My Michael Moment occurred during the editing of my resume. We were struggling to find good leadership examples and personal stories for my resume. I thought it was fine but Michael felt it lacked something distinctive. He asked me to go over my life citing important and unimportant moments one by one. He did not want me to filter them.

When I told him I represented my country at the World Junior Figure Skating Championships and placed 8th he went silent and then also screamed into the phone ‘What!’

He told me that my profile was now changed and I was a different person – a better candidate. My experiences were an outstanding example of teamwork and leadership and we needed to build that strongly into my profile.

Michael turned out to be right. Every interviewer across every firm wanted to discuss my figure skating experiences: I fell during my final attempt and had to do the team routines with an injury. In my Bain final round interview, about 70% of the discussion were about my efforts to help the team despite my injury. I eventually joined Bain. It is a special moment for me because I always assumed leadership meant leading in a business setting and I left out this story since I did not place in the medals.

Michael showed me that leading oneself and others through failure can be a great teaching moment.

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