Lloyd Blankfein

And maybe your decision-making, maybe lightning bolts don't come from your fingertips.

You're trying to make suggestions.

Maybe you slow things up.

And you hear complaints, and maybe you actually don't do things that you want to do, or you table it for another time when things could be more revealed.

I spoke to Esther Stetcher also kind of leading up to this conversation.

She mentioned this.

She said one of your hallmarks of your leadership was it didn't feel like you were very hierarchical.

Like when you wanted to make a tough decision, you would...

you would at least go socialize it with a bunch of people, you know, gather input.

I'm thinking about, well, first of all, generally, when you're on top, people want to get in line with you, but sometimes they can't.

They just think you're wrong.

So socializing and talking in advance had the benefit of just enlisting support from people who otherwise might be neutral, who just, you know, just not because they're sucking up, but just naturally they want to, you know, they want to, they want to, you know, they want to, they're pliable, you know.

And then...

And then you had to honor the fact that they felt like owners.

Now, why do you care when they feel like owners?

Because you get a much more stable organization.

They feel attached.

They feel committed.

Even people who've been there for a few years take that away with them.

And people who've been out of the firm for a long time still self-identify as ex-Goldman.