Killefer Tells HBS Students how to Hobnob with the Brass
Carole Winkler, RA, Associate Editor, News and Campus Affairs
Issue date: 3/15/04 Section: News
- Page 1 of 2 next >
|
Killefer, who heads McKinsey's Consumer and Retail practice, spoke to students, on February 24, about developing high level business relationships.
"Everyone wants to rush into the CEO's office," said Killefer. "That's not the game."
"The game" is the people business, and it is definitely a "contact sport" The relationship building process starts the first day on the job. On a typical consulting project, client company employees who have been pulled from their full-time jobs to take part in the study are initially apprehensive because they don't know how they will be judged. These are the most important people with whom to forge relationships, Killefer says, because they will determine whether the organization actually changes successfully, and big changes only come about through personal commitment. This requires listening on the part of the consultant, empathy, and understanding how to ask the right questions. "It's not about motivating people, it's about learning from each other," she says.
Killefer gives two critical pieces of advice. First, get to know the people you're working with as people. She recalled one study where a woman pulled her aside and said, "I think I like you but I don't know because you have such a poker face." Killefer, conscious of the need to gain credibility, had put on a "professional" demeanor that was "impenetrable," when what she really needed to do was to relax and be herself. "They already think you're smart when you walk in the door," says Killefer. If you aren't yourself, "they will never open up to you."
Second, learn to listen. "Sit on your hands if you have to, but consulting is 75 percent listening," she said.
Killefer practices what she preaches. She calls many CEOs, including PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Steven Reinemund, friends because she cultivated a relationship with them long before they reached the upper echelons of the company. "The epiphany is when you realize it's about people, not companies," she says. CEOs face "enormous personal challenges" and have few personal advisors. Everyone else in the company is a subordinate, discouraging confidences. Killefer says CEOs have few people who can listen to their worst fears, make them face difficult facts, challenge their judgment, and tell them what they don't want to hear. It is a critical, "privileged" role.