Page 207 - The McKinsey Mind

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182 The McKinsey Mind

However you do it, making sure that those around you appre-
ciate the value of your time will make you more productive and
less harried by the end of the day.
Perform sanity checks. In life, as in business, sometimes you
need to step back and look at the big picture. If your regular rou-
tine consists of leaving for the office before your kids wake up and
seeing your spouse only when you crawl into bed at 1:00 a.m. after
the Tokyo conference call, it might make sense to ask yourself a
few pointed questions. Are you happy with your job? With your
boss? With your organization? If not, then do the likely future
rewards of your current situation justify the sacrifices you’re mak-
ing? If they don’t, then are you really in the right position and/or
career? If not, what should you do to change things? After work-
ing long hours, traveling constantly, and never seeing their families
or even just the insides of their apartments, many McKinsey-ites
ask themselves these questions. Often, the answers lead them to
become McKinsey alumni.
Changing jobs is not the only answer, however, nor is it always
an option. Sometimes you can manage the expectations of those
around you—bring them closer to reality and reason—and
improve your situation. If your spouse chafes at your workload,
you need to demonstrate why what you’re doing is worth the cost.
If you can’t do so convincingly, then why are you doing what
you’re doing? If your boss expects you to perform like Superman,
you need to bring his expectations back to earth.
When work becomes an unreflective routine of long hours and
constant demands, it’s easy to lose sight of why you’re doing what
you’re doing. Take a step back and look at the big picture, at what
matters to you. After all, in the words of Socrates, “The unexam-
ined life isn’t worth living.”