Mission, Values, Excellence: Fill & Download for Free

I actually learned a great deal my “first month” (e.g., very early time) at McKinsey. Here are the first three things (bonus lesson - there are always 3 things at McKinsey) that come to mind along with some context to help understand the learnings better.Lesson OneMy first McKinsey project involved working for the CIO of a very successful F100ish company. We were advising him and his team on how best to implement a new technology to help optimize operations. At the time, McKinsey was well-respected for advising on strategy and some operational areas (e.g., de-bottling manufacturing processes, reducing costs) but McKinsey had very little domain expertise in IT, much less in high-tech best practices. This project was not set up for success, I think the CIO was forced to engage us (though not sure on this point). I joined the team midway through the (unbeknownst to me) languishing project. At the end of my first week, I was very excited to be invited to tag along with my very dear Engagement Manager (EM) to meet the CIO for a quick progress update. When the time came, I practically skipped to the meeting with my EM in anticipation of my first big client introduction. I don’t think I had ever met a C-level executive of a F100 company before. When we walked into his cavernous office, the CIO was sitting behind his desk with his back to us. His EA led us in and announced our arrival. At this point (we barely had time to sit down), the CIO swiveled around, faced us, didn’t even acknowledge me as the new person on the team, waved a single piece of paper violently in the air and started yelling at my EM and maybe me too. He asked us if we knew what the piece of paper was in his hand, and my EM didn’t. The CIO’s voice grew increasingly loud as he told us it was his latest monthly McKinsey bill and proceeded to go on a tirade about the amount, how expensive McKinsey’s services were, how little value we were adding, and essentially how we were ruining his year (in much more colorful language than I am using here). My EM tried his best to calm the CIO down, and we got through the rest of the explosive and painful meeting.For me, this was a very valuable experience. The episode viscerally illustrated the stakes, commitment and added pressures that can come along with a (high-end) client-services business. I think I was a much better consultant out of the gate because I took the role and McKinsey’s promise of delivering valuable customer service even more seriously than I might have otherwise. (I also promised myself I would never allow myself to act as unprofessionally as I felt this man had.)Lesson TwoWhen I started at McKinsey, I was immediately struck by how proactive the firm was about training, development, coaching, and giving feedback. From the beginning, people with whom I worked would pull me aside and give me the “here are the things you did well and the things you need to do better” talk after each meeting was over or deliverable was completed. This practice of providing constant, real-time feedback was foreign to me then (and my guess is that it is still fairly rare in most companies today). Despite this, I learned to welcome these discussions as well-intentioned and valuable learning opportunities. I still don’t relish giving or getting “constructive” feedback (who does?) but McKinsey quickly taught the value of these discussions as important learning opportunities.Lesson ThreeAnother thing that stood out quickly for me upon joining McKinsey was its laser-sharp focus on and commitment to its mission, values and culture. Specifically, McKinsey was the first place I worked with codified values that were clear, communicated, accessible and alluded to regularly.Here they are in case you are interested, I don’t think they have changed much, if at all, since I left the firm in 1997. Our mission and valuesThe head of the Atlanta office at the time, Jim Balloun, a truly amazing man whose mere presence commanded respect, took time to get to know new employees, weave in lessons about his personal commitment to McKinsey’s values, and give examples of how to “walk the talk”. He would encourage us to put our clients’ needs first always and, as new employees with fresh sets of eyes, to practice our “obligation to dissent” if we disagreed with something that was being done or said.McKinsey’s commitment to professional excellence, client service and people development was palpable for me from day one. My marching orders were clear and I was “with the program”. The lesson for me was that if a company can get its mission and values right, and walk the talk authentically, it can not only create an amazing culture but also a powerful and sustainable competitive weapon.

What kind of private aviation company? Ideally, company name becomes a brand that people associate with what you’re about. That would be a touch different depending on whether you have a product or service, and what you value is unique. I’d go through a mission/value exploration exercise before deciding on a name. Assuming you don’t want to be associated with lying, cheating and stealing, ideally your values are consistent (over time, by actions and reputation) with your name (and if you do value lying, cheating, etc. - try a neutral name - authenticity is important!).As it happens we have a brand new aviation company - a broker/dealer - and we named it Bluechip Jets. We wanted our brand to stand for our values which are centered on integrity, transparency, excellence and dependability. I hope we hit the mark!

This question is challenging as some quick — nearly reflexive — items come to mind, but I wanted to explore this beyond some of the obvious.A somewhat obvious thing for me is placing a priority or focus on material possessions in one’s life. While material possession can make life more comfortable or convenient, most possessions cannot replace the intangibles that make life so meaningful.Here are some other not so obvious items for consideration:1- Being Right: So many times it seems important for us to be right whether in an argument, discussion, or just to remind us of our self-worth. The choice often comes down to being right vs. being related or being right vs being effective. It’s a tension I struggle to live by daily.2- Being First: Sure it’s nice to end up first in some situations, but having this as a focus or priority in life often finds us missing important items. The need to “be first” often causes people to view life as needing to compete for everything, to cut corners, to be fast and make unnecessary missteps that can impact others. It trains us in living life in a certain mindset, such as a simple example of racing ahead of traffic just to beat the crowd to the red light.3- Placing results over people: This was a hard one for me to swallow but ultimately results offer a narrow view of life and people matter much more than results.4- Being Urgent: Steve Covey popularized the difference between urgent and important. Actually, that distinction can be traced back to President Eisenhower, and his decision matrix.Urgent: activities demand immediate attention, and are usually associated with achieving someone else's goals. They demand attention because the consequences of not dealing with them are immediate.Important: activities tasks are things that contribute to our long-term mission, values, and goals, whether these are professional or personal.Our lives today are all-consuming with information, technology, and 24/7 expectations that find us always “on” and responding to bells, dings, and posts with Pavlovian reflex. Being urgent or most productive all the time leaves us missing some of the finer details life has to offer. If you never spend some time on what’s really important in life, it will not happen. What we focus on expands.5- Being Perfect: It’s still the case that perfectionism is seen by many executives as a virtue, but it actually causes much suffering. The notion of perfection finds us paralyzed to act, afraid of failing or of rejection, and just living in fear of mistakes rather than the joy of life and learning from failures. Any odd reward for this so-called virtue is not worth the cost (what you might lose) or how it might impact others around you. Try shifting any need for perfectionism to a commitment to excellence. The difference is our relationship to mistakes: perfectionists avoid mistakes; a stand for excellence involves learning from mistakes.I offer these five often overlooked items for consideration as things that do not matter in life.