: The cornerstone of being successful; you have to care about people
- Self-Awareness: Step out of your own shoes and be self-aware
- Diversity: Diversity of Thinking; You must seek points of view that are not in line with your way of thinking
- Creativity: Never being satisfied without continuous improvement
Level 2:
- Mentality of Ownership: Thinking like an entrepreneur or business owner
- Interpersonal Relationships: Knowing people and networking with people that you don’t need to know but want to know
Level 1:
- Happiness: Most important quality as a leader is happiness. Being a role model for happiness and being concerned for happiness of those working for you will make you a successful leader