“Are you ready?” the waiter asked Marta Seles. She’d known what she wanted since she’d sat down—no one had ever accused her of being indecisive—but she was waiting for her lunch partner to make up his mind. Zach Lockhart was the CEO of Top Street Wealth Management, a Silicon Valley–based financial services firm where Marta was managing director. He’d been mentoring her for the past few years, and they often met for lunch. But this time Zach had mentioned that he wanted to “run something by” her, so she was eager to get past the ordering and the small talk.
A version of this article appeared in the September–October 2021 issue of Harvard Business Review.