Kicking it ‘old school’

Fred Steck ’67 champions human connection as the key to success

by Shelly Leachman

Remember when social networking meant actually networking socially, as in: in person? Those were the days.

For Fred Steck, they still are. 

In his book “Connectability: Mastering Relationship Building in Business, Sales, and Beyond” (Fast Company Press, 2025), Steck, a former partner at Goldman Sachs, champions good old-fashioned human connection as essential to success.

It’s common sense, sure, but in a screen-based, social media-saturated world where even talking on the phone feels like a relic (and, to many, a chore), the merits of analog interaction tend to get short shrift.

“Our connective skills are starting to atrophy,” writes Steck, who studied history and philosophy in his undergraduate years at UCSB before his long and fruitful career in finance. “We’d often rather look at our screens than at each other, and communicate through the filters that build in distance and ask less of us. As they ask less of us, though, they also give less in return.”

Steck’s humanistic approach is rooted in his 40-plus-year Wall Street career, with all due credit to Malcolm Skall. As Steck’s first-ever manager at his first-ever finance job, with investment firm A.G. Becker, it was Skall who first instilled in him the “old school” techniques he has used ever since. 

Learn about people. Find connections. Remember birthdays. Listen. Show empathy and concern. Be sincere. Visit. Call. Follow up.

The deceptively simple strategies, Steck says, have been central to his life at every turn, from his years at Goldman Sachs, to owning and operating a horse ranch, to his post-retirement involvement in the restaurant industry and, certainly, to his ongoing engagement with his alma mater.

“The same things that succeed in personal relations succeed in business,” says Steck, a former chair and member of the UC Santa Barbara Foundation Board of Trustees. “If I want to get to know somebody, I’m going to think of creative ways to do that. I’m going to listen to them. I’m going to find out what interests them. If I get to know you better, I can better understand what you need and better serve you.

“As humans, until they figure out how to replace us, we have that ability to be vulnerable, to get it wrong, to not manage things particularly well,” Steck says. “We get to learn from that, and it makes us better.” 

It’s a message he’s spreading as far and widely as he can, by way of “Connectability” as well as — among other things — podcast appearances, talks in boardrooms, on college campuses (including UCSB) and, of course, in casual conversation. Face-to-face conversation, preferably.

“In virtually any instance, your humanity more than your software is what will build great business or personal connections,” Steck writes in his book. “Emojis can only do so much.”