Hi,
For leadership questions in the McKinsey PEI, I'm torn between using examples from:
a) official leadership roles (e.g. elected as leader/captain) where you'd show off the fact that you'd made it to being selected for a role
b) unofficial leadership roles (e.g. you're on a team of equal rank, and you emerge naturally as a leader) which would show off more soft/natural leadership tendencies.
Any thoughts as to which is better would be much appreciated!
Hello!
This is precisely where you need to start, the definition of what each of the "dimensions" are.
Leadership is not only official leadership roles, also unnoficial ones, in which you lead yourself or others towards a complex goal overcoming adversities and issues.
Hence, both work, pick whichever story is stronger, richer and more detailed in your case.
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Hey there,
When it comes to the selection of your McKinsey PEI stories, you need to think about three dimensions in the following order:
1. Fit with the actual dimension that is asked (Entrepreneurial Drive, Leadership, Personal Impact).
2. Diversity of experience (make sure that different stories are from different walks of life, e.g., jobs or career, university, extracurriculars, etc.)
3. Recency (in general, the more recent the better. Unless you interview for an experienced hire senior position, your stories should not date back more than 2-3 years)
Since you should have two stories per dimension anyway (in case a dimension is asked in several interviews), I would suggest that you have one from an official leadership role and a second one where you emerged as a natural leader due to your actions, behavior and the circumstances.
As others have already mentioned, both stories can be equally strong depending on how you frame it, the impact you created, and your interactions along the way.
If you need a recent and objective McKinsey-like perspective, send me a message. I am happy to do a PEI style interview across one or several dimensions to make sure you a. tell the right story (content) and b. tell the story right (communication and delivery).
All the best with your preparation and interviews! :-)
Florian
Hey there,
Happy New Year!
Leadership doesn't always mean you need to manage teams or have had to do something huge over a lengthy period of time. You can be an individual contributor but assume leadership role in a situation/event because perhaps you are the person with most knowledge in that situation, or you have previous experience or because no one is stepping up and you volunteer or you stepped up and helped someone with something that mattered a lot to them and showed them direction. I hope you get the point.
So choose an example/situaiton where you made the most impact and there is a nice story to tell- can be official or unofficial as you say.
Have a look at these threads too:
Hi there,
Honestly, it depends! I genuinely can't say one over the other.
Much more important is what you did in these roles. As in, what challenges did you overcome, what actions did you take, and what was the ultimate impact at the end. The bigger/more impressive it is, the better the story!
Feel free to message....I have help you pick which story fits best, and help edit both to make them as optimal as possible.
Both are fine if the underlying story is strong!
Keep in mind, that the story in itself should showcase the leadership that you showed. Just being the formal leader by rank and bossing people around will not will not make the cut here, even if it shows by implication that somebody at some point thought you would be a good leader.
The story needs to convey that you personally took the ownership of the situation, showed leadership (not just exercised it) and eventually influenced the group towards being the best version of themselves.
Hi there,
Being asked for a leadership story you should focus on your best experience leading a team (of any size), either on a personal or professional situation. Keys here:
I hope this helps.
Alberto
—
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Both work.
What's important is that in the context part of the story you make clear whether you had a de facto or de jure leadership role and how things progressed from there.
But the stories can be equally powerful either or.
For anybody who is looking into the PEI topic, I recently released this end-to-end course covering PEI. More on it here:
Best,
Cristian
Hi,
Use both if needed.
Most important criteria are relevance (with the question asked), impact you had, lessons learned. The way you communicate is equally important.
Hope this helps.
Best,
Antonello
Hello there!
Both of them are great.
Sometimes even the unofficial leadership role tends to be more valuable.
I suggest choosing the one that is more impactful, reveals your leadership skills vividly as well as your ability to communicate. It's also important how you acted and what you've learned.
Besides, sometimes the situation during the interview determines the type of story.
You could reach out to a coach to help you polish both.
Cheers,
GB
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