Leadership

Personal Fit
New answer on Jul 16, 2020
4 Answers
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Anonymous A asked on Feb 06, 2019

How would you define leadership? - Anyone a crispy answer that is short and concise in case you get asked in the PF part of the interview?

Thanks a lot!

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Jacopo
Expert
replied on Feb 07, 2019
Project leader BCG, Bain and A.T. Kearney / 200+ real interviews

Hi,

Leadership questions are Behavioural/Personal Experience questions; they are less generic than Fit questions and their objective is to test specific skills needed to be a good consultant.
The main recurring questions on leadership are along these lines - Tell me about a time…

… you worked in a team and had to manage a conflict

… you led a team in a challenging/difficult situation

…you changed the opinion of a person/group

…you had an issue/disagreement with a colleague

…you faced a hard challenge

How to answer these questions? Interviewers remember stories…and given that they meet several candidates on interview day you want to build memorable stories. Personally, I found it very helpful to use a simple framework:

  1. Context: start by giving the context
  2. Issue: describe the issue you faced
  3. Solution: describe your solution to the issue
  4. Outcome and lesson learned: quantify your impact if you can and close with what you learned

As for the Personal Fit questions, my recommendation is to prepare for Behavioural questions by writing your stories and repeating them out loud. This will help you a lot on the interview day.

I hope it helps,

Good luck!

Jacopo

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Sidi
Expert
replied on Feb 07, 2019
McKinsey Senior EM & BCG Consultant | Interviewer at McK & BCG for 7 years | Coached 350+ candidates secure MBB offers

Hi!

Based on classical McKinsey view:

Leadership = enabling the people around you.

This means supporting others

(1) to be able to do what needs to be done, and

(2) to be willing to do what needst to be done

As you might expect, these two elements can be further broken down into concrete conditions by means of a tree structure.

Cheers, Sidi

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Guennael
Expert
replied on Feb 07, 2019
Ex-MBB, Experienced Hire; I will teach you not only the how, but also the why of case interviews

I am a long time student of Leadership - seriously, i keep reading books on them, have attended seminars, get coaching...

Two things i have learned are:

- your definition of leadership is personal amd unique; oh, and it will change over time

- there are different types of leadership, which each may be appropriate at specidic times. General Stan McCrystal just wrote an outstanding book supporting (advocari g, really) that position. Well wirth a read if you arent actually preparung your case interviews right now

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Clara
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Jul 16, 2020
McKinsey | Awarded professor at Master in Management @ IE | MBA at MIT |+180 students coached | Integrated FIT Guide aut

Hello!

On top of the insights already shared in the post, the "Integrated FIT guide for MBB" has been recently published in PrepLounge´s shop (https://www.preplounge.com/en/shop/tests-2/integrated-fit-guide-for-mbb-34)

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.

Furthermore, you can find 2 free cases in the PrepL case regarding FIT preparation:

Feel free to PM me for disccount codes for the Integrated FIT Guide, since we still have some left from the launch!

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Jacopo gave the best answer

Jacopo

Project leader BCG, Bain and A.T. Kearney / 200+ real interviews
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