Leadership Examples

leadership MBB
New answer on Dec 30, 2023
3 Answers
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Anonymous A asked on Aug 02, 2019

Hi,

I was wondering if somebody could give me concrete examples of answers to the question "Tell me of a situation when you showed leadership". I was a teacher, tutor and mentor for years, as teenager I was a team captain for a short while, and I have managed my small office team of three since 2017... and yet a way of answering that question escapes me. How concrete do they want it? That I took decisions? To describe the specific consequences or impact of those decisions? What type?

Thank you in advance.

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Alberto
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Dec 30, 2023
Ex-McKinsey Associate Partner | +15 years in consulting | +200 McKinsey 1st & 2nd round interviews

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:

  • You leading style is and how you inspire the team to reach a challenging goal
  • Your teamwork skills to coordinate work and make everyone shine
  • Your ability to understand and act on team dynamics, even the personal ones (motivations, frustrations)

I hope this helps.

Alberto

Check out my latest case based on a real MBB interview: Sierra Springs

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Anonymous updated the answer on Aug 04, 2019

Hi,

It sounds like you a number of great roles that I sense you can pull lots of great leadership examples from.

To answer your question directly: Your interviewer expects that you provide very concrete and clear examples of a leadership example. So here's what you need to do:

  1. Think of an example that truly demonstrates you taking leadership. An example where you ran a team successfully to a specific goal or through a difficult challenge. The interviewer does not want to hear that you've been in a leadership position, but instead that you have evidence of being an effective leader. So, saying you were responsible for a large team is not good enough because you may not have been very good at it :). But explaining that you led that large team to deliver a multi-month project through major challenges is impressive
  2. Summarise at a high-level
    1. who you led
    2. what you led them to do
    3. what was difficult about it
    4. what you did to be successful
    5. Bonus: what about you specifically made it successful (e.g. your confidence, tenacity, etc.)
  3. And then be prepared to go into detail with your interviewer:
    1. Explain what you did, said, and thought. Remember, this is not about your team, it is about you so get comfortable using words like "I did...", "I said...", "I figured out that...", etc.
    2. Describe specific difficult moments and how you overcame it (again, it's all about what you did)
    3. Explain any planning you did beforehand and why
    4. Share and celebrate the outcome (which should be positive) and maybe any learnings or things you would do better.

All the best!

(edited)

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Vlad
Expert
replied on Aug 02, 2019
McKinsey / Accenture Alum / Got all BIG3 offers / Harvard Business School

Hi,

You should be very specific in describing the Actions that you've taken to solve the problem. Overall approach should be the following:

  • 1 sentence summary of the story
  • The context - 1-2 sentences
  • The problem - 1 sentence
  • Actions that you've taken to solve it - 4-6 actions 1 sentence each
  • Measurable Impact - 1 sentence

Best

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Alberto gave the best answer

Alberto

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Ex-McKinsey Associate Partner | +15 years in consulting | +200 McKinsey 1st & 2nd round interviews
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