Improve the productivity of your teams as an EM
Being an MBB EM is extremely difficult. Partners, clients, and consultants demand your attention. If you have a weak team, this makes your work ten times harder. Learn these 3 effective techniques.
Being an EM at McKinsey is extremely difficult.
Everyone wants something from you. Partners, clients, and your teams have different expectations. It’s challenging to juggle all these interests and expectations.
This becomes extremely challenging if you have an unproductive team. The team that requires more hand-holding than creating value and driving things on their own. In this situation, your life becomes a nightmare. You fall into a reactive mode of working, killing your lifestyle, and causing lots of stress.
Now, imagine having a team that consistently delivers insightful, high-quality outputs with minimal supervision.
That’s not a dream. That’s what top EMs do.
Here are 3 powerful levers that can get you there:
1. Invest in coaching early
On longer projects (2–3 months), the ROI of upfront coaching is enormous.
Most consultants are undercoached. They struggle with basic things like structuring, slide-making, and communication.
Fixing just 2–3 common mistakes can easily boost their productivity. The impact is compounding.
And you get an important intangible benefit. They will be so grateful for your coaching, because most EMs don’t do it. It’s an easy way to stand out.
2. Set clear expectations
For example, I used to say to my teams, “Sorry guys, I can't review ugly drafts—bring me client-ready pages.”
Sounds harsh?
Not if you explain why it's important.
Ugly slides create unnecessary rework, waste everyone's time, and damage consultants' reputations.
Explain them with empathy and humility. It's for their own benefit. Your consultants will appreciate that. Finally, someone clearly told them what they had to do.
3. Train to communicate proactively.
Make them send regular updates, communicate top priorities, flag issues, and ask for help early.
They come to you, instead of you having to chase them.
Soon, you’ll feel like a general standing over a battlefield with reports coming to you in real-time.
That saves you a lot of time.
You can use this time for high-quality problem-solving.
Improving team productivity isn’t about working harder.
It’s about creating the right systems, so your team can perform without you constantly pushing.
That’s what separates good EMs from great ones.
The consulting journey is complex and treacherous. Walking it alone is extremely difficult.
It’s helpful to have the support of someone experienced (me, wink wink) who has gone through this journey and helped many others.
That is why I developed a coaching program for MBB consultants to help you achieve high performance and become successful.
If you are an MBB consultant and sick of struggling with performance and development, I would like to speak with you.
Book a Free 1-1 Consultation to discuss whether I can help you through my coaching program. There is no commitment, and you can ask any burning questions in a risk-free environment.
Read this post to learn more about the Hero’s Journey coaching program.