Ray
Leadership Specialist
I graduated from West Point as an Army officer (2nd lieutenant) and chose the infantry because I thought it would provide the greatest challenges and leadership development. I served for 11 years before losing the fingers on my left hand while trying to protect my teammates from a defective hand grenade that was detonating prematurely. Before joining McKinsey, I studied leadership at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and Business School, had the privilege of serving as a White House and Fulbright fellow, then later as the deputy director for business and economic development in my home state of Hawaii. My aspiration is to one day serve society as a senior public servant, such as a cabinet secretary in the federal government.
"The firm exposes me to new ideas of leadership and global collaboration. It’s a very generative, constructive and positive environment where people grow into their potential."
A defining experience
While serving as a Green Beret (Special Forces), we were doing some classified training in Asia when a hand grenade that I was holding began detonating prematurely. I didn’t want to throw it since there were people around me and so held on to it. The blast cost me all the fingers on my left, non-dominant hand. I was hospitalized in Okinawa for a week, and then taken by Medevac airplane to Hawaii where I underwent about 5 months of treatment. It was a defining experience because it took all of my beliefs about leadership, character, values, and who I am, put them in my face and asked, “Here is your test - Are you real? Who are you?”
McKinsey allows me to have impact
The opportunity to create your own McKinsey is a great part of the culture. You can proactively and creatively look at ways to contribute value and share those ideas with other people and get their support. And then you can do something rewarding that contributes to the betterment of the firm, a client, or society.
At McKinsey, I’m able to bring a lot of things that I’m passionate about into the workspace. For instance, in just the second month with the firm, I was able to put together an engagement with West Point and collaborate with the leadership department there on sharing ideas and best practices. I think organizations that allow people to take initiative develop individuals who stay the longest. People in these organizations have the highest degrees of satisfaction and feel they’re making a difference and touching people’s lives. They take real ownership for the success and betterment of the organization.
Our diversity of viewpoints strengthens our work
One thing that makes McKinsey great is the broad diversity of talented, exceptional, committed people. When you bring together people from diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, work, and academic experiences, they literally see different information in the environment and approach situations differently. A diverse team will bring the broadest amount of information to bear on a situation, and with broader information you can make better decisions that will translate into a better outcome.
When we organized an annual retreat for engagement managers and associate principals on inspirational leadership, we had seven people—men and women from different cultures and backgrounds—all working on it together. As we made decisions, people had different ideas. But we all wanted to get to the same goal, and by sharing not just our ideas, but our underlying thought processes, we put together an excellent program.
McKinsey practices its values
As part of my leadership consulting role I look at organizations closely, and one of the things I always consider is whether the organization has a set of stated values. At McKinsey, I’ve found that people are energized to do the right thing, to exemplify the firm’s values – what’s said and what’s done are very closely aligned.