This Women’s History Month, we’re chatting with McKinsey leaders about their role as women in the workplace and beyond. Today, we’ll hear from Clarisse Magnin-Mallez, managing partner of McKinsey in France. Clarisse leads work in the Consumer Packaged Goods and Retail practices in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East; the agriculture sector in France; and the circular-economy initiative worldwide. For more Q&As throughout the month, bookmark this page.
Tell us about a career-defining moment.
The most defining moment in my career was when I became a mother, because it required me to change my operating model. I moved from being completely unconstrained to being constrained, for good reason, which was to come home earlier and be available for my child and, later, my children. This made me stronger, more fruitful, and more purposeful in what I was doing at work.
What are you most proud of?
Becoming a partner, then becoming a senior partner, and then being appointed as the managing partner for France were very important moments in my life because these were moments where I felt supported and appreciated. It gave me a lot of strength and confidence to pursue my dreams and the things I wanted to achieve professionally.
What’s a big or surprising lesson you’ve learned as a woman in the workplace?
That men are insecure as well. They have their own anxieties and weaknesses. I think acknowledging that they have these weaknesses too allows you to collaborate better. I do think men and women are meant to team up, and sometimes when it comes to behaviors, we don’t come back to the root cause. The root cause is very often insecurity.
How do you stay energized?
You need to make choices and be clear on what you want in life. I believe that having love in your personal life is necessary, as is having a sense purpose. I think women tend to expect more purpose [outside of] work because maybe they have more sources of purposes outside work.
If at some point you feel bad, and it could be linked to workload or other reasons, it’s important to come back to, “Am I happy in my personal life? Do I [receive] love? Can I love the way I want? Is my work fulfilling my sense of purpose?”
What advice do you have for women in their professional journeys?
Accept failure and drawbacks. And accept [failure and drawbacks] as ways to learn, reset, and rebuild. That’s part of a career. That’s part of life. Accept these difficult moments and have a clear goal for what you want to achieve.
A woman’s life is made of choices, and these choices—both personal and professional—can evolve at different moments. [Have in your mind] that there are going to be lots of tradeoffs, but at the end of the day, you are the captain of your life. There will be moments when you want to slow down, and it’s good that you slow down. There will be moments when you want to accelerate, and maybe it makes it difficult in your personal [life]. But it’s okay, because that’s something you want to do at this given point in time in your life. Manage what you want to do without [harboring] guilt, and be clear about what you want and what you do not want.
There are multiple ways to be successful. In the years to come, the ways we become successful will take an even more diversified path, and that’s going to be a richer path to success, whatever the success is you aim for.
PUBLISHED WORK
The corporation in the 21st century
Prioritizing sustainability in the consumer sector
NEF Spotlight: The path forward for retail’s sustainable future