McKinsey Interviews - December, 2013 Posts for Aspiring Summer Interns

McKinsey's summer internship recruiting season is right around the corner.  So, in an effort to remain timely and relevant, the posts over the next couple of weeks will focus on networking, resume screen, and interview-related topics.

I will try to consolidate those posts into a short period of time so that a) interview candidates can find them easily and b) others can ignore them easily.

As always, I will post articles as I finish editing them, but they will be dated based on when they were first written.  Apologies for any confusion that causes to folks who subscribe to or follow this blog regularly.

To anyone NOT interviewing with McKinsey:

Apologies if you are already a consultant or looking for tips on how to work with a former McKinsey consultant.  We'll return to the typical mix of content after a couple of weeks.

What It Means to be "Down In the Weeds" at McKinsey

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If you've worked in the food service industry - or watched Top Chef - you're probably familiar with the term "in the weeds".  But that means something very different than the term "down in the weeds" which not a McKinsey-specific term, but one I heard used frequently at the Firm.  In this post I'll explain the difference and what you should do if your McKinsey boss asks you to not be so down in the weeds...

It's also worth nothing that McKinsey interviewers also view being down in the weeds negatively, so aspiring consultants should also be mindful of not getting down in the weeds during interviews, especially when breaking down the case.

"In the Weeds"...

This is a term restaurant workers both in the front of the house (e.g., hosts/hostesses, servers) and back of the house (e.g., cooks, chefs) use when they get overwhelmed and are in danger of falling hopelessly behind.  While I have heard McKinsey consultants - likely those with food industry backgrounds - use this phrase in this context.  However, it's not as universal across the Firm as the slightly different phrase that I've heard multiple engagement teams, consultants, and Principals use...

...vs. "Down In the Weeds"

This phrase is used to describe someone who is being way too nitpicky and focused on minute details, especially relative to their role, phase of the project, or workstream goals.  It might also be phrased as being too tactical instead of sufficiently strategic.  McKinsey bosses can get down in the weeds by taking on tasks their teams should be handling and consultants can get down in the weeds by having too narrowly focused on details of their workstream(s).  Here are some examples:

• Role:  Sometimes a Partner or Director will fixate on something very specific like fine-tuning an Excel model or tweaking the formatting of a PowerPoint (PPT) exhibit.  It could be because they have a passion for the task or they're not good at delegating, but regardless, there are more important things to the engagement team that they can be focusing on.
• Timing:  Early in an engagement or workstream, teams and consultants should be applying T-shaped problem solving and looking broadly for potential topics to investigate before deep diving into the few with the most potential impact.  Sometimes, people will go too deep too soon at the risk of wasting time the wrong lever or missing other, more important sources of impact.
• Goals:  It's not uncommon to lose sight of the overarching purpose of an engagement or workstream by getting sucked into a particular task that's part of the broader effort.  For example, one might spend too much time working on a single PPT page or exhibit and not get enough done on the overall deck or storyline.  While preparing an industry overview, one might become fascinated with a particular competitor or industry dynamic at the expense of understanding the big picture.

How to Get Up Out of the Weeds...

...or Avoid Getting Down There In the First Place

Fortunately, there are some basic principles you can apply to get yourself up out of the weeds.  These include identifying and focusing on the critical or vital few by applying the 80/20 rule and using the previously mentioned T-shaped problem solving approach.  Remind yourself to apply top-down thinking whenever possible and going bottom-up only when appropriate.

Unfortunately, getting McKinsey leaders to get up out of the weeds and out of your hair is significantly more challenging.  But, you can leverage the Firm's culture of 360 / upward feedback and obligation to dissent to speak up, but be tactful and think of positive ways to deliver the message that feel like you're offering solutions rather than just pointing out problems.  For example, "I appreciate you showing me how I can improve my model - why don't I take it from here so I can learn first-hand and free you up to help the client(s) and the rest of the team?"

McKinsey Interviews - October, 2013 Posts for Aspiring Consultants

To anyone NOT interviewing with McKinsey:

With apologies to folks who are already consultants or looking for tips on how to work with a current or former McKinsey consultant, the posts for the next couple of weeks will focus on getting into the Firm.  But we'll get right back to our regularly scheduled mix of programming after that!

To those of you who ARE interviewing with McKinsey:

For those of you who are Aspiring Consultants, the posts over the next couple of weeks will help you understand what to expect as you pursue a job at McKinsey and/or other top management consulting firms.

I'll try to coordinate the content across posts so I might delay putting content on the blog until other posts are completed.  But I will schedule them so they appear on the day they were originally written.  Apologies if that gets confusing for those of you who subscribe or follow this blog regularly.

Extra Miles and Points - How Far Some McKinsey Consultants Will Go to Earn Them

Image from travelforboomers.com

A previous post covered why airline miles and hotel points are so important to many McKinsey consultants.  In this post we'll go a bit deeper on the topic and look at the extent to which some current and former consultants will go to earn more of these miles and points.







There's no shortage of stories about McKinsey consultants going to great lengths to earn more miles or points.  Here are some examples:

Checking in and out of hotels every day

Some consultants - usually BAs - will check out of a Starwood property every morning and into another Starwood every evening (please see the previous post on why Starwood and SPG are so popular at McKinsey).  They do this to rack up more stays - SPG makes a distinction between nights and stays and occasionally run promotions that award one free night (at any Starwood property!) for every two or three stays.  If stays - not nights - are rewarded, it's in a participant's best interests to break up a multiple-night stay into multiple, single-night stays.  But if you check in and out of the same Starwood property, SPG will link them all together into one, longer stay.  However, that does not happen if you move from one Starwood property to another, even if you're just moving back and forth between two properties.  This is feasible because most larger US cities have more than one Starwood property, often within walking distance of each other, but it still means having to pack up and move every day.

Negotiating with hotels on behalf of the team

Consultants are usually lucrative passengers and guests - we book expensive, fully refundable airline tickets and bring entire teams (that spend a lot on room service and laundry) to hotels for months at a time.  Hotels will usually want a consulting team's business and have some latitude in offering benefits to encourage a McKinsey team to stay at their property.  A resourceful, proactive consultant (often a BA but as an EM I would do this to look out for my teams) can call hotels in advance of an engagement and negotiate benefits - usually in the form of bonus points - for their teams.  The more Starwood properties in a market, the better your BATNA and negotiating position.  This is usually appreciated by most current and former consultants who are trying to amass hotel points.

Developing "exchange rates" for problems or delays

Just as airlines and hotels want to attract consultants, they also have incentive to keep consultants happy.  When things go wrong, they're usually willing to give up some - for them, relatively inexpensive - miles or points to smooth things over.  One McKinsey colleague had developed a table of "exchange rates" for common problems and how many miles or points one should expect to receive as compensation for specific issues and problems.  For example, hotel laundry delivered late might equal 3,000 starwood points.  A flight delay due to mechanical failure equals a certain number of airline miles.

Booking sub-optimal flights and itineraries

It's usually in the best interest for a McKinsey consultant to concentrate their miles with one or two airlines.  As a result, consultants might book flights that a) leave at inconvenient times, b) include unnecessary connections, c) arrive at an airport that is not the closest to the destination, or d) cost more.  The Firm has rules (e.g., not being able to book a flight that costs $X more than the preferred carrier) that limit the extent to which cost can be an issue.  The consultant usually bears the cost of the other approaches in the form of lost sleep or less free time.  Because consultants usually have to be at the client site by a certain time, they have to leave earlier and/or spend more time traveling if they want those specific miles.  On the way back they have more flexibility, but it also means it will take longer to get home to friends, family, and sleep.

Driving longer distances and separation from the team

When consultants book flights to a sub-optimal location, it usually requires a longer drive to get to their destination - the client site, the team hotel, or home.  This also becomes an issue when booking preferred hotels.  Even if your destination city has a Starwood property, it might not be close to the client site.  Because teams work long hours at client sites, they often stay at a nearby hotel, but that might not be a Starwood property.  In both cases, it takes more time and isolates the consultant from their team, meaning less free time and potentially requiring more work getting caught up while everyone else is staying in touch at the team hotel or on the drive to and from the client site.

Why McKinsey Consultants Are Whores... For Hotel Points and Airline Miles

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There are many things about working at McKinsey that are challenging, including the travel.   Some of the upsides of travel include the opportunity to earn many airline miles and hotel points.  In this post I'll discuss the relationship current and former consultants have with these loyalty programs...

Caveat

As with many posts, these observations do not apply to all current or former McKinsey consultants.  But it does apply - to a lesser degree for some than others - to most of the McKinsey folks I've worked with.

What are airline miles and hotel points?

Airlines and hotels have programs to encourage loyalty among their passengers and guests.  Participants can earn miles for flights and points for hotel stays.  The miles are usually redeemed for free airline travel and the points exchanged for free hotel stays.  Participants can also earn various levels of status that entitle them to additional benefits like earning bonus miles and points or free upgrades (e.g., economy to first class seats on a flight, standard room to a suite in a hotel).  In addition, there are airline and hotel-affiliated credit cards that allow participants to earn additional miles or points for other purchases. 

Which programs are most popular?

In McKinsey's US locations, American's "Aadvantage Program" and United's "MileagePlus" are the most popular frequent flyer programs.  A few years ago McKinsey's preferred airline switched from American to United so some consultants adjusted their allegiances accordingly.  Generally, consultants can book whatever airline they prefer as long as it isn't significantly more expensive than the preferred airline option.

Popularity of frequent flyer programs also depends on which airlines serve a given McKinsey location.  For example, consultants in Atlanta or Seattle might prefer to amass Delta or Alaska Airlines miles, respectively.  Airlines also form partnerships or alliances (e.g., the Star Alliance includes United, US Air, and Air Canada) with each other, meaning you might be able to earn miles in your favorite program for flights on another partner airline.

For hotels, there's a clear favorite at McKinsey - the Starwood Preferred Guest or "SPG" program.  There are a few reasons for this:

1. Starwood properties can be found in many cities to which consultants have to travel on business
2. Starwood includes many great properties (e.g., St. Regis, W, Westin, Sheraton, Meridien) that are worth staying in for both work and vacation.
3. SPG often runs promotions for bonus points or free nights (e.g., one free night for every two stays)
4. The American Express Starwood credit card allows participants to earn bonus points when used to pay for Starwood hotel stays
5. SPG status allows participants to earn more points per dollar spent

Why do consultants care so much about miles and points?

Earning hotel points and airline miles can help offset the downsides of so much time spent on the road away from friends and family.  Turning all of that travel into free vacations can go a long way toward taking a break and recovering from the crazy lifestyle, compensate for poor work/life balance and keeping the peace with significant others (SOs).

I've also heard BAs speak of miles and points as valuable perks that are even seen as supplemental income.  Although consultants are well paid, but some, especially BAs, have passed up more lucrative opportunities to work at McKinsey.  So, some consultants consider miles, points, and the things for which they can be redeemed to be important perks that keep them happy.

Over the course of a single travel engagement, it's possible to earn enough airline miles and hotel points for a consultant and their SO to take a free vacation.  For example, their flights to Hawaii (with complimentary upgrades to first class, of course!) and a week at the beautiful (and normally quite expensive, on the order of $600+ per night) St. Regis in Princeville, Kauai can be "paid for" using miles and points.

In a future post, I'll discuss the great lengths to which some consultants will go to maximize the number of miles and points they earn.

Why is this important?

If you have current or former McKinsey consultants working for you, it can be helpful to remember how valuable miles and points might be to them.  If they have to travel for work, they might be appreciative if you can give them a little latitude in how they get there and where they stay.  It's especially worth giving them that freedom if it doesn't make much difference to you and/or they can do it in a cost-effective manner.  To the extent that you are able, let them choose their airlines and hotels and let them keep the miles and points that they earn.

One anecdote that highlights the importance of these perks comes from McKinsey's West Coast Office (WCO).  During the economic downturn, McKinsey, like most companies, had to do some belt-tightening to get through lean times.  That included changing policies and cutting back on a lot of perks.  As the economy improved some of those cuts were restored and announced at a WCO "town hall" meeting.  Out of a substantial list of changes, the only one that elicited an audible response from the audience - a loud cheer - was that consultants would once again be allowed to use their own credit cards (read:  SPG AmEx) rather than their corporate cards to pay for expenses including hotel rooms.  This means that consultants can once again use their personal SPG AmEx cards to pay for Starwood hotel stays, increasing the number of hotel points they can earn.  That change probably didn't deliver a huge financial benefit, but clearly impacted the morale of the consultants.

MBTI - 3 ways McKinsey teams think about and (mis)use personality types

McKinsey teams use MBTI personality types as a short-hand for understanding individual preferences and team dynamics.  In this post I'll review a few ways McKinsey consultant typically think about MBTI.  These are not necessarily how an expert on MBTI would apply this framework, but the McKinsey person in your life still might think in some of these ways

CAVEAT

As in many of my posts, I'm going to make some broad generalizations, but they are based on behaviors I've seen across many consultants and partners on many client engagement teams.  Not everyone at McKinsey thinks this way about MBTI or uses the framework in this way, but these tendencies are certainly not rare.

McKinsey consultants will also talk in terms of being "a strong X" or "barely Y" where X and Y are MBTI preference like I, E, N, S, T, F, J, or P, often based on their MBTI scores (e.g., "I'm a strong E", "I'm a slight F").  However, this, also, is not necessarily an appropriate application of the framework.

MBTI and the Team Kickoff or "Team Ready" meetings

Many McKinsey teams will start a client engagement by having a meeting to discuss how everyone prefers to work and align on what the team's working style will be.  At these kickoff, or "Team Ready" meetings, each of the team members will typically share what their strengths are, what opportunity areas they're working on, what their working style preferences are, and their MBTI personality type.  The MBTI personality types are used as a shortcut to understand how team members like to work and how they can best work with each other.

How some people and teams interpret MBTI preferences...

1.  N vs. S

Consultants with a preference for iNtuition are often considered more strategic, "big picture" problem solvers who are able to "think 80/20".  This is generally perceived to be a positive trait at a firm where we work on a lot of top-down, strategic issues.  It is sometimes assumed that Ns are better at pattern recognition, out-of-the-box thinking, and drawing conclusions from larges sets of information.  The downside is that someone who is a "strong N" might be thought of as being too far removed from the critical nuts and bolts of a problem or lacking attention to detail.

Those with a preference for Sensing are in the opposite situation.  Teams will assume great attention to detail - as a result, a "strong S" is more likely to be trusted to own the primary Excel model for a client engagement.  Common negative perceptions of the "strong S" are that they think too tactically, can't see the forest for the trees, and miss "big picture" connections and solutions.

2.  T vs. F

McKinsey consultants overindex on the preference for Thinking.  This makes sense for a Firm that encourages logical thinking and structured problem-solving.  As a result, many Ts will assume they will get along better and can rely more on other Ts.

However, Ts are also assumed to be more transactional, less tactful, and less thoughtful of the feelings of others.  As a result, many McKinsey consultants believe there is value in having at least one F around to "keep the team honest" when it comes to interpersonal interactions, especially with clients.  If you are an F, it might help you to understand that McKinsey colleagues might value or even rely on your gentle reminders to consider the feelings of others.  Examples of how Fs can contribute to teams include:

• Engage with others before getting down to business (e.g., ask about someone's weekend before asking them for some data)
• Be genuine with engaging with others (e.g., avoid coming across like you're "checking the box" when you ask about someone's weekend)
• Consider how your audience will react to information (e.g., think about how to word bad news to make it more palatable)
• Give positive feedback, especially to clients (e.g., give a client credit for a great analysis in front of their boss) because not everyone is used to a steady diet of negative feedback
• Remember that not everyone works for McKinsey (e.g., don't expect a client to work over the weekend)

 

3.  J vs. P

People with a Judging preference are assume to be more organized and better at planning both in their personal and professional lives.  If you have a clean desk and keep your notes and files well-organized, your team will assume you're a J.  Because of these associations, Js are assumed to be superior to Ps when it comes to process and structured problem solving.  Conversely, Ps are assumed to be less organized and structured.  As a result, Js will be more trusted when it comes to tasks like workplanning.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of negative connotations that come with a preference for Perceiving.  Ps are assumed to be messy, disorganized, and unstructured.  I also can't come up with any positive assumptions McKinsey teams make about Ps.  If you're a P, at best, rather than getting angry with you when you forget to do something, your teammates will simply chalk it up to your Perceiving nature.  The good news is that your team will be less likely to ask you to make dinner reservations, call in the team's lunch order, or organize team events.

This brings to mind an infamous quote regarding Ps.  Supposedly, a female McKinsey Partner once told an especially sloppy, disorganized male Business Associate that "your P-ness is really starting to become a problem for me."  Apparently it took her a few beats to realize how that sounded!

WHY THESE PERCEPTIONS ARE IMPORTANT

The better you understand how McKinsey consultants view your MBTI personality type, the more effectively you can work with them.  If you know they're inclined to trust you more with certain types of work, you can leverage that into more opportunities or responsibilities.  If you understand what reservations they might have about your abilities, you can proactively address their concerns and show them that they can rely on you.

To learn more about your own MBTI personality type and MBTI in general, please see my earlier post on the topic

MBTI - How your McKinsey colleague thinks of you in 4 letters (an introduction)

McKinsey consultants change teams frequently and must quickly understand new colleagues' and clients' personalities, working styles, and preferences.  MBTI is a 4-letter shortcut that the McKinsey consultant in your life uses to do just that.

In this post I'll give you a brief overview of how to figure out your own MBTI type and understand what they're talking about

WHAT IS MBTI?

MBTI is short for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.  The MBTI reflects your personal preferences along four dimensions.  Each dimension is expressed as one of two choices or dichotomies, so there are 16 possible MBTI types.  Each type is summarized by a combination of 4 letters based on your preferences across the following dichotomies:

• (E) Extraversion vs. (I) Intraversion
• (S) Sensing vs. (N) Intuition
• (T) Thinking vs. (F) Feeling
• (J) Judging vs. (P) Perception

A person's MBTI type consists of one letter for each of the dichotomies (e.g., ENTJ, ISFP).  There is no shortage of great online resources for learning more about MBTI and its roots in Jung's theory of personality types.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Right or wrong, MBTI is frequently used at McKinsey as a shortcut for understanding and communicating working styles.  The more familiar you are with this alphabet soup, the better equipped you'll be to make the best of it.

Even if you don't know your MBTI type, your McKinsey consultant has already guessed what it might be and is likely adapting their working style accordingly.  It might also influence the type of work they assign to you or how frequently and in what ways they interact with you.  The more you understand your own and your McKinsey colleague's MBTI, the better you can work together.

HOW DO I FIGURE OUT MY MBTI?

There are plenty of great, free, online resources to help with this.  I find this one in particular to be a quick, easy way to get to a preliminary assessment of one's MBTI type.  Before you begin, please consider these...

3 CAVEATS ABOUT YOUR MBTI ASSESSMENT

Please keep in mind that neither I, nor any of my McKinsey colleagues were MBTI experts.  This information is based on my exposure to MBTI at McKinsey, business school, previous employers who also used it, and psychology classes during undergrad.  But based on those experiences, I can offer you some tips about MBTI assessments:

1. Take it with a grain of salt - like anything you find for free, online (like this blog!) consider your results unofficial.  My understanding is that a true MBTI assessment requires an extensive questionnaire followed by an interview with a trained professional.  That said, in general, I've found these results to be directionally accurate.
2. Be honest with yourself - don't answer based on the personality type you aspire to be or think that you should be.  To get the most accurate assessment of your MBTI type, you must answer based on your current, actual self.
3. This is about preferences - for both answering questions and interpreting the results, remember, this is all about what you prefer to do, not necessarily what you do.  So, for example, if a question is about how you spend time by yourself, answer based how you want to spend that time, not necessarily how circumstances are forcing you to.  Similarly, when interpreting your results, remember that MBTI is assessing your preferences.

16 MBTI TYPES, NEATLY SUMMARIZED

One helpful method I've seen help those new to MBTI understand what each type represents is the one-word descriptor.  Here's how each type is often viewed or described:

• ISTJ - Inspector or Detective
• ISFJ - Protector
• INFJ - Counselor
• INTJ - Mastermind
• ISTP - Artisan
• ISFP - Composer or Artist
• INFP - Healer
• INTP - Architect
• ESTP - Dynamo or Doer
• ESFP - Performer
• ENFP - Champion or Inspirer
• ENTP - Visionary or Inventor
• ESTJ - Supervisor
• ESFJ - Caregiver or Provider
• ENFJ - Teacher
• ENTJ - General or Commander

WHAT YOUR RESULTS MEAN

You are a unique, complex, interesting person.  Everything about you is not going to fit neatly into one of 16 MBTI buckets.  But, this could prove to be a helpful tool in helping you understand how to work better with others and how others can work better with you.

In future posts, I'll address:

• How McKinsey teams think about MBTI types
• MBTI types over- and under-represented at McKinsey
• How MBTI types deal with stress differently.

How to impress your McKinsey boss - Consulting rock stars are five-tool players

In this post I'll review the five consulting skills we look for and provide examples of how to demonstrate excellence in each of them.  The best consultants are good at all five and are distinctive, or "have a spike" in at least one.

Image from mensfitness.com

Knowing what a McKinsey person is looking for can help you make the right impression on your former McKinsey boss, your current Engagement Manager, or the management consultant who is interviewing you for a job.

This post is about the abilities of a great management consultant.  To learn more about the behaviors of a great consultant (or direct report to a former consultant), check out this earlier post on the 3 things you can do to keep your McKinsey boss happy.

WHAT IS A ROCK STAR AT MCKINSEY AND HOW CAN I BE ONE?

The highest compliment a McKinsey consultant can receive is to be referred to as a "rock star" by their colleagues.  There's no specific definition for the term, but it's generally accepted to mean someone who is a top performer across every dimension that you'd look for in a great consultant.  Considering how selective the Firm is in hiring and how effective it is at developing talent, being called a rock star is high praise, indeed.  To be truly distinctive, you must be the consulting version of a five-tool player.

WHAT IS A FIVE-TOOL PLAYER?

The concept comes from the sport of baseball and refers to the five most important skills for position players (everyone other than pitchers) - 1. fielding skills, 2. throwing arm strength, 3. running speed, 4. batting for average, and 5. hitting for power.  To be referred to as a "five-tool player", an athlete has to be exceptional along all of those dimensions.  Most Major Leaguers excel in at least one of the five tools.  All-Stars might be outstanding in three or four.  Five-tool players are rare and can often transcend the sport of baseball - examples include Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, and Ken Griffey, Jr.

THE FIVE TOOLS OF CONSULTING

Based on my experience, there is an equivalent list of five tools that any good management consultant must have.  Rock star consultants will outshine even their most talented colleagues along every one of these dimension.  The more you understand how your McKinsey boss evaluates talent, the better you can focus on becoming truly distinctive in your strengths and address your weaknesses.

ANALYTICS

Why it's important:  Building a credible fact-base often requires analyzing and making sense out of a large amount of data.  Also, deliverables often include models that the client will use after the study is over.
What excellence looks like:

• High level of comfort working with numbers and understanding implications of data on the problem at hand
• Ability to prioritize and focus on the areas, data, and analyses that will generate the greatest impact
• Excel skills to build models that functional, error-free, and easy to hand-off to clients

STORYTELLING

Why it's important:  Consulting recommendations and insights are only helpful to clients if they can communicated in a clear and compelling way.
What excellence looks like:

• Understanding of stakeholder needs and how to make topics relevant to them
• Ability to synthesize large amounts of information and highlight the key takeaways
• Crafting storylines that drive understanding and acceptance

COLLABORATIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING

Why it's important:  Help in solving their most pressing business issues is ultimately why clients hire management consultants.  Collaboration - both with the client and McKinsey leadership - ensure we consider the greatest range of and most applicable solutions.
What excellence looks like:

• Extensive creativity, insight, and content knowledge to inform the best possible answers
• Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues and clients to generate buy-in
• Leveraging all available resources and expertise and incorporating them into solutions

RELATIONSHIP BUILDING

Why it's important:  Our goal is to become the trusted advisor to our clients, not just deliver impact on individual engagements.  Getting clients actively engaged in our work increases the likelihood of buy-in, impact, and success.  It's also important that your McKinsey boss know that you're "client ready" and can trust you to lead client meetings on your own.
What excellence looks like: 

• High emotional IQ and ability to empathize with and relate to clients at all levels of an organization
• Genuine interest and investment in clients' long-term success
• Professionalism, confidence, and poise that build credibility

PRODUCTIVITY

Why it's important:  Consultants are expected to drive a large amount of impact in a short amount of time.  Timelines are often compressed so
What excellence looks like:

• Talent for multitasking and driving impact across multiple workstreams
• Efficiency and able to prioritize and focus on the highest-value tasks
• Commitment to getting the job done, no matter how difficult or how long it takes

How to give McKinsey-style feedback: The McKinsey Feedback Model

McKinsey is a feedback-driven culture.  It's used to develop better consultants and make sure we're always pushing toward greater client impact.  There's also an expectation that less tenured consultants also provide frequent, upward feedback to their leadership.  Unfortunately, there's a also a tendency for McKinsey feedback to focus on "development opportunities", resulting in predominantly negative feedback that I address in a related post.

As with most things in consulting, McKinsey has developed a framework for delivering structured feedback and it's called "the McKinsey feedback model".

In this post I'll go over...

• Explanation of the McKinsey feedback model
• Format recommended by the Firm for giving feedback
• Explanation of why that format is used
• Examples of what the McKinsey feedback model in practice

Image from excelle.monster.com

 

WHAT IS THE MCKINSEY FEEDBACK MODEL?

The McKinsey Feedback Model is the approach the Firm recommends for delivering feedback.  McKinsey consultants are used to receiving feedback in this format, so giving feedback to the McKinsey consultant in your life using this format might increase the likelihood that your feedback will be heard and understood.  The intent of the model is to make the feedback:

• Specific
• Fact-based
• Less personal
• Irrefutable
• Actionable

RECOMMENDED FORMAT FOR STRUCTURED FEEDBACK

 "When you did [X], it made me feel [Y].

In the future, I would recommend that you do [Z]"

WHY WE REFERENCE SPECIFIC, OBSERVABLE ACTIONS [X]

• The more specific the example, the more vivid and memorable the feedback
• Being fact-based keeps the feedback from feeling too personal to the recipient
• The first part is incontrovertible, as long as you remembered and communicated it correctly

WHY WE INCLUDE HOW IT MADE US FEEL [Y]

Explaining how the recipient's action made you feel [Y] is also unarguable - your feelings and reactions are your own and no one can deny them.  The intent of the first two steps is to set the stage for giving the recommendation without getting derailed by debating the context.

WHY SUGGESTIONS HAVE TO BE SPECIFIC AND ACTIONABLE [Z]

The point of providing feedback is so that we can improve.  If someone receives feedback that is too vague or beyond their control, it does nothing to help them do better the next time.  And example of feedback I was once given that was not specific and therefore not actionable was "make this page prettier" rather than something more actionable like "instead of pasting in an Excel table, next time create a table in PowerPoint".

Feedback should be provided in such a way that if the feedback recipient does what you recommend, it will solve the problem and prevent [X] and [Y] from occurring again.

EXAMPLES OF WHAT THIS LOOKS LIKE IN PRACTICE

"When you were late to our meeting this morning, it made me feel that you don't value my time.  In the future, I would recommend you plan on arriving early to meetings and call my mobile phone if a delay can't be avoided"

"When you checked in on my progress every 10 minutes, it made me feel like you didn't trust me to complete the project and I couldn't maintain my focus on the task.  In the future, I would suggest we agree upon specific milestones and check-in points to ensure the project will be completed on time."

Feedback overload - now my McKinsey boss wants my "360" feedback!

A CULTURE THAT VALUES FEEDBACK

Giving and receiving feedback is an integral part of the McKinsey experience - it's what drives our development by letting us know if we're on the right track and how we can improve.  At McKinsey, feedback is meant to be constructive, not punitive, even if does feel harsh at times.  It's also part of our culture for McKinsey leadership to value upward feedback from their teams.

In this post I'll discuss the frequency of feedback and our openness to giving and receiving upward (aka "360") feedback.  There's also a link to another post on McKinsey feedback model.

FREQUENT FEEDBACK

Each McKinsey engagement team will develop team norms around how and how often feedback will be given.  Most teams I was part of agreed on weekly, formal one-on-one feedback sessions and impromptu feedback after learning opportunities (e.g., if something goes especially well or poorly during a meeting, feedback will be given discreetly immediately afterward).

If you're working with someone from McKinsey, you might feel like you're getting way too much feedback, but a) they're just doing what they've been trained to do and b) they're probably trying to help you out.  Most of the high-performing BAs and ASCs with whom I worked would request frequent and frank feedback from McKinsey leadership and peers.

UPWARD FEEDBACK

Outside of McKinsey, I've found it rare to meet supervisors who sincerely value and want upward feedback from their direct reports.  However, within McKinsey, almost without exception, anyone I reported to would actively seek out, listen to, and express appreciation for upward feedback (even if they didn't always act on it).

If your supervisor is a former McKinsey consultant, be prepared to be asked for upward feedback, especially if you request feedback first.  And be ready to offer some constructive, actionable feedback - not just empty praise.

If a former McKinsey consultant works for you, be prepared to receive - or at least be offered - upward feedback.  If you're not used to receiving feedback from your direct reports it might be uncomfortable at first, but it's worth trying - you're likely to receive insightful, actionable, and helpful suggestions.

HOW TO GIVE FEEDBACK

 
I'll cover the McKinsey feedback model in my next post - it's a useful tool for preparing for and having these feedback conversations.