Page 208 - The McKinsey Mind

08 (173-186) chapter 8 1/29/02 4:51 PM Page 183

ManagingYourself 183

Share the load. When we wanted to find out how to balance
the demands of work and family, we couldn’t have asked a better
person than Bob Garda. He spent 27 years at McKinsey and rose
to become a director of the Firm and the head of the Firm’s mar-
keting practice. More important, he built a marriage and raised a
family that survived the stresses of his demanding career both at
McKinsey and after it. His secret:

My wife. I have a very self-sufficient woman for a partner,
and she really is a partner. We decided early on how to share
the responsibilities of life. For instance, we figured out that
she was a heck of a lot better than I was at dealing with con-
tractors, such as plumbers and electricians, so she took care
of all that. Other McKinsey partners handled this differently.
As another example, I always discussed work and sought my
wife’s opinion and advice on client issues; she was an impor-
tant behind-the-scenes team member. She was my best coun-
selor and critic.
I never second-guessed the decisions my wife made in my
absence—I tried that once. I always supported her actions
to show a united front to the children.

As Bob learned, achieving this kind of balance requires a com-
mitment by both parties. Bob continues:

Early on, we realized that personal time together, just the
two of us, was important. After all, the children were going
to be with us for only a short time in our married life. Thus,
every year we’d take a week “honeymoon” that was tacked
on to one of my business trips. We took advantage of the fact
that grandparents love to baby-sit.