The View from the Office.

I met up with Georgie Dickins, co-founder of Cajetan Group, a consulting firm, and author of the book Stratospheric CEOs, for lunch at Valbella near Bryant Park.

I had the burrata and penne alla vodka, she had the tuna tartare and salmon. Valbella is on the second floor with a retractable roof and is both cozy and elegant.

Georgie started her career at Lehman, before moving on to stints at Thomson Reuters, JPMorgan and ICAP. Now, she advises fintech CEOs and also runs a woman’s leadership group, Women in Leadership Global. 

As you might expect, our conversation focused on communication. In addition to her advisory work, she has a leadership blog and two podcasts – Stratospheric Leaders and The Choices, Chances and Changes show.

After she started her podcast, her son said he wanted one on. He wanted to interview rugby players. In the past year, Arthur Dickins, now 12, has landed interviews with famous coaches and international players and attracted more followers than his mother to his podcast, called Rugby Legends. 

Georgie pulled out her phone to scroll through the highlight reels. She proudly showed off the time Arthur spotted a legendary coach in the airport and cold pitched him.

There might be no better anecdote to explain how creating content on social media can be leveraged to build connections than watching a 12-year-old build a community and personal brand launching a podcast interviewing famous rugby players 

Most of our conversation focused on management and leadership lessons Georgie has accumulated in the process of writing three books. Stratospheric CEOs was based on conversations with key entrepreneurs in fintech, including: 

-Lance Uggla – Former Chairman & CEO, IHS Markit.
–Henry Fernandez – Chairman & CEO, MSCI
–Rick McVey – Founder, Executive Chairman, MarketAxess
–Lee Olesky – Co-founder, Chairman, Tradeweb
–Michael Spencer – Founder, IPGL; former CEO, ICAP/NEX.

I met Georgie through an introduction from Brad Levy, the CEO of Symphony and a former executive at IHS Markit. She said they share ideas about leadership and management, in particular how it’s changing in the era of AI. 

Some of the ideas Georgie shared with me: 

–Leadership isn’t about a perfect “balance”; it’s about managing trade-offs.

–Leaders pair vision with relentless execution, measuring everything.

–Leaders should be curious enough to ask questions, but decisive enough to make calls quickly.

–Leaders chase consistent marginal gains rather than big, sporadic wins.

–Leaders watch costs and are intentional about location and design.

You can connect with Georgie on LinkedIn or DM me for a warm intro.