McKinsey PEI - What to highlight?

Question

Hi everyone, I'm preparing my stories for the PEI. McKInsey made it very clear that they are looking for Entreprenuer drive, Leadership abilities, and Personal impact. However, each of these qualities consists of many aspects (For example, enterpreneur drive can mean innovative thinking, it also can mean desire to excel etc.)

I'm wondering what specific aspects are the good ones to focus on and highlight for each of these qualities in the real interview? Appreciate the thoughts.

Answer 1

Hi Anonymous,

as you mentioned, the PEI at McKinsey is structured around three key dimensions, leadership, impact and drive. I have provided a description for them below:

1) Leadership is about leading a whole team in a challenging situation and showing team management skills. Questions include:

Give me three examples of a time that you lead a group.  
What are some key lessons you have learned about motivating people?

Here you want to emphasize how you overcome a difficult situation leading a team.

2) Personal Impact is mainly based on persuading someone about doing/not doing something. Questions include:

Tell me about a time that you persuaded your boss to go along with an idea you had.
Tell me about a difficult situation where you had to rely on your communication skills.

Here you want to emphasize your influence on someone else, usually in disagreement with you.

3) Entrepreneurial Drive is about implementing something overcoming major difficulties. Examples include:

Which was a situation where you set a major goal and been able to achieve it?
What has been your major accomplishment so far?

Here you want to emphasize the achievement you reached and the process that led you there.

Hope this helps,
Francesco

Answer 2

Hi Anonymous,

Please bear in mind that the McKinsey PEI is a highly specific interview format of it's on - so it all starts with having a crystal-clear understanding of the 3 dimensions (Leadership, Personal Impact, Entrepreneurial Drive) and what your interviewers want to hear about. Once you have the content right, you are still not done - you need to deliver your example in a structured and persuasive way as well.

What is true for all 3 dimensions: nobody is interested in a situation in which everything was easy and straight-forward - so in really need to be a challenging situation for you.

Now the key areas per dimension:

Leadership: Leading a team (formal or – even better – informal leadership role) in which you encountered interpersonal (!) challenges and focussing on how you overcome them
Personal Impact: Convincing one specific other person (not multiple persons at once, no team included in this dimension) about a topic, so that he finally changes his opinion - focussing on how you strategically manage the process of convincing somebody
Entrepreneurial Drive: Achieving a goal which is clearly outside your regular role and responsibilities - focussing on the key challenges and how you overcome them with a structured approach.

Hope that helps to guide you into the right direction now! For more detailed discussion on this subject, please feel free to contact me for a coaching session to help you preparing your pei.

More information on some detailed aspects of the PEI you can also find on my blog https://pei.consulting-case-interviews.com/blog for that purpose.

Robert

Answer 3

Hello!

On top of the insights already shared in the post, next week will be pusblished in PrepLounge´s Shop material related.

In concrete, the "Integrated FIT guide for MBB". It provides an end-to-end preparation for all three MBB interviews, tackling each firms particularities and combining key concepts review and a hands-on methodology. Following the book, the candidate will prepare his/her stories by practicing with over 50 real questions and leveraging special frameworks and worksheets that guide step-by-step, developed by the author and her experience as a Master in Management professor and coach. Finally, as further guidance, the guide encompasses over 20 examples from real candidates.

Hope you find it useful!

Answer 4

Dear A,

Good questions. But you're right. Sounds quite similar that may bewilder.

Below you can find some examples of the questions that would help you to differ the dimensions of PEI:

Leadership

Tell me about a time you led others.
Tell me about a time when you were on a team that had a conflict that was keeping it from achieving its objective.
How do you motivate people?

Personal Impact

Tell me about a time you had to convince someone to change their mind on something important to them.
Tell me about a difficult situation where you had to rely on your communication skills.
What do you want to be remembered for and how are you achieving it?

Entrepreneurial Drive

Did you ever have a goal that you weren’t able to achieve? What did you do?
Tell me about a time that you dealt with a tough problem.
Tell me about a failure.

Best,

André