A former Goldman partner reflects on being 'challenging to work with'

""I was obsessive about commercial outcomes, I had a lot of opinions about things""

""I focused more on winning arguments than getting people to come along with me,""

""As I became more senior, I became effective at getting people to do as I say," he reminisced, "but I noticed a chilling effect on outside ideas, making it harder to know if I was actually right.""

Frederick Baba left Goldman Sachs after nearly a decade and joined Jane Street in late 2023. He shared a candid farewell note on LinkedIn revealing that colleagues had considered him challenging to work with and that the perception may have been valid. He admitted to obsessing over commercial outcomes, holding strong opinions, and focusing on winning arguments rather than building consensus, which made him polarizing. Promotion to partner increased his influence but also chilled outside ideas, making it harder to test his assumptions. He emphasized that leaders should make disagreement easy and safe and invite pushback.

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