I think that are two key things when thinking about the PEI(Personal Experience Interview) at McKinsey:

• Your stories need to be very specific. When you tell a story, it is important to share all the details that go with it. For example, if you are telling a story about when you convinced someone, they'll want to know how was that interaction, what did you say, what did the person responded, and so on. Write down your story.
• Don't confuse the stories. Leadership is about leading teams, is about managing people to achieve one specific goal and dealing with the innerworkings of a team, it is not about achieving exceptional results (it can be a failed story). Personal impact is about how you, and not the team, achieved exceptional result. Don't ever use the word "us", always "I". Entrepreneurial drive is not about founding a company, is about having an idea and implementing it despite a not helpful scenario.

Hope this helps clarify a little bit.

Good luck!

1) Concerning 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

What is a ncessary core ingredient for s strong Personal Impact example is an underlying conflicting interest – and both parties need to have a strong interest in the outcome of the situation.

Ideally, your example is going on over at least several days, better weeks for showing a strategic masterplan on how you convinced this person.

2) Concerning Entrepreneurial Drive = Achieving a goal which is clearly outside your regular role and responsibilities

You wanted to achieve something by yourself (and no one else imposed this task on you) and can explain a strong motivation behind. Necessary core ingredient of a strong example are several big obstacles which you needed to overcome.

Hi Alice,

thanks again for participating so actively in our forum.

An answer that was given by Guennael on another thread might be helpful for you. He is explaining the differences between leadership, drive, and impact:

Have you ever taken a leadership position, in a sporting club, student organization, non-profit... even study group?

Drive is the fire in your belly: what do you do when you want something bad? Are you going to make it happen regardless of time commitment or difficulties?

Impact is the result your actions have had, typically on others. Did you raise money for your organization? Increase membership? Help a couple of poor kids learn how to read? If you hadn't been here, how much worse would things be? That is the impact you've had.

Drive typically comes before impact, but these are two very different concepts

You can find the original thread here: Different selection criteria of MBBs

Hope this helps!

All the best for the rest of your prep,
Astrid

PrepLounge Community Management

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Hello!

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Best,

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Personally, I like your story of persuading a shy girl to join toastmasters, since you did have impact on that person and is quite unique story. I also like your volunteering service as an example of entrepreneurial drive. I cannot tell you what other example to use, since I dont know you and dnt know what experience you have, but I think the most important part is not the story itself, but what you make of it. Using a story-telling approach is a good method for the PEI questions with McK: start explaining the context of the example youre using (1), elaborate the problem you (and your team) had (2), discuss the solution you used to solve it (3), if in a team tell about the impact you had in solving the problem (4), finish by evaluating how you handled it and the lessons you have learned. You can prepare for this part really well and adapt the story based on the specific question the interviewer is asking. Don’t spend too much time on the context, but rather on the other parts of the story and especially what your role was.