McKinsey PEI -- "resolving conflict within a team setting"

Question

Dear community,

I'm wondering for PEI question asking for situation where I “resolved conflict within a team setting”, is the interviewer targeting “leadership” dimension or “personal impact” dimension?

thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Actually, this can belong to both dimensions.

You can see it as part of inclusive leadership because of its emphasis on the team and leadership component.

You can see it as part of personal impact for its focus on convincing, persuading and managing conflict.

It stands to show that you should not be married to the dimensions, and it's critical to show flexibility during the interview in terms of selecting and adjusting your story to fit the interviewer's question.

For anyone else who is preparing for the PEI component, I've created a video course with my 6-step storytelling framework that has helped my candidates get distinctive feedback on the McKinsey PEI. You can find out more about it here:

Video Course: Master the McKinsey PEI

Best,
Cristian

Answer 2

Hey there,

For a McKinsey Inclusive Leadership story, the interviewer will ask you about a situation where you led a team through a challenging time to achieve a certain goal. For this dimension, you need to show that you ...

... can handle a diverse group that accepts you as their leader, with diversity being the result of different backgrounds, cultures, hierarchy levels, etc.
... tailor your leadership style to different groups and group members
... demonstrate your ability to make the team succeed by helping to structure, divide, and delegate tasks and providing them with work plans, deadlines, and effective communication
... motivate your team, improve the team spirit and the working environment for all involved
... are interested in the well-being of the team and their own individual development along the way
... deal with conflicts between teammates and goals effectively

Overall, showcase that your presence as a team leader had a positive impact on the team and lead to a strong outcome of a particular project or task.

You do not need to be an official leader. What is important is that you create an environment that allows for strong collaboration and problem-solving among the team members, bringing out each individual's strengths.

A conflict could be related to the inclusiveness aspect. For instance, show how you integrate the different members of the team and their perspectives.

I have written an article on the topic that goes into a bit more detail here: https://www.preplounge.com/mckinsey-pei

The article also covers an Inclusive Leadership example story.

Cheers,

Florian

Answer 3

Hi there,

This is very much personal impact! It *might* be inclusive leadership but that would have to be a diverse team that you were leading and that you took leadership action to turn around.

Answer 4

That’s a personal impact question - but I’m not sure that it should matter. Regardless of which type of question it is you need to be able to respond in a way which demonstrates how you dealt with the inter personal challenges. My top advice is to listen to the question and answer what is being asked rather than trying to think about what bucket of questions it sits in.