What I learned in 15 years at McKinsey that I wish I knew when I joined

A few months back, I shared with colleagues some reflections about things I wish I knew when I joined the firm, and they were recently published on the McKinsey Careers Blog. 

Since I have had quite a few follow-up questions and comments about this piece, I’ve decided to expand on it and make it relevant beyond life at McKinsey.

I am writing for a very specific and fairly extensive audience – whom I fondly refer to as “insecure overachievers” – very much like my younger self. It is hard to fault prestigious employers for seeking overachievers, and certainly, in a hyper-competitive world, such employees climb up faster and grab more opportunities. But insecurity can be vicious and unpredictable, and it is a moral responsibility of leaders to vanquish it and certainly not to cultivate and exploit it.

In the pursuit of happiness, a sense of security and perspective can make all the difference. A healthy dose of discontent and restlessness can quickly become a dreadful thing due to insecurity. When Steve Jobs famously told Stanford graduates to “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”, he wasn’t literally encouraging them to go hitchhiking to find serendipity. It was about being a “learn-it-all”, open-minded, and adaptive to change. And perhaps also not letting others define what success should be for you.  

1. Freedom to shape your path.

I am now convinced that talented people have far greater freedom to follow their passions than they believe, and it is true almost everywhere. The mistake is to expect instant gratification or to miscalculate the ingenuity and perseverance required to make big things happen.

Bill Gates famously said, “Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in 10 years”. Angela Duckworth’s book “Grit” also masterfully captures the power of passion and perseverance, observing “there is no domain of expertise that has been studied where world-class performers have put in fewer than 10 years of consistent, deliberate practice to get where they are”.

2. It’s always going to be a seller’s market for outstanding talent. And the surest way to become outstanding talent is to do every task as well as you can.

In my experience, it’s 10x more common to see an average or low performer caught up in a vicious circle as they spend too much time on organizational politics than it is to see a high performer perpetually under-recognized because she is politically na?ve. The reason is incredibly simple. High performers dedicate more capacity and mental bandwidth to delivery and learning on the job and follow a much more intuitive decision-making algorithm (what’s right). They strive to improve their authentic self rather than fake it until they make it.

Over time, the difference is dramatic. Good leaders are always searching for such high performers and are not easily fooled by others. Furthermore, leaders’ status and reputation improve by developing high performers and creating new opportunities for them, which is a powerful incentive.

The implication should be quite liberating: focus your energy on doing great work, and the rest will take care of itself.

3. Get to know your colleagues deeply. You can rarely build trust if you don’t.

Among my very best friends are: (a) The guy who was assigned to the same bunk bed during military basic training; (b) The guy (named Guy) who joined McKinsey with me as the second Business Analyst and did the full induction training with me; (c) a Chinese McKinsey colleague whose daughter randomly befriended mine in a playground near our Shanghai home; (d) Another colleague with whom I got stranded for 24 hours.

I have many more examples of inspirational relationships that were born out of “forced intimacy” and examples of frayed working relationships that were completely turned around when I learned more about a colleague (or a client) and bonded with them outside of work. Evolution rewarded circumspect hunter-gatherers, and we’re still distrustful by nature of anyone we don’t see as a real friend. However, while modern life further sanctifies individuality and increases our self-centricity, we can easily overcome almost any bias when we invest in intimacy. Trust is the grandest multiplier effect for team productivity (and fun together). 

4. The system is working for you.

In good organizations, this is a corollary to the scarcity of talent. Any smart leader understands that people will underpin her business’s success and goes all out to design a system that gives the best people more responsibility. It is my experience that the paradoxical-sounding aphorisms “If you want something done, find a busy person” and “It’s often the busiest person that has the most time to spare” are true in every great company. If it doesn’t feel that way, it’s often self-pressure, distorted expectations, and occasional bad luck (it happens!), which a bit of extra time will fix. 

5. You should never stop learning. 

I am cheating a bit here by using the word “should” instead of “will” from my original piece. This is because, after a reasonable period, the ability to learn things should be your litmus test to determine if it’s worth staying where you are or time to take advantage of the freedom to reshape your path.

A great career gives you an ever-increasing opportunity to learn more. Even if you are not looking to change your role, “knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes”, to quote author Peter Drucker.

6. Use your voice effectively. Over-working can prevent you from saying the right thing in the best way when it counts.

Overall, I had (and still have) a lot more to do to develop as a listener than as a speaker. In most working environments, it seems you can divide the group between people who speak too much and those who don’t speak enough. Yet, both groups often don’t speak enough truth to power or flounder when they want to impress. Yes, it takes some strength of character, but it equally takes a lot of practice in how to communicate effectively and manage our energy (through prioritization and taking time to recharge) so we can deliver peak performance when it matters most.

7. “Comparison is the thief of joy”.

A recent study showed that Facebook exacerbates our tendency to compare ourselves to others, which in turn reduces our happiness. Fascinatingly (and counter to common belief), people understand the positive bias in Facebook posts and that they’re a distortion of reality. Yet, the more engaged they are with others’ posts, the less happy they become.

People can be even more tormented by comparison in their professional lives. For most of us, it is an innate and ruthless urge that inexplicably only expands with success and can never be stamped out. In their book about social comparison, psychologists Adam Galinsky and Maurice Schweitzer suggest that comparison is natural and inevitable, and people should abide by the following rule: “Seek favourable comparisons if you want to feel happier, and seek unfavourable comparisons if you want to push yourself harder”.

If your younger self expected that you would be much happier with everything you have achieved by now, it’s probably because you allowed others to define what success should be for you. Take that power back for yourself. 

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I am very interested in examples and stories on how you applied any of these beliefs in your career or if you are not as convinced as I am about them, why?