McGuire's overall strategy revolves around both attracting and maintaining strong performers who are also "culture carriers" — no solo missions allowed. That means getting involved in every major hire.
"You have to attract and retain the best talent. So for the existing talent, you’ve got to make certain that they continue to perform, that they continue to be engaged and inspired to be the best. And for the talent that you onboard, you have to be really careful about the talent that you onboard. They have to not only be the best practitioners, but they also have to be culture carriers. And we have found that, while we've had some challenges, for the most part we've been very effective at integrating new people into the culture. In large part, we do that from the outset. I personally get involved in every one of these major strategic hires.
"It's very clear that you not only have to maintain the best of the existing talent. You cannot ignore that. You have to maintain it, you have to focus on that. And you also have to make sure that the talent that you onboard has got a value system and has got an alignment that is very clear. There should be no ambiguity in terms of what our objectives are. None."
What question does he ask potential candidates to find out whether they're the right fit?
"There's not one question that you ask, there are a series of questions. What kind of character do they have. What kind of client impact. How is that client impact reflected in their performance, historically. And character gets to whether they are a team player or whether or not they're on solo missions. We can't have people on solo missions, we need to have people who are prepared to engage as partners.
"We also recognize that you have to have a combination of management and leadership. You have to be able to give people the details on a daily basis on the metrics that we expect for them to manage to. And then you have to be able to inspire them."
For equity capital markets, Dickson looks for leaders with years of experience and the respect of investors and issuers. But they also have to be comfortable sharing the spotlight.
"In the business of financial services, talent is the most valuable resource, if you can get the best talent. From Citi's perspective we want the best-in-class, best-performing people in the marketplace. So experience matters. In my case, if we're looking at the equity capital markets arena, are they leaders with issuer clients? Do they have the respect of investing clients? Do they have years of experience in their sector or subproduct?
"But I'd say what's also important is culturally for Citi, we're a firm that succeeds as a team, and so they have to be people who can fit in with Citi's overarching culture. But also within capital markets, we're very much a team-wins orientation, and so you need a lot of leadership and energy and inspiration to lead the team, but we want people who think when we're winning it's because the team is winning. And I think that the folks that we've developed, and I've said we've been blessed with this consistency, all feel like partners in the business."
