I'm at an LMM special sit fund. We are a small group, and I recently hired an associate who is very sharp with a strong work product, but seems only to produce output when given specific direction. I have a somewhat irregular background in getting into PE, so I'm curious to hear what other Associates think... I spend a lot of time driving new deal workstreams, managing portco resources, and being on calls, so it's difficult to constantly refresh the associates' to-do lists and request specific analyses. My expectation when hiring him was that, given his prior experience at a premier IB shop, he would take more initiative in driving DD work streams and, after going through a couple of cycles, take the lead in building models and IC documents. Any advice on how to change this dynamic, or am I being unreasonable and need to carve out more time slots every day to provide direction?
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I mean he just came from banking yeah he's an execution monkey for the first 6 months to a year. Probably took me into my second year to start thinking independently and driving things forward. It's a ton of information to keep track of just to get everything right and making sure you're making the correct micro decisions (am I properly adjusting financial line items, is this analysis digestible/clean/right, am I accounting for currency adjustments in the right way etc.) before you can start asking the bigger questions like what analyses should we run and what are the takeaways and follow up questions to run down/ask.
To summarize it's not unreasonable but it will take time. You don't learn how to think like an investor in IB you learn to execute.
he can't read minds. tell him
Give instructions followed by a brief 'why'/what we are trying to understand/why it's worth digging, so he can start shifting from "I need to deliver this so they can check it" vs. "they probably will try to understand A, B, C, so here might not be an exception/this fits what they tend to look, I should focus on this" = anticipates needs
the more you instill in him your "mind" by sharing your perspective/ideas/expectations, the more he'll start to think a bit like you and anticipate needs. If you build in someone an understanding with a "why" approach you build a mental framework that works more independently vs. "do" = rigid execution/dependant on instructions.
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