/ 09 September 2026

Life Lessons From A Leader: Robert Garlick

Robert Garlick used to lead around 1,000 people at Citibank. Since leaving investment banking, he’s written a book on how global leadership and AI will define our future. This is what he has learned since he worked out what he wanted to do with his life at 13 years old…

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Tell us about your career, Robert…

I started life as an analyst and a fund manager, before I moved to investment banking in 1996. I had a front-row seat for the boom and the bust of the dot-com era. Then I ran a sales desk focused on thematic investing, managing around a thousand people for five years. I then ran Citibank’s research products globally. Finally, Citibank set up a thinktank focusing on innovation and technology, and I developed a real interest in how technology impacts work. When I left Citi, I decided to write a book about how AI is dramatically changing the workplace. I picked up a visiting professorship at the University of Surrey on the future of work, and I now consult and coach too.

What were the lessons you learned at the beginning of your career?

There is so much luck involved with the beginning of a career. I applied to 100 places and 99 said no. You just need one door to open. Three years later, the best investment bank in the world (at the time), Goldman Sachs, offered me a job. I would have never got that opportunity three years before. One door leads to another.

Someone once said to me, “If you don't know what your edge is, you don't have one.” It's useful to try and work out, but you really have to ask, “Well, what am I really good at?” The edge usually comes about through mastery. Mastery comes through working really hard. Working really hard comes about because you have the enthusiasm to sustain that process. I would urge anybody to watch Steve Jobs' commencement speech in 2005 on YouTube, where he said something along the lines of, “To be truly satisfied, you've got to do what you love.” If you haven't found it, keep looking. If there is one skill that I used to look for in people when recruiting them, it is being proactive.

How did you discover what you wanted to do with your life?

Sometimes, it was through reflection. Other times, it was just intuition. I worked out what I wanted to do when I was about 13 years old. A useful coaching technique is to ask, “What does life look like when I'm 80? What would I be proud of? And how would I have got there?” Through what Churchill called “the seeing eye” – i.e. the ability to see clearly but dimly the other side of the brick wall or the mist – I think you can shape your future. Thinking about the future, planning it, then acting on it. That was really what drew me into investing.

What makes a good leader?

Leadership should be about getting others to follow you; inspiring them to move in a certain direction. The partner of Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, said, “Show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome.” I've had interactions with lots of great leaders over many years, but the capitalist system has skewed the incentives so that leaders at the top of companies are incentivised by profit maximisation. To a shareholder, a great leader is one that creates the greatest profit or greatest return on investment. The danger of this becomes exacerbated as we go into the age of AI. So, we need to ask, “What does a good future look like and how are we driving towards that to bring enough people along with us?”

Does that mean companies have to take a stakeholder-first approach rather than a shareholder-first one?

At this point, that is not how companies are set up. I think if they navigate this AI boom to create not enough shared prosperity, then you will get backlash, and the backlash will then create a different form of incentives. If this happens, capitalism, which has been in its third iteration – of shareholder primacy – since 1970, will morph into its fourth iteration.

Talk us through something that has had a big influence on you…

I read a book called The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart. It’s about luck, but I don't think we should put life down to luck, so I invented my own philosophy when I was quite young. I had a dice representing luck or chance or fate with some puppet strings above it, as a metaphor. I've learned several things to help me influence luck. The first is, the harder you work the luckier you get. The second one is to learn from history. The third one is to find big swim lanes. If you're in a swim lane that's carrying you along, life is so much easier and more fun than if you're battling in a swim lane that's going the opposite direction. They do change over time, though, and a lot of time is spent in transitions. Lastly, I live by the quote, “Live life, it's not a rehearsal.” I try to engineer that and put in one new adventure per quarter. I’ve climbed Monte Perdido in the Pyrenees. I’ve done a white-collar boxing event. In a couple of months I’m doing a silent retreat, and I’ve got a Hyrox event coming up. I’ve made some great memories.

What are the pillars of a successful marriage?

Someone advised me at the beginning of having children to make sure that it didn't just become about the children. They suggested going on a date night as soon as possible after the child was born. We were out for an hour and then we nipped back again, but it ended up becoming a habit. We now have regular date nights with each other. Because ultimately, you start just the two of you, and at some point it'll just be you two again. You've got to make sure you carry on investing in that.

What have you learned about parenting?

It's one of the greatest gifts and greatest responsibilities you will ever have, but no one gives you a manual on it. A key thing I learned is that they're all different. One daughter's bedroom was messy. The other daughter’s bedroom was immaculate. They change over time too. The daughter who was really messy is now pretty much immaculate. So, as my wife said to me, “Choose your battles.” I gave up battling over bedroom tidiness and actually it turned out fine.

Children test boundaries; it's natural. I got lucky because my wife is a child therapist and she knows how to help navigate these things much better than I do. I've been amazed how she makes sure that conversation channels are open. When it comes to parenting, I live by this quote, “You've got to give your children roots and wings.” The roots are the stable place they can keep going back to. The wings are how you help them build their confidence to leave and do their own thing. From a very early age, I wanted to give them different experiences and holidays. We went to some of the slums in Delhi to give them an experience of that. It was a way to get exposure to a completely different part of the world.

Monte Perdido

Have there been any transformative habits that you've brought into your life?

My dad died of skin cancer at 53, and I promised myself, if I ever have anything that looks bad, I will go and see someone. Last year, I lost sight in one eye because of something called toxoplasmosis. I can't tell you how blessed I was to go to an expert surgeon. Lean into experts. Don't do it all yourself.

Someone gave me the book Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, because I used to track my sleep. I was getting five hours and 19 minutes of sleep a night when I was working in a certain role. I grew up in a Thatcherite era that basically said that sleeping is for wimps. I read that book and realised I had it completely wrong. Sleep is really important. That book made me change things.

If you could give advice to your 25-year-old self for building a meaningful life, career and personal life, what would it be?

Ikigai: The Japanese Secret To A Long And Happy Life by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles has a good premise: find what you love, find what you're good at, find what the world needs, and find what you got paid for. Then think about the intersection of all of those things. There's also this concept of ‘flow’ discovered by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. If you can find your way into this state, then work doesn't become a task or chore. It becomes really fulfilling.

Finally, Robert, what would you say to someone who is worried about AI in the workplace?

We have to think about what it is that the machines cannot do. There are some human qualities that we need to lean into, to get really, really good at, and also to value. The system hasn't yet worked that out, but we can. For now, we have to work it out for ourselves.

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