It's the biggest pain point for many consultants.

It works like a vicious cycle.

Lack of confidence prevents you from performing at your best. This leads to more criticism from your leaders. This damages your confidence even further.

You want to improve it, but don’t know how.

You don't know where to start.

Because confidence is a symptom, not a root cause.

It's an output, not an input.

That is why it's hard to work on confidence directly.

You must improve dozens of things to build confidence.

In my new YouTube video, I discuss why you lose confidence, how it hurts you, and what practical things you can do to improve it.

Watch this video.

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A very common question MBB consultants ask me.

Firms like McKinsey, BCG, and Bain are well known for their strong feedback culture.

But asking and receiving feedback is tricky, especially if you are a lateral hire coming from the corporate world, where feedback culture is often weak or non-existent.

I joined McKinsey at 34 as a lateral hire.

You know, I didn’t know a lot of unspoken rules. Worst of all, I took everything at face value. As a result, I have made lots of mistakes that could have been easily avoided.

For example, I thought that the feedback sessions were for me to provide feedback to my managers and partners. And I went on a crusade to provide honest feedback to everyone I worked with. I thought I was serving the firm and these people.

But in reality, I was just hurting myself for no reason. Here’s the harsh truth. People are not taking negative feedback well, especially from juniors who haven’t earned their place and respect.

Then I was wondering why they didn’t recognize my hard work and provided negative feedback on my work.

You don’t have to make these silly mistakes. Learn how MBB firms operate before hurting your career.

In my new YouTube video, I discuss how to conduct feedback sessions, what questions to ask, and how to accept feedback in the best way.

How to conduct feedback sessions with partners…

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Toxicity is the biggest source of stress for consultants.

If you work at McKinsey, BCG, or Bain, I am sure you have experienced some form of toxic situation.

Unfortunately, it happens more often than we want.

You put people under immense pressure, and stress makes people behave in all kinds of weird ways, including toxic behavior.

Why does it create so much stress for you?

We as humans are social beings. We are hard-wired to read cues from our leaders. If they are unhappy with us, our stress goes through the roof.

It’s a survival mechanism developed through evolution.

In prehistoric times, if your leaders were unhappy with you, that meant exile from the tribe and certain death. That is why your brain sends strong alarm signals.

How to deal with toxic situations?

In my new YouTube video, I discuss why toxic situations happen, how you can deal with them, and how to prevent them from happening.

How to deal with a toxic manager?

If you are an MBB consultant and want to improve your performance through personalized coaching support:

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Something I’ve been struggling with for months.

You know, there’s a lot of hype around AI. And many people build a lot of stuff. But there’s also some skepticism around real impact. Some people try it, but don’t see a big impact.

That’s why I wanted to share how AI helped to solve a very real and difficult problem in my coaching business.

But first, a bit of context to explain the problem.

If you want to watch my video explaining it and sharing a quick demo, click this link:

How AI helped to solve a really tough problem.

I have a coaching program for MBB consultants. I coach more than 90 MBB consultants to improve their performance.

The biggest challenge for me was client engagement.

Some clients join my program, but wouldn’t do all the required activities.

It’s understandable. Consultants are extremely busy. Sometimes they don’t even have time to sleep, let alone do extracurricular learning.

This problem bothered me a lot.

I spent months trying to solve it because it endangered my business. If clients didn’t get an impact from my program, it would be very bad for my business long-term.

I sent nudging emails, WhatsApp messages, and tried to explain the importance of learning. I rearranged the journey, streamlined it, and removed friction.

It helped a little bit, but the problem persisted.

Then, in March this year, I started using Claude Code. I remembered my old days when I was a software developer.

Step by step, I built a full suite of bite-sized exercises.

Now, if consultants have as little as 30 minutes, they can do a short exercise and learn critical consulting skills like top-down comms, formatting, structuring, slide-making, analytics, issue analysis, storylining, logical reasoning, and others.

Basically, I built a mental gym for consultants.

They can visit it daily and practice critical skills without spending too much time. ROI on invested time is very high because all these skills and scenarios are carefully curated and tested. They built around common mistakes and struggles MBB consultants have. I derived that from 2 years of practical work with dozens of MBB consultants on hundreds of problem-solving reps.

And it worked fantastically!

In a few weeks, the client engagement went through the roof.

Dozens of clients use my exercises on a daily basis. On average, they complete 20-30 exercises in a few days.

Even the old clients, who have already graduated and achieved impressive success, come back and still find something new to learn there.

But for me, the biggest achievement was repeat usage.

You can’t fake repeat usage. Yes, you can make clients try your product once. But you can’t make them use it repeatedly. If clients don’t like it, they won’t come back. Especially, busy and demanding clients like MBB consultants.

Clearly, without AI, I wouldn’t have been able to solve it. I hope you liked my example and it inspires you to solve your own tough problems.

I recorded a short video showing how it looks from the inside. If you are curious, take a sneak peek at my coaching program.

If you are an MBB consultant and want to upgrade your problem-solving, I wrote an Ultimate Guide on how this system works and what common mistakes consultants make at each layer. This is the exact approach I use to coach MBB consultants in my coaching program.

If you are an MBB consultant and want to improve your performance through personalized coaching support:

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The coaching program for MBB consultants.

This is what my evaluator told me after my performance review. These words hit me like a ton of bricks.

‘You are not smart enough,‘ that's how I understood him.

I knew it was extremely dangerous feedback, as problem-solving is the most critical development dimension at McKinsey.

Actually, let me tell you more and up the ante:

Poor problem-solving is the root cause of all your problems in consulting.

Every challenge you experience can be traced back to it: negative feedback, poor ratings, sleepless nights, staffing challenges, weak sponsorship, unbearable stress, and constant insecurities.

When your outputs are not that impressive, they lead to all of those ‘fun prizes’.

But when you fix it, everything changes.

If you can produce high-quality, insightful outputs that impress your partners, they’ll like your work, and they‘ll like you by extension.

You’ll get access to exciting projects, inspiring leaders, cool career opportunities, and, most importantly, you will feel confident, stress-free, and fulfilled.

But let’s get back to my story. At that time, I decided to do everything I could to never get questioned on my problem-solving.

But learning problem-solving was extremely hard.

I started with in-house training and courses. I learned all available frameworks and approaches: the seven-step approach, MECE structuring, the pyramid principle, issue trees, hypothesis trees, and many other fancy things.

To my big surprise, all these frameworks were never used in real practice. Partners and managers demanded them, but I never saw what great looks like in practice.

That's where I got stuck. I didn't know what to do next.

I asked my managers how they learned it.

But they couldn't explain it. They learned intuitively through repetition and experience.

I had to resort to a trial-and-error approach. It was a highly ineffective and time-consuming process, full of mistakes, pain, and stress.

So I had to learn it the hard way.

But after working at McKinsey for 9 years and coaching dozens of consultants,

I developed a simple system to improve problem-solving.

Think of problem-solving as a multi-layered onion.

1. Communication
2. Slide-making
3. Core problem-solving
4. Critical thinking
5. Intrinsics

If you have noise in any of these layers, partners will think you don’t have it.

They won't do an in-depth analysis of your challenges. They will simply label you as not smart. But in reality, you might just make some silly, technical mistakes.

That's why, rather than trying to teach every possible problem-solving framework, I help consultants clear the noise and make their ideas stand out.

It’s much more practical and faster, and it helps to solve immediate pain.

And I see again and again, when consultants fix the noise, they discover they are apparently smart and creative problem solvers. And partners can see that as well.

If you are an MBB consultant and want to upgrade your problem-solving, I wrote an Ultimate Guide on how this system works and what common mistakes consultants make at each layer.

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Book a Free 1-1 Consultation

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The coaching program for MBB consultants.

A lateral-hire consultant complained to me.

He said that all the knowledge and frameworks he learned, he couldn’t apply to his job: swot analysis, PESTLE analysis, Porter's five forces, BCG matrix, and many others.

He had to learn to work from scratch. He felt that two years of learning didn’t help him at all.

It’s somewhat true, but it’s a little bit simplistic view.

It's not that the MBA education is not good. It's just that the real experience is so much more brutal.

It's like the difference between preparing for a war and then surviving one.

It reminded me of the movie ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ when young soldiers were preparing for a war and finally were happy to be sent to one. They had no idea what they were going to go through.

Don’t blame your MBA degree. Who knows what would happen without that preparation? Maybe it would be 10x harder.

MBAs are good for career track change. They give you good general business knowledge. They open the door to MBB.

But MBB gives you the real, practical experience working in different countries, industries, functions, and companies.

This experience is unique, but the cost is brutal.

Surviving and thriving in MBB consulting requires a different level of preparation, practical, not theoretical. This is where coaching is super important from people who have gone through this journey and helped others as well. So you can learn the unspoken rules and best practices in the most effective way.

If you are a lateral hire in an MBB firm and want to succeed, download and read my new free guide: How to Succeed in MBB as a Lateral Hire.

If you are an MBB consultant and want to improve your performance through personalized coaching support:

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I truly believe it's a great thing. It creates a strategic advantage for MBB firms.

It keeps the new blood flowing in. It cleans up all the levels in the pyramid. It makes MBB firms attractive to the best talent looking for fast growth.

But there's a big BUT...

For lateral hires, it’s a nightmare.

They risked everything to join MBB Consulting. They abandoned their successful careers and invested in a costly MBA to get there. Only to get eliminated in the first or second year.

Remember the Squid Game TV show?

The first challenge was ‘Red light, Green light’.

I felt bad for those who got eliminated first. They didn't even understand what was happening. They were not given a proper chance to compete.

Basically, this is what some lateral hires get in MBB firms. They get eliminated before they can even learn the right skills and build the right support system.

It’s extremely confusing and disorienting.

It’s good for MBB firms. The survival of the fittest, as they call it. But for you individually, it’s not great. What if that was your big breakthrough? What if it were your big chance to boost your career? Losing that chance would be devastating. At least, that's how I thought about it.

If this is how you feel in MBB as a lateral hire and you want to improve your chances of success, I wrote a free guide on How to Succeed in MBB as a Lateral Hire.

If you are an MBB consultant and want to improve your performance through personalized coaching support:

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The coaching program for MBB consultants.

Then, I found a cheat sheet that helped me a lot.

Here's how it started...

On my first project, I was given a process workstream. I couldn’t demonstrate my problem-solving abilities.

Then, in my first review, I was given a 'Concerns' rating in my problem-solving dimension.

I got really scared. I knew it was really bad for me.

I wanted to ensure nobody ever questioned my problem-solving.

Since then, I have been obsessed with learning it.

But learning problem-solving was tricky. There were so many resources, techniques, and frameworks, and most of them were far from practical.

I always felt that my answers were too flat and obvious.

But I didn't know how to make them better.

Then, I accidentally found a laminated piece of paper with problem-solving questions listed on both sides.

Since then, whenever I solved problems, I always used that cheat sheet for inspiration. And you know, it helped a lot.

My problem-solving improved dramatically.

Now, after many years, I realize that my problem-solving has improved not because of some magic cheat sheet, but because of the discipline of asking myself the right questions at the right time.

If you want to download that cheat sheet, I actually improved it, added new questions, and turned it into a downloadable guide.

MBB Problem-Solving Cheatsheet

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I joined McKinsey at 34 as an experienced hire.

I used to be a confident communicator. But at McKinsey, I became this unconfident and reserved person who wouldn’t speak up in meetings.

It seemed that in the consulting environment, louder colleagues prevailed. Younger consultants were much more confident and outspoken. They always knew what to say.

On top of that, partners were incredibly fast and impatient. It was very hard to keep up with the conversation flow, let alone contribute anything meaningful.

When I finally built up the courage to speak up, I was always shut down and interrupted. Sometimes, even ridiculed. After a few of those moments, I just stopped trying.

My confidence was completely destroyed.

But that was the worst thing I could do. In MBB consulting, being silent is extremely dangerous. You simply can’t grow. To be successful, you must be visible and outspoken.

It took me a while to realize that this was not a confidence problem. It was a skill gap. Communication is a complex skill consisting of a few important elements. Here, I broke it down into two main categories: structure and tactics.

Part one: Structure

To be completely honest, when I look back at my failed communications, I simply didn’t have anything interesting to say. I was not prepared. I often rambled incoherently. No wonder others interrupted me.

For effective communication, it’s important to prepare good points to make. They can be your findings, insights, and perspectives.

Here’s my advice for you: Prepare your points in advance. Structure them in a top-down way. Rehearse a few times before the meeting. Anticipate any potential questions.

This is when you practice top-down communication.

Please understand this. We don’t speak in a top-down way in daily life. It’s not natural for us. That’s why you should force yourself and practice this as a skill, not treat it as a talent or inspiration. It’s a very technical thing, and can be learned.

You can practice top-down communication using my new interactive exercise. It will provide you with realistic consulting scenarios asking you to prepare structured communications (steerco, client meeting, email to partners).

Try to Practice Top-Down Communications

Part two: Conversational Tactics

Initially, I had this naive understanding of how communication worked.

I expected that when I talked, people would listen to me patiently, understand what I had to say, and appreciate my contributions. And when it didn’t happen, when people interrupted me, I considered it a personal failure. And that demotivated me and destroyed my confidence.

But then I realized that it’s a normal thing. That’s how humans interact. Through asking questions, they try to understand the topics being discussed.

Partners often interrupt. They ask questions. They go on tangents. You can’t expect to speak in monologues. That’s not how meetings work.

Instead of being afraid of interruptions, I decided to accept them as the norm. And learn to proactively manage the whole conversation from the beginning to the end.

Here are a few tactics I found helpful to identify and practice:

- Set the context and agenda of the meetings;
- Acknowledge and deflect the question;
- Grab attention before speaking;
- Circle back to the main conversation;
- Ask clarifying questions;
- Summarize the conversation.

How did I learn them?

Well, it was pretty simple. I observed others demonstrating great techniques that I liked, and then I wrote down the exact verbiage for my future use. Then I practiced and adapted them for my speech, so they sound natural to me. For me, as a non-native English speaker, that was an important part of my skill-building.

Once I learned to combine structure with tactics, everything changed.

I stopped dreading meetings. Even when I had nothing particularly insightful to say, the tactics alone made me come across as a competent and confident consultant.

I hope this will be helpful in your consulting work.

If you want a faster way to learn communication structuring, I built an interactive exercise where you can practice structuring your communication. It gives you real scenarios and AI-powered feedback. It’s actually quite spooky how precise it is.

Try the Communication Exercise

P.S. If you are an MBB consultant who wants to improve performance and become confident, book a discovery call to discuss how I can help you.

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Imagine you bring a perfect slide to a partner. One question, and the whole thing crumbles. It’s extremely embarrassing. And damaging to your reputation.

Why does it happen?

Most likely, you make implicit assumptions.

A single implicit assumption can torpedo your whole problem-solving effort, often rendering your outputs absolutely useless.

What are implicit assumptions?

It’s the assumption you make in your argument that you don’t even know you are making.

And the hardest part is you don't see them.

Enough theory, let’s use one example to illustrate this point.

Here is a challenge for you. I give you a simple statement. Find an implicit assumption here.

A consumer goods company discovers that its top 10% of customers generate 55% of revenue. The marketing team proposes shifting 70% of the Ad budget from broad awareness to targeted retention for the high-value customers.

Does this look alright to you? Makes sense?

PAUSE HERE. THINK CAREFULLY…

What is the key implicit assumption here?

The key assumption here is that the top 10% group is self-sustaining.

But think for a minute, what if it is not true?

Where did those high-value customers come from? They most likely entered as new customers through the very broad awareness campaigns you are now cutting.

Kill the top of the funnel, and the bottom dries up within 18 months.

Imagine the partner catching this. That would be quite embarrassing.

At McKinsey, I saw this all the time.

Confident, data-backed recommendations built on assumptions nobody questioned.

And then a partner asks one question, and the whole thing crumbles.

This is what separates good consultants from great ones. Not sharper math. No better slides. The ability to see what the argument is silently assuming.

This is where critical thinking is absolutely important.

Unfortunately, it’s not being taught in consulting, although I would argue it’s the most fundamental layer of your problem-solving. If you make mistakes at this layer, your problem-solving will be super weak.

Partners spot these things pretty easily because they have tons of experience and sharp pattern recognition. But you don't have that yet.

What can you do to compensate?

You can learn and practice it.

For this reason, I built an interactive exercise for MBB consultants to practice spotting implicit assumptions and strengthen their critical thinking.

Implicit Assumptions Exercise

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I cringed every time I heard these words at McKinsey.

It sounded like I needed to network more. Schedule coffee chats. Ask partners to support me.

So I tried. And it felt incredibly awkward.

It was like asking someone to like me.

Partners always replied, "Yes, of course." But it never converted into anything meaningful.

Here's the thing.

It doesn't work this way.

Partners sponsor consultants not because they like to drink coffee.

They sponsor consultants who are valuable to them. Who can make their projects better. Who can solve tough, ambiguous problems in an impressive way.

And they can see value in your work during actual projects, and sometimes during client developments.

That’s why building sponsorship is not a networking strategy.

It is a byproduct of your performance.

One strong project with the right partner will do more for your consulting career than a year of random coffee chats.

Stop trying to network your way to sponsorship.

Start being someone worth sponsoring.

How to do it?

The best way to do that is to radically upgrade your problem-solving.

Learn to work on the level that impresses partners. Then, the relationships will follow naturally. You won’t even need to ask for it. Partners will offer sponsorship themselves.

Hard to believe? In fact, that’s how it works for high performers.

If you are a senior MBB consultant preparing for your EM promotion, I wrote a simple step-by-step guide on “How to Get EM Promotion” (link in the comments).

How to Get EM Promotion

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A BCG consultant texted me at 2 am.

The partner had given her harsh feedback.

She was too slow. Her slides were not crisp enough.

Her PL made it even worse by giving her nothing but formatting work, which made it really hard to showcase herself.

She told me,

“I can’t get my slides right. They are either too detailed or too high-level. I do so many iterations, it’s embarrassing.”

If you are a consultant, you know how it goes.

You make mistakes, you get harsh feedback, it kills your confidence, you make more mistakes, and the cycle keeps spinning again and again.

It’s a vicious cycle.

You dig yourself into a deep emotional hole (unintentionally). It feels impossible to get out of that hole once you’re in it. The deeper you are, the harder it is to recover.

The problem is never just slides.

I see this pattern too many times. It’s never one thing. It’s a set of issues, both technical and psychological at the same time, feeding into each other.

What to do in this situation?

So I put her on a strict recovery plan.

A set of simple actions and mindset reframes.

To be honest, the technical fixes are fairly straightforward.

Make sure you understand the problem. Prioritize important things. Think before you produce. Produce high-quality outputs. That’s it, really.

But here’s the thing: when you’re emotionally drained, exhausted, and your confidence is shattered, even the simplest fixes feel like climbing a steep mountain.

That’s why the recovery has to start with very simple but effective actions.

You must stop the bleeding first.

Find what specific actions create the most drag. Fix them with the best practice techniques. Slowly, you start gaining momentum, and that will feel much better.

Emotional state improves, which will give you additional motivation.

I know it’s hard, but it’s possible. You just need to be more intentional, less reactive.

If you feel stuck in your performance and development, I wrote a simple guide on what you can do, a set of simple actions, and mindset reframes.

Free Guide: How to Get Unstuck

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Her partners pushed her to sell new projects.

But she didn’t know how to do it.

On our coaching call, we discussed how consulting firms sell projects. And how she could position herself better in that process.

When I was an EM, I had a very naive understanding of how McKinsey sells projects.

I thought it happens like in fancy TV shows like Billions or Suits.

One rainmaker partner comes to clients, delivers a perfect pitch, answers tough questions, and voila, the multi-million dollar project is sold.

But it doesn’t work this way. Not even close.

The real principle behind McKinsey’s sales machine is far more prosaic. It is also far more effective.

It’s built on repeatable business.

McKinsey likes to work with large clients for long periods of time. It’s a strategic choice that gives them a huge advantage.

Think about it. It's extremely difficult to find a new client and sell a complex project. It's simply not effective.

But how do they achieve repeatability?

Here’s another critical principle in play.

Client obsession

To work with large businesses repeatedly, the critical ingredient is building strong relationships with senior clients.

I remember, at McKinsey, client service was raised to a cult status.

At every training, at every meeting, client service would be reminded and reinforced. Every hard decision would be resolved in favor of the clients’ needs and impact.

And it’s not high-level altruistic BS.

Every partner knows that it’s a survival code. It’s the DNA of the organization. They know that impact is the only differentiator they have. Other things are easily copyable.

That’s why McKinsey partners are ready to play a long game.

Let me give you one specific example.

If you say the phrase “sell to clients,” partners will immediately correct you. They will say to you:

“At McKinsey, we don’t sell to clients. We develop them.”

Because language forms our thinking and actions. And it shapes our reality as a consequence. That’s why partners are quite strict in enforcing this principle.

Here, for the sake of this post, I am saying the word “selling” just to make it easier to understand. Although I still feel slightly awkward saying the word ‘selling.’

How do McKinsey partners sell projects?

They work together as a team to land a sale. The best way to think about it is like hunting as a pack of wolves.

Partners organize themselves into CSTs (Client Service Teams) to serve one big client. It’s a loosely formed hierarchical group. Everyone has their own role and objectives.

Partners can be part of different CSTs at the same time. It’s actually expected that a partner has a few large clients.

There’s usually one senior partner who leads the CST. The senior partner is called a DCS (Director of Client Services). He makes the main strategic calls.

Usually, a DCS owns critical client relationships, typically with the CEO and board members. Sometimes, there can be multiple senior partners who also contribute.

Partners usually align themselves with certain topics, business units, or functions in the client organization. They are expected to have critical relationships with key executives.

How do CSTs operate?

Senior partners define a strategic agenda for CSTs. They do it by talking to client leadership: the CEO, shareholders, and board members. Then they cascade and delegate these priorities to partners and APs.

Then, it’s the job of partners to work with client executives to detail topics and co-create proposals.

That’s where APs and EMs will help partners to execute and build proposals. The main objective is to co-create, tailor, and align them with clients.

This is important for you to understand. Partners and APs have a conflict of interest. Basically, an AP needs to become a partner and carve out their own space in a CST. That’s why there could be some tensions, especially if APs are becoming more and more senior.

For APs, it’s better to work with senior partners directly. They don’t have a direct conflict of interest. And APs need senior partners’ support for partner election.

For EMs, it’s better to work with partners directly. Same point on conflict of interest. Also, for EMs it’s more valuable, because partners’ feedback will count more than APs’.

So imagine this situation.

Client managers come to the CEO with a proposal to start a project with McKinsey.

It’s already very well developed and aligned internally. The strategic importance is well defined. The impact is well estimated. The scope is sharply formulated.

It’s easy for the CEO to make a positive decision.

That’s how McKinsey creates projects that never appear in RFPs. Ideally, they do not wait for clients to ask for projects. They manufacture strategic clarity, alignment, and urgency inside the client organization proactively.

Where can senior EMs fit in?

If you are a senior EM, I assume you want to become a partner in the future. Before that, you need to become an AP, which is basically a partner in training.

To get promoted to AP, EMs need to demonstrate that they have client platforms, at least two CSTs serving large clients with repeatable business.

If EMs get included in CSTs, they are called core EMs. Practically speaking, EMs are expected to serve these clients more consistently. It’s not an obligation, but more of a recommendation.

What does this mean for your role?

When partners ask EMs to go ‘to sell’.

In fact, they implicitly ask EMs to build trusted relationships with clients, one or two levels below the top.

Your job is to become the closest, most trusted person for those executives. Not being too commercial. Not too pushy. But useful and helpful.

So when your partners tell you “go and sell,” don’t take it too literally.

Build a strong relationship with your clients. Identify their biggest pain points and ambitions. Activate these relationships when opportunities arise.

This will give you the foundation for your future sales.

Sales in consulting come from trust.

This is especially important for high-ticket projects.

—

At the end of our coaching call, I asked my client.

Do you have clients with whom you have strong relationships? She said yes.

Do you think you can talk with them to find out what problems they experience and how you can help them? She said yes.

Do you think these problems can potentially become project-worthy? She said yes.

Do you feel you could go and sell now? She said yes.

If you are an MBB consultant and want to improve your performance through personalized coaching support:

Book a Free 1-1 Consultation

We will discuss your pain points, challenges, and aspirations. No strings attached, just straight answers to your biggest questions.

BOOK A FREE 1-1 CONSULTATION

If you want to learn more about my coaching program, read this post:

The coaching program for MBB consultants.

It’s vague. It’s generic. It’s confusing.

Your partners tell you to work on problem-solving, slide-making, or communication.

You take it seriously. You try to fix it.

But then, in the next review, something new pops up. Then again. And again. Often, you can make a full circle, and your old feedback reappears again.

I call it the Whack-a-Mole game.

You know that arcade game? Little moles pop up, you hit one with the hammer, it goes down, and another one pops up somewhere else.

That’s exactly how development feedback feels. A never-ending game, and often quite pointless to be honest.

Why your feedback is not what it seems.

The real reason is that you receive symptoms as feedback, not root causes.

So what are the real root causes then?

In fact, there are two main root causes.

The first one is a lack of exposure.

Partners simply don’t know you. Your partners never really see you work because they interact only with your EM.

If the partners haven’t seen you, or only saw you once or twice, they form some incomplete or incorrect impression of you. That’s why they provide pretty generic feedback.

If you think this is your problem, read this post:

The second one is that your work doesn’t stand out.

It doesn’t impress your partners. They NEVER react like that:

“Damn, this is amazing! We absolutely love how you work. Come join our next project.”

Instead, you sort of blend in with ordinary people. You look more or less the same as everyone else.

Then, when it’s time for feedback, your partners can’t say,

“You know, I don’t know her,” or “I just don’t like how she works.“

That would sound highly unprofessional.

Instead, they say generic feedback that is safe. You can tell it to any consultant of your tenure, and it won’t be wrong.

For example, needs to work on problem-solving, improve presence, and upgrade slide-making.

But you take this feedback at face value and start fixing it religiously.

Guess how effective that would be?

And it’s not your fault. You are not doing anything wrong. You might even be doing everything your partners told you to do.

But you haven’t added anything of your own. No insights. No wow factors. Nothing above and beyond. Just adequate execution.

Unfortunately, in MBB firms, this is not enough.

There are always some eager and smart consultants who do incredible things. And you will look bleak compared to them.

I promise, there are always people like that. And partners remember them, and mentally compare you to these people.

In fact, that generic feedback itself might be technically true.

Yes, your problem-solving could be sharper. Your slides could be prettier. Your communication could be better.

But even if you fix that, you don’t address the root causes.

Actually, addressing the real root causes requires a different set of actions.

The main priorities are to make partners know you and to like how you work.

Let me pause here and emphasize these important points.

You must stand out.

You must impress your partners.

How to do that?

Fortunately, you don’t have to fix dozens of different problems and issues.

Almost all of your issues are rooted in problem-solving.

Think about it. Staffing issues, sponsorship problems, performance reviews, long working hours, unbearable stress, and a bad lifestyle.

If your problem-solving process doesn’t work well, everything starts resonating in a negative way.

Your partners don’t like how you work, they start providing negative feedback, and it all results in many bad implications, such as staffing issues, poor feedback, and overwork.

But the moment you fix your problem-solving to the level that your outputs impress your partners, everything changes.

Suddenly, partners start liking what you do, and by extension, you as well.

Your motivation and confidence improve. It becomes much easier to work and score new wins.

You kickstart a positive momentum.

That’s why most of your focus and effort should be directed at improving your problem-solving.

If you want to learn how to do that, read this post:

That’s why in my coaching program, 80% of our focus is directed to upgrading problem-solving.

We break it down into every micro-component, from receiving tasks to logical thinking and slide-making. We look at everything, and I try to find the exact point where it breaks.

Typically, consultants struggle to improve their problem-solving because they approach it as a whole. They lump everything together into one pile and say, “My problem-solving doesn’t work.”

They don’t know what to fix. So they start thinking, “My problem-solving is bad. I am not smart enough.”

But in fact, it’s just a technical problem. We must break it down into smaller components and logical steps, and find specific bottlenecks to fix.

As a result, we see these beautiful transformation moments.

A consultant fixes just one or two bottlenecks.

Suddenly, partners tell them: “Whoa, you changed overnight! We love your outputs. What happened?”

And immediately, the positive feedback starts flowing. People like it. They become cheerful around you. They want to help you.

When everyone around you is in a good mood and wants to help, work becomes easier. Your own mood improves. Your motivation improves. And when your motivation improves, you realize you’re actually getting smarter. New ideas start coming to you.

A positive cycle begins to spin.

That’s how you improve fast.

If you struggle with understanding your vague feedback, I can help you.

I developed a new AI tool that takes your specific development feedback and breaks it down to specific symptoms and root causes. And it provides you with actionable advice you can start implementing today.

Try it now: MBB Feedback Decypher

If you are an MBB consultant and want to improve your performance through personalized coaching support:

Book a Free 1-1 Consultation

We will discuss your pain points, challenges, and aspirations. No strings attached, just straight answers to your biggest questions.

BOOK A FREE 1-1 CONSULTATION

If you want to learn more about my coaching program, read this post:

The coaching program for MBB consultants.

But all these issues are almost always rooted in one underlying issue:

Problem-solving.

It’s a core skill in MBB consulting.

But many consultants underestimate how much rigor and structure they must have to operate at this high level.

In this post, I reflect on how you can learn to think well.

These reflections are based on years of working at McKinsey and coaching dozens of MBB consultants.

Bear with me. This post can get a little bit dry and conceptual. But it can be the most important skill you need to learn that will have a ripple effect on everything you do.

I strongly encourage you to understand, implement, and operate these concepts in your day-to-day consulting job.

The first question I want to pose:

Why are some people better at problem-solving?

Well, some consultants get it with talent. It’s natural for them. They work intuitively, and it just works. They don’t know why and how. Around 5-10% of people get it without much struggle. Good for them.

But what if you are like me, and these things don’t come naturally to you?

You know, I was never the smartest guy in the room. I had to acquire problem-solving skills through hard work and trial and error.

I didn’t like it when people said that it’s a purely intrinsic trait. You either have it or you don’t.

I believe problem-solving can be taught and learned.

But first, let’s better understand the problem we are facing.

Consultants often don’t know how to think in a structured way.

They operate under huge pressure to deliver. Managers breathe down their necks to produce slides. Everything must be done fast.

As a result, consultants mistakenly think that their job is to produce slides. And the speed is somehow more important than the substance and quality.

It is not!

That’s how they get to produce shallow-level outputs, frustrating managers and partners.

That’s why you must always carve out time to think. That’s what makes you valuable.

But sometimes, the situation can be a bit more difficult.

Even if consultants try to think hard, they don’t know how to do it well. Good ideas just don’t come to their minds.

Or worse, they come up with incorrect or incomplete ideas that do not solve the actual problems. Or their ideas are just too trivial, not getting to the right level of depth and insight.

This is when partners will provide feedback on poor problem-solving. Often, it’s a code word for not being smart.

Problem-solving gaps are often invisible because their symptoms always manifest in random ways somewhere downstream of their work, often in slides. And partners always react to outputs, the real root causes go unnoticed for months and years.

As a result,

Consultants blame their poor slide-making.

But at some point, you’ll realize that it doesn’t matter how much you work on improving your slide-making skills. You still get stuck in the average bunch.

The solution hides in a different place.

Because you often deal with symptoms, you do not see the real root causes.

In my coaching program, we solve this problem by doing a detailed diagnosis through practical exercises, and then I show consultants what specific root causes and bottlenecks they have.

These root causes often take different shapes and forms, for example, not understanding the problem well, making implicit assumptions, deriving incorrect conclusions, and coming up with incorrect solutions. Each of them requires its own set of actions and techniques.

Now, I hope you appreciate the importance of the problem of thinking. Let’s discuss some practical techniques.

What does good thinking look like?

Inner Dialog

The first concept I want you to understand is that a good thinking process should go like an inner dialogue.

The key here is to ask yourself the right questions.

Here’s what I often see in my coaching program.

When we discuss problems with consultants, if I ask them leading questions, they typically answer them correctly. That tells me that they are smart and can think logically.

But when they solve problems on their own, they miss lots of obvious ideas and don’t come up with the right answers.

Basically, they don’t ask themselves the right questions.

If you think about it, in essence,

Good problem-solving is asking yourself the right questions.

Because if you ask yourself the right questions, answering them is much easier, almost intuitive, and obvious. But asking the right questions, this is what’s really hard.

But this is good news for us.

You can learn this skill. Yes, it takes a bit of practice and discipline. But it’s not some mysterious or intrinsic trait. It’s a technical and acquirable skill.

Logical flow

The second concept I want you to understand is that your thinking must go in logical flow, like a process or an algorithm.

Often, I see how consultants don’t have any structured process or flow.

They jump from one thing to another in a haphazard way. They often skip multiple steps. They throw in random ideas without knowing why.

Then, they can’t track back where they made a mistake or what steps need stress testing. They create blind spots for themselves that bite them later in the process.

Let me be more precise here. You can think haphazardly. Nothing wrong with that. At the end of the day, that’s how our brains are wired to think.

But then, you must structure your thoughts in a logical flow, with each new thought derived from previous ones.

And you must stress test the logical integrity of your thinking because every logical step is important. If you make a mistake in any of these steps, then the whole solution becomes wrong and useless.

Basically, you must activate your System 2 thinking (according to the book ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ by Daniel Kahneman).

Logical entities

On top of that, you must have full cognitive awareness and control of your own thinking. I know it sounds obvious, but in reality its’s extremely hard to achieve.

In your logical flow, you must operate with certain logical entities or objects.

At the very basic level, we can define the following entities: issues, assumptions, conclusions, hypotheses, and solutions.

I remember when I was a consultant, I was practicing to label every thought I had in my mind. This is an issue, this is an assumption, this is a piece of data. I forbid myself from using thoughts without clearly labeling them.

Yes, it’s hard intellectual work. Sometimes you have this good thought, you know it’s valuable. But you don’t know what it is. Is it a fact, issue, assumption, or hypothesis?

But if you don’t have that level of control in your thinking, it’s hard to expect your problem-solving to be sharp and deep.

Additionally, if you want, you can go even deeper into the theory of critical thinking. There, you can stress test the soundness of your premises and arguments. If you want to do that, ping me an email, and I will share great video lectures you can watch.

To further illustrate my point, let me give you a few examples of typical mistakes.

Unclear issues

Consultants often don’t define the issues very well.

They don’t break them down into smaller, more manageable pieces. And even if they do it, they don’t dig deeper to understand these issues. How do they work? Why are they broken? What are the underlying reasons?

But I would claim that the main problem-solving happens at this level.

The deeper you understand the issues you are solving, the sharper and more groundbreaking solutions you can develop.

Implicit assumptions

Another very common mistake is making implicit assumptions without even knowing it.

It’s a dangerous habit because you don’t even know where the problem is. If those assumptions are incorrect, the whole solution will crumble.

This is why many consultants get caught off guard by their partners.

They come to the problem-solving session with this supposedly brilliant solution, only to be slaughtered by a seemingly simple question about their underlying assumptions.

Illogical conclusions

Quite often, consultants make mistakes in deriving logical conclusions.

Sometimes it’s because they rush it and think carelessly. Sometimes it’s because they don’t have good thinking discipline.

But I want you to feel the pain of these mistakes and the damage they create.

Often, one simple logical mistake can render your whole solution useless. And all your hard work is wasted. Instead of scoring a good win, you damage your reputation.

Suboptimal solutions

One of the most invisible problems is when consultants develop suboptimal or trivial solutions. They look fine on the surface, but they don’t pass the quality bar of partners.

Why does it happen?

Often, consultants choose the first idea that comes to their mind and rush to execute it without checking for better alternative solutions. Then, when a partner asks why you haven’t considered another more effective idea, consultants get caught completely off guard.

—

Here, I shared only the most common mistakes consultants make in the thinking process.

But the main point I want to make is that when you go through your logical flow, you must stress test your thoughts. Otherwise, your partners will do it for you.

Writing is a superpower

Here’s a super hack you can use to improve your thinking.

Write your thoughts in a document.

This way, you make your thinking process more transparent, and you can examine if your logic is sound.

If you think about it, our minds are not really wired to think in a logical and sequential way. Your thoughts swirl around in your mind, jumping from one to another. It’s really easy to make mistakes this way.

But it’s really hard to bullshit on paper. You’ll expose your own thinking. You can challenge and stress-test your own ideas. You will see where your mistakes originate.

Yes, it’s a much slower process. But it can be a super effective tool for solving complex and high-profile problems.

The moment of truth

Here’s another useful mindset trick I used in my problem-solving process.

At the end of the problem-solving process, I define a moment of truth.

It’s the time when I commit to the final solution.

Because I knew that if my solution was wrong, and I made a mistake in my logical thinking, everything I do beyond that point will be a complete waste of time and often will lead to serious negative repercussions like rework, stress, and reputational damage.

But I had to make that commitment, because if I don’t do it, I won’t be able to complete my task at all. And that would be even more damaging for me.

That was an important moment in my problem-solving.

That’s where I would make the final checks and stress tests, before proceeding any further.

My two main fears

When I was making that commitment, I had two major fears.

Years of experience taught me that there are two typical and most damaging mistakes I can make at this stage.

The first one is that making any logical mistake would render my whole solution wrong. That’s why I would retrace my whole logical flow and stress test every element, making sure it’s solid.

The second one is coming up with a trivial solution.

I was afraid that I got tunnel vision and didn’t notice something obvious lying on the surface, for example, a much more effective solution. And then when I show it to my partner, he would notice it right away, and I would feel embarrassed.

That’s why I would really push myself to find a better alternative solution. Or think about if someone wants to attack me, how would they do it?

How to learn to think well

You know, learning to think well is not easy.

I, as a coach, am genuinely challenged by this problem myself. How to teach to think well all my coaching clients.

Think about it for a second. How would you teach anyone how to think well? It’s a very complex problem.

Here’s the hack I use in my coaching practice.

We know that people learn best while doing things, through practice.

That’s why consultants in my program do practical exercises. This way, we can find the real root causes of their problem-solving and thinking process.

And here’s the catch.

Different people have different problems. What is obvious for you is not obvious for others. If you try to learn all possible mistakes and how to avoid them, it becomes an impossible task. It’s not effective.

That’s why a personalized approach is very important to diagnose what specific mistakes and bottlenecks you have. And fix them through actionable feedback and effective techniques.

Let me give you an example.

I really like one particular exercise.

I ask consultants to solve a problem by writing their thoughts in a structured way: issues → insights → assumptions → conclusions → hypotheses → solutions.

No need to make slides. Just pure thinking.

This way, we bootstrap the learning process. We remove unnecessary work on slide-making. Because if your solutions are wrong, you’ll make the wrong slides. But if your solutions are right, the slides will be much easier to make. We leave only the essence of thinking and problem-solving.

This exercise is super effective and insightful.

It helps us to make your mistakes visible. We can see how and when exactly they originate, and how they affect solutions.

Then, it becomes super obvious how to fix them, and at what steps of the logical thinking process they must pay more attention and apply more rigor.

That’s how you learn to think well.

If you found this helpful, read two of my deep-dive posts on the topic of critical thinking:

Are you struggling with deciphering your development feedback?

If you read until the very end, it means you really want to improve your performance as a consultant. And I know, one of your key challenges your grappling with is deciphering your development feedback you receive from your partners.

For this exact problem, I developed a new AI tool that can help you with that. It uses the wealth of knowledge I created on this website and my coaching program.

It takes your specific development feedback and breaks it down to specific symptoms and root causes. And based on that, it provides you with actionable advice you can start implementing today.

It’s still in a testing phase. But you can test it as an early adopter. Please, send me an email with your feedback if it’s a hit or miss.

Here’s the link: MBB Feedback Decypher.

If you are an MBB consultant and want to improve your performance through personalized coaching support:

Book a Free 1-1 Consultation

We will discuss your pain points, challenges, and aspirations. No strings attached, just straight answers to your biggest questions.

BOOK A FREE 1-1 CONSULTATION

If you want to learn more about my coaching program, read this post:

The coaching program for MBB consultants.

I get this question a lot, sometimes from consultants, but mostly from fellow coaches.

They have a hard time understanding why I would do that. They are afraid that if people get all their knowledge for free, they won’t buy their products.

But I have a different philosophy.

I believe that knowledge by itself is not enough to become a successful MBB consultant. It’s super helpful, but not enough.

People are generally very bad at applying theory in practice.

The right implementation is super important.

Otherwise, you would read a comprehensive guide and become a commercial pilot, an Olympic swimmer, or a UFC champion.

But unfortunately, it doesn’t work this way.

We as humans learn in a very specific way. The best way to learn is by doing. This is where practice is important, especially in such a complex field as strategy consulting.

The right coaching can make learning more effective and can amplify and accelerate it.

That’s why all professional athletes have personal coaches. It would be unthinkable for them to try to do it alone. Even GOATs (greatest of all time) like Messi and Ronaldo have coaches, although, arguably, these athletes are more accomplished than the coaches they hire.

Don’t get me wrong. You can learn on your own, no problem. Many consultants did that, including me.

But MBB consulting is a game of limited chances and time. Given unlimited time, you can learn anything you want. But unfortunately, in MBB consulting, you don’t have that time.

Learning by trial and error is not effective, and it can even be dangerous.

While you learn, you make unnecessary mistakes, damage your reputation, and incur an unhealthy amount of stress.

It’s much better to learn from others than from your own mistakes.

Credibility and trust

There is another reason why I share all my knowledge.

Writing allows me to build credibility and trust with my potential clients.

I write in a very specific and detailed way. This way, consultants can judge the level of expertise and knowledge I have.

People who resonate with my approach and style will be drawn to me even more. This allows me to find MY people. People with whom I would enjoy coaching.

Ideas factory

And finally, writing is my ideas factory.

This is how I crystallize the knowledge I acquire in real, practical work.

Consistent writing forces me to structure my ideas, articulate them clearly, and deepen my understanding.

That’s why by reading my website, you’ll get the latest and greatest knowledge and expertise I have.

What is the best way to read my website?

If you want to learn more by reading my website, I suggest you read the Playbook section first. There, I collect the most detailed and practical guides on everything you need to know as an MBB consultant.

The only problem is that you need to sift through quite a considerable amount of content to get what you want.

That’s why, in my coaching program, consultants learn by doing practical exercises, and we discuss their personal challenges and issues, and I provide tailored feedback to fix them in the most effective way.

If you are an MBB consultant and want to improve your performance through personalized coaching support:

Book a Free 1-1 Consultation

We will discuss your pain points, challenges, and aspirations. It’s a no-commitment call, just straight answers to your biggest questions.

BOOK A FREE 1-1 CONSULTATION

If you want to learn more about my coaching program, read this post:

The coaching program for MBB consultants.

And how to run them in the best way?

Yesterday, I was talking to my coaching client.

She reminded me of one common misconception consultants have about problem-solving sessions. Many consultants completely misunderstand what problem-solving sessions are and how to run them well. As a result, they hurt their performance and reputation.

Let’s explore this topic.

But before that, a quick side-note.

A problem-solving session (PS) is a McKinsey term.

It means the meetings when we get together as a team (including partners), and discuss current problems, solutions, and outputs.

But at BCG it’s called CTM (case team meeting). What it’s called at Bain, I don’t know, to be honest. Let me know in the comments if you do know.

I remember how I was thinking about PS sessions when I was a first-year consultant at McKinsey.

I understood it literally.

I thought of PS sessions as open debates.

It’s a meeting when we get together as a team, and we solve our current problems. We come up with new ideas as a result of open discussion.

That was the wrong understanding.

I was so naive. It’s so funny and a little embarrassing to remember these things.

As a result, I didn’t prepare for the PS sessions. I just came with the intention to discuss and find the truth together, only to be slaughtered by managers and partners.

Very quickly, I realised that it was not a good way to run PS sessions.

But my client had a slightly different misconception.

She thought that she had to impress partners with unique insights in PS sessions.

On its own, there’s nothing wrong with that. But it was driving the wrong behaviour.

She deliberately withheld important insights and data from her slides. And planned to voice them over in meetings to impress partners. Basically, she was sandbagging the good stuff.

That’s why her slides looked trivial and weak.

You know where it’s going, right?

As a result, she got slaughtered for her poor slides even before she could say anything smart and insightful.

Even if she managed to say a few insights, her partners got really upset about why all of these great insights were not on the slides.

Another naive concept I had:

I expected partners to give me inputs.

I waited for partners to provide me with some unique knowledge and wisdom, and then I could build my outputs. They are partners after all, right? They must know better.

Basically, I waited for their permission to start working. I thought my job was to implement their thinking.

This made me a quite passive problem-solver who didn’t demonstrate enough ownership and drive. Partners hate this type of consultants, especially in MBB firms.

Here’s a better concept of PS sessions.

Problem-solving sessions are needed for partners to push your thinking to the next level.

For that to work well, first, you must push your own problem-solving to your absolute maximum. You must produce the best outputs you can, ideally with a client-ready quality. And then, on the PS sessions, partners can help you to improve them even further.

If you produce great outputs, you’ll have smart and meaningful discussions. If you produce crappy outputs, you’ll get a similar quality discussion.

That’s why, when you come up with poor slides, partners get super frustrated and slaughter you in those meetings.

Also, think about it.

Those meetings are rare exposure points for you to partners.

Whatever you discuss with them, that’s how they see you. That’s the reputation you build.

Let’s say you have 1-2 problem-solving sessions with a partner per week. That means, during a project, you might have just a dozen touch points with your partners.

Every PS session should count.

You’d better prepare really well, not just your outputs but also how you present your findings and how you answer their questions. These things also create a lasting impression of you as a struggling or high-performing consultant.

Yes, partners are different, and they have different preferences.

And once in a while, you will work with partners who have slightly lower standards and expectations.

But holding yourself to higher standards will make you safe and successful in the future.

How to run great problem-solving sessions?

First, be well prepared.

Have an agenda ready. You can say something like:

“Today, I want to discuss 3 topics with you. Unless you have any other important things you want to discuss first.”

That would be a great start for you and would demonstrate your high ownership.

Set the context

For each point you bring, first provide a little bit of context. Remember, partners have the attention span and memory of a goldfish. They forget things. Even if they asked you to do something, don’t expect them to remember it.

Why? Well, because they are extremely fragmented between different projects and client developments. They have to keep so many balls in the air at the same time.

Here’s the best structure for the context setting:

- What is it?
- Why is it important?
- What do we want to achieve?

You can quickly provide this information in the first 20-30 seconds.

Have a perspective

Don’t bring problems. Always bring solutions.

Always have your own perspective and opinion. And be ready to defend it and justify it with some solid logic, facts, or data.

Don’t be defensive

When partners try to say something to you, don’t be defensive. Don’t try to explain to them why it can’t be done.

Instead, try to better understand what they are saying.

They are most likely more experienced and smarter than you. Chances are, they have something valid and important to say. You might not see the bigger picture, or you might not know the important piece of context.

That’s why your first instinct should be to try to understand, not push back.

Because it’s extremely annoying for partners when junior consultants push back at them without even understanding what they are talking about. You don’t look well in this situation.

So, don’t rush it, be careful, and listen to what they tell you. Ask clarifying questions. Playback your understanding.

If you can build on top of their ideas even further, OMG, you will be the best consultant for them. You’ll instantly stand out from the crowd and become a problem-solving partner. Believe me, it’s pretty rare behaviour among consultants. But often, that’s what partners really need.

In conclusion, my main message to you is to treat PS sessions as very important meetings. Your career depends on how you run them. Because at the end of the day, partners assess you and make or break your career.

If you are an MBB consultant and want to improve your performance through personalized coaching support:

Book a Free 1-1 Consultation

We will discuss your pain points, challenges, and aspirations. It’s a no-commitment call, just straight answers to your biggest questions.

BOOK A FREE 1-1 CONSULTATION

If you want to learn more about my coaching program, read this post:

The coaching program for MBB consultants.

Maybe even a little bit too much.

But when I was a consultant, I had a very superficial understanding of why we needed them. I thought it was just something partners always insisted on.

That’s why I did them without sufficient care or effort. I just copied some frameworks from practice documents.

But it was a huge missed opportunity.

In this post, I discuss why we use frameworks and how you can make them your super tool for better problem-solving and communication.

But first, let me start with a funny story.

Once, I staffed a high-performing consultant on my project. He was smart and capable.

As one of the first tasks, I asked him to create a list of client questions. I wanted us to keep track of them so that we don’t forget them.

Instead, he created a framework of an ancient temple with a roof, pillars, and a foundation.

I was confused why he created a framework when I just needed to keep track of simple questions, which most likely would end up in the backup anyway.

Then I understood. He just couldn’t make a simple slide. He pushed to overdeliver and structure his work.

His good training kicked in. Someone taught him that he had to do that. But he didn’t fully understand the purpose of frameworks and applied them in all situations.

I was laughing really hard.

I said that I would give him a high score for the effort, but a low score for being wrong. In consulting, it’s also very helpful to be right. It’s not just the effort that counts.

Fast forward a few years, and he had become a highly successful EM. The best consultant I ever worked with.

Recently, he texted me, reminding me of that funny story. And he sent me that slide, slightly improved and sanitized.

By the way, don’t take it as a best practice framework. Some can call it a never-dying classic. I think it’s a little bit outdated. I like a bit more tailored and modern frameworks.

If that was not the right use of frameworks, what is it then?

First, let’s start with understanding why partners need frameworks.

Structure

Frameworks help to show the structure of the project.

One of the biggest concerns partners have at the beginning of each project is whether the team has structured the project in the right way and that they don’t miss anything important.

They want to prevent a nightmare situation, when, at the end of the project, the team discovers that they haven’t done a big chunk of the project scope or missed some important question.

Why? Well, when the project ends, the budget will run out, and their team will be taken away from them. Partners will be left with the problem on their own. They don’t want to end up in this situation.

Frameworks help them to check the structure. That’s why partners will be quite demanding about that.

Approach

Frameworks help to show your approach to solving the problem.

It’s the second reason why partners need frameworks. It’s important to show clients that you have a scientific approach and you know what you are doing as a firm. You don’t work chaotically and haphazardly.

Also, a good framework helps to navigate clients through a complex project. In every meeting, you can remind them of the approach, where you are in the project, and which component you are discussing today.

This way, clients understand what’s happening right now, why you don’t discuss dozens of things at the same time, and why we focus only on this subset of issues.

Otherwise, if they don’t have that mental structure, they will pull you in different directions. That will create chaos and frustration.

That’s why a great framework should be introduced in the first days of the project, and then can be used as a navigation map throughout the whole project.

Now you know why it’s important.

Let’s discuss the next question.

How do you create good frameworks?

When I was a consultant, I always looked at practice documents for inspiration. It’s not a bad place to start from.

But later, I tried to create my own frameworks tailored to specific client situations and problems at hand.

Here, it’s important to be absolutely clinical in structuring. If your structure is not MECE, partners will go absolutely ballistic.

I won’t spend too much time explaining structuring. If you want to learn more about good structuring, read this post:

Design

With frameworks, it’s critical to be a little bit more sophisticated in design.

Generally, I preach for simpler and more functional design. But with frameworks, design will play a more important role.

The main reason is that you won’t have tons of content in frameworks. If you make it in an amateurish way, your partners will kill it before even showing it to clients. Because partners worry about how you represent the firm and not dilute the credibility.

That’s why you need to make it look more professional and aesthetically pleasing.

Questions and Answers

I really like this one approach to using frameworks.

I would write key strategic questions in frameworks.

And then, as the project progresses, replace questions with answers.

This way, clients can see how the project is shaping up and how the strategic recommendations are being built.

Closing thoughts

To wrap up, my main message here is that frameworks are not another useless chore that partners ask you to do. It’s an important instrument for you to structure your work and take your clients on a problem-solving journey with you.

That’s how you can stand out from others.

That’s how you can win.

If you’re an MBB consultant and want personalized coaching to improve your performance and become a confident consultant:

Book a Free 1-1 Consultation

We will discuss your pain points, challenges, and aspirations. No strings attached, just straight answers to your biggest questions.

BOOK A FREE 1-1 CONSULTATION

If you want to learn more about my coaching program, read this post:

The coaching program for MBB consultants.

And how to create and use it?

I struggled with issue trees a lot when I was a consultant at McKinsey.

But my managers and partners were pushing me to master this skill. They emphasized that it’s absolutely critical for improving my problem-solving.

The same things I heard in firm training. Issue trees made perfect sense in the mock problems. But when it came to real problems, I couldn’t get the same clarity and utility.

I felt the real pressure to learn this skill, but didn’t know how.

On top of that, there was one confusing contradiction.

My partners always talked about issues, but almost never created issue trees in real projects. I couldn’t see what best practices looked like and how they were applied in real projects.

Every time I created my own issue trees and showed them to my managers, they always cringed and dismissed them.

That is why in this post, I explain issue trees in a more direct, non-cryptic way. I also give you some practical tips on how you can apply them in your everyday work.

This post is a part of a series in which I reflect on Critical Thinking. I discuss different parts of critical thinking as an important part of problem-solving skills.

If you want to read another post from this series, here’s another important topic:

What are the assumptions?

There will be more posts in this series. Stay tuned.

You know, it took me years to actually internalize this knowledge.

When I worked at McKinsey, I problem-solved mostly intuitively. And it worked fine until I had to teach consultants how to do that.

This is when I encountered serious limitations.

Apparently, what was obvious for me was not necessarily obvious for others, and vice versa. I lacked the right concepts and vocabulary to teach things that I knew intuitively.

At that time, I understood all my managers and partners, who felt the importance of issues, but couldn’t really explain it in a way that was understandable to first-year and even second-year consultants.

Now, in my coaching program, I teach consultants through practical exercises. That’s the best way to learn these complex skills by not only seeing how their own mistakes originate, but also what best practice outputs look like.

I have this special exercise to improve critical thinking.

Consultants solve a fairly complicated problem by writing their thoughts in an essay. They register every thought and statement. They label them as certain logical entities like issues, insights, assumptions, arguments, implications, hypotheses, solutions, and so on.

This approach reveals gaps in critical thinking. It shows specific steps where mistakes originate. It shows lapses in judgment and logic.

It’s quite revealing.

You know, the most damaging mistakes happen at the issue analysis level, basically, at the very beginning of their problem-solving process.

Then, it almost doesn’t matter what they do, because other thoughts are mere derivatives. If their issues are wrong, their solutions will be either wrong or not deep enough.

Let me show what the typical mistakes consultants make are.

But first, let’s start with the definition.

What is an issue?

An issue is a clearly stated question or problem that requires judgment, reasoning, or a decision to solve the overall problem. They break the problem into manageable parts.

There are two common mistakes consultants make in analysing their issues: not structuring them well or not going deep enough.

Let’s discuss them one by one.

1. Structuring

You’ve probably heard this many times.

You must break down and structure your issues.

The most common mistake here is not structuring your issues properly.

When you look at your problem as a whole, you don’t see nuances that can help you find unique solutions.

That’s why your solutions will be either wrong or not deep enough. You are risking missing big elements of your problem.

When it happens, you lose your battle in the very beginning. And then it almost doesn’t matter what you do afterwards.

Issue trees

Structuring issues is what most people mean by issue trees. Basically, it’s a nested structure that consists of multiple hierarchical elements of smaller issues.

As a consultant, I remember trying to make issue trees for my workstreams. It almost always resulted in some kind of soul-crushing exercise. I couldn’t quite nail it. And my managers were never happy with my issue trees.

I think my problem was that I was doing it mechanically without really understanding the importance of the issues. I struggled to make it specific enough.

Another common misconception is that issue trees are suitable only for large problems, like a project or a workstream level.

But when it comes to smaller problems, consultants neglect to break down and structure their issues.

They just accept issues as they were presented to them, without structuring and exploring them further.

That limits their problem-solving.

On the other hand, experienced managers and partners always go deep into analysing their issues. They don’t necessarily create issue trees. But they always think deeply about issues and structure them in their minds.

This is all happening below the surface that is invisible to consultants.

That’s why there’s a confusing contradiction.

Leaders push you to learn how to analyze issues, but don’t use issue trees in practical work.

That’s why you struggle to learn it, because you simply don’t see how it’s done.

Basically, my main message here is not to worry about issue trees per se, but make sure you break down and structure your issues properly.

2. Going deeper

This one is also quite a common mistake.

I am sure you’ve heard it many times that you must go deeper, ask yourself five WHY’s, and break down problems to first principles.

All these recommendations are super valid, but I think consultants practically struggle to understand where to apply them and how.

Here, it’s important not just to define the issue, but to push to understand the reality and why it resulted in the issues you observe. For some reason, this is where consultants struggle. They don’t question issues. They don’t try to understand the reality they are facing and experiencing.

But my experience shows that all elegant, non-trivial, and out-of-the-box solutions originate in a deep understanding of issues. You create the best solutions not because of creative brainstorming, but by deeply understanding the issues you are solving.

Root causes vs symptoms

The most effective way to push your thinking deeper is to think about symptoms and root causes. When analyzing issues, ask yourself what is driving the issues, and what are the mere consequences.

If you try to address symptoms, you get nowhere.

But if you identify the real root causes, the solution will be very effective and non-trivial. Because for external observers who hadn’t gone on this mental journey with you, your solutions will look like elegant, groundbreaking, and out-of-the-box thinking.

They will think that you are just a genius coming up with these unique ideas. But in reality, you just have a robust thinking system.

Insights

If you think about it, in essence, unique insights are just a deep understanding of the issues you are solving.

Specifically, if you find the underlying root cause of one or multiple issues. And that root cause is not visible on the surface. But if you address it, you solve the visible symptoms in an elegant way.

That’s how you create groundbreaking insights.

Real example

I know it all sounds too theoretical.

That’s why we use practical exercises in my coaching program to really learn these important concepts.

Let me give you a real example from my consulting practice.

One of my clients has had a significant problem with a dramatic increase in customer churn.

We broke down that issue into smaller components: poor customer service, high competition, poor product quality, and others. Then, we started checking each one of them by doing specific analyses.

In a couple of weeks, we discovered a groundbreaking one. Apparently, one of the sales regions was selling restricted products. They created a fraudulent scheme to meet their sales quota to receive higher bonuses.

But because these were not real sales, the churn on these products increased dramatically, spoiling the total average for the whole company.

That was a shocking insight for the client executives. They didn’t know it was happening in its own operations.

Basically, we found this insight in the place where you typically wouldn’t look when analysing churn. But because we were going through our MECE structure, we looked at every potential explanation and left no stone unturned.

Closing thoughts

In essence, analyzing issues is in fact the most important part of problem-solving.

Because if you discover your issues properly, solutions will be quite obvious but very effective.

And the opposite is true.

If you don’t analyse your issues, it will not matter what solutions you come up with because you risk being wrong or trivial.

Most consultants skip that step, and they make a big mistake. Make sure you spend sufficient time problem-solving on your issues before you move on to finding solutions.

If you are an MBB consultant and want to improve your performance through personalized coaching support:

Book a Free 1-1 Consultation

We will discuss your pain points, challenges, and aspirations. It’s a no-commitment call, just straight answers to your biggest questions.

BOOK A FREE 1-1 CONSULTATION

If you want to learn more about my coaching program, read this post:

The coaching program for MBB consultants.

But it doesn’t have to be this way for you.

In this post, I reflect on why it happens and how you can game the system to make it more favourable for you.

You know, as a consultant, I often found myself on the receiving side of toxic leadership. It was not a pleasant experience. It was actually my main source of stress and anxiety.

We, humans, are social beings. We are hard-wired to be sensitive to social cues. And if our leaders are unhappy with us, our brain sends hardcore emotional alarms. It’s a survival mechanism because in prehistoric times, that would mean certain exile from the tribe and certain death.

Unfortunately, toxicity was the norm.

In my early years, all the leaders I worked with were quite toxic. I had seen virtually no partners who demonstrated the nurturing leadership style I could admire. There were some good leaders, but they were extremely rare exceptions.

At that time, one question always bothered me.

Why do most partners have toxic leadership styles?

Was that the price of success at McKinsey? I wondered whether, in order to become successful, I also had to become a toxic manager.

The more I thought about it, the more I started asking myself a different question:

Can I break this pattern?

Can I become a successful leader, but with a nurturing leadership style? Can I show myself and others that it’s possible at McKinsey?

I made it my mission when I became an EM and AP.

I wanted to demonstrate by my own example that it’s possible to be successful without being toxic. I wanted to prove it to myself first of all.

In fact, it was possible.

And it worked very well for me. Apparently, it was a great strategy. It gave me a significant competitive advantage. But it had certain challenges and failures (read further in my post).

I managed to build a strong followership.

Most consultants liked my leadership style. I invested a significant amount of my time into coaching and mentorship.

That allowed me to staff the best performers. Then, my performance as an EM dramatically improved thanks to the great work of my teams.

But it was not all roses and sunshine.

I have to admit, there were a few situations when I turned into a toxic manager myself.

In rare situations, I turned into a horrible manager who demonstrated all the terrible behaviors I despised when I was a consultant.

Oh my god, I hated it!

These situations completely shattered the internal image I had of myself as a great leader. It felt like my pink glasses broke inside my eyes.

It was eating me alive. That led to more resentment toward myself and the consultants I was treating toxically. As a result, I tried to avoid working with consultants who made me feel this way.

It was a strong emotional reaction.

I know I shouldn’t have done this. I should have controlled myself better.

But you know, in certain situations, I just couldn’t control it. I understand that it was exacerbated by the strong stress I was going through. These toxic situations never happened when things went well.

I was not proud of my behavior.

I was actually ashamed of it, because I betrayed that ambition and vision I had in my mind for myself.

With time, I learned to be more patient and resilient, not reacting too strongly to external circumstances. But once in a while, I still went into that toxic spiral.

But why am I sharing this with you?

I want you to understand the anatomy of the problem better.

Of course, you can expect everyone to be nice and kind, but that’s not a practical and realistic approach to life and work.

I want you to grasp the issue more clearly, so you can solve it for yourself. If you know what your leaders are experiencing and what triggers them, you can navigate it more effectively.

You know, I remembered all the toxic leaders I met as a consultant. When I became an EM myself, I gained insight into their behaviour. Suddenly, it stopped being black and white as I thought before. I could see their perspective as well.

Here’s the big insight I got from that experience.

Toxicity is a symptom of a bigger problem.

It’s usually a symptom of a complex situation and a complex relationship between consultants and managers. And consultants’ individual performance is a big contributing factor there.

If you see a toxic leader, it’s always helpful to look at the situation from a bigger perspective.

People are rarely toxic by nature.

Not the majority. Yes, sometimes you get to meet pathological a**holes, but they are extremely rare, especially in MBB firms. But in most situations, they are all decent and even kind people.

There are two common reasons for toxicity.

First, the stress makes people behave in weird ways.

Most likely, your managers experience an unbearable amount of stress. Often, they are also being treated themselves toxically by superiors. And when they can’t cope with it effectively, that toxicity spills over to team members.

Try to observe them from a neutral point of view. Empathize with their pain and challenges. You will see a lot of new things that you were blind to before, due to the negative emotions and animosity you developed.

That can help you to shift the perspective and improve the relationship, not make it even worse. You can break the spiral of negative emotions.

Second, your performance is a big factor.

The poorer your performance, the more toxicity you endure.

It becomes a trigger and amplifier.

Especially, if you see an unusual number of toxic leaders around you, being toxic towards you, not other people, then maybe it’s a YOU problem. Think about it.

Not you as a person, but your performance and inability to build a trusted relationship with your leaders.

Poor performance makes consultants vulnerable.

And the opposite is true.

When I improved my performance, I managed to protect myself from most of the toxicity around me. Suddenly, my partners started treating me with respect. Even those who were notorious for being toxic and treating others horribly.

That’s why I coach consultants to achieve high performance to protect them from unnecessary stress and toxic leadership. That became a part of my coaching playbook for consultants.

And here’s the final insight.

If you want to become a nurturing manager yourself, you can do that only if you achieve high performance.

In MBB consulting, it’s virtually impossible to be a nice leader to your teams if your projects are failing, and your partners apply immense pressure on you. You either crack under the pressure or you get fired very soon for poor performance.

That’s why improving performance becomes the most effective lever to improve your experience working in an MBB firm as a consultant and as a future EM.

If you want more tactical and practical advice on how to deal with toxic managers, read my previous post on this topic:

How to deal with a toxic manager?

If you are an MBB consultant and want to improve your performance through personalized coaching support:

Book a Free 1-1 Consultation

We will discuss your pain points, challenges, and aspirations. It’s a no-commitment call, just straight answers to your biggest questions.

BOOK A FREE 1-1 CONSULTATION

If you want to learn more about my coaching program, read this post:

The coaching program for MBB consultants.