Advice from Kathleen Hughes, Investment Management Division

28 JUN 2017

Kathleen Hughes is the global head of Liquidity Solutions Sales in Goldman Sachs Asset Management and European head of GSAM’s Institutional Sales business. She shares five pieces of advice that she would give her younger self:

1) Continually develop your technical skills. It’s imperative to stay relevant to your clients, internal or external. We have access to more intellectual capital at this firm than we have hours in the day to consume it – our clients value the skills and insights our people provide.

2) Identify role models. Find leaders that you respect and emulate them. Your own ‘style’ can be an amalgamation or mosaic of the great habits and actions of the successful people that surround you.   

3) Pay it forward. Actively mentor and develop junior talent. You can do this throughout your career regardless of your level of seniority or experience.        

4) Be a great protégé. Relationships with mentors need to be two-way. Find ways to help those who are advising, coaching and developing you.

5) Nurture a passion outside of work. This keeps you balanced and makes you much more resilient. Your passion can be creative, athletic, experiential, charitable or something personal such as the importance of friends and family.