Summary: The latest McKinsey partner promotion class shows that consulting firms reward people who build teams, create opportunities for others, and strengthen the system around them.
What the McKinsey Partner Promotion List Reveals
Each year McKinsey & Company’s partner promotion list offers a small window into how the firm thinks about leadership and progression inside the partnership.
The most recent class included 224 new partners. That figure sits well below the roughly 400 promotions seen in 2022, when consulting demand surged during the pandemic period. At the time, companies around the world were dealing with supply chain disruption, digital acceleration and large-scale operational transformation. Consulting firms expanded quickly to meet demand, and partner promotions followed that growth.
The market has since moved into a different phase.
Across Europe and North America, consulting firms are operating in a more cautious environment. Corporate budgets face greater scrutiny, transformation programmes have become more selective, and procurement functions play a stronger role in approving consulting spend. As a result, firms promote fewer partners and the evaluation process becomes more demanding.
Smaller partner classes are not simply a reflection of slower growth. They also signal a clearer definition of leadership. When promotion numbers tighten, firms become more explicit about what partnership requires.
Looking at the reflections shared by the newest McKinsey partners (as reported via Business Insider), several themes stand out. These themes also align closely with patterns we see across the strategy consulting market in the UK, Germany and Switzerland.
Partnership is rarely awarded purely for technical excellence. It reflects how the firm believes someone will strengthen the partnership over time.
Sponsorship Beats Networking
One of the most consistent themes across the new partner interviews is the importance of sponsorship.
Many consultants assume that internal networking will drive career progression. Building relationships across offices and practices certainly helps, but networking alone rarely determines promotion outcomes.
What matters more is sponsorship from senior leaders who have seen someone operate in demanding situations. Promotion committees rely heavily on the judgement of established partners who can speak credibly about a candidate’s leadership in real client environments.
That difference is significant.
Networking creates awareness. Sponsorship creates advocacy.
The partners who supported these new promotions were often individuals who had worked closely with the candidate during complex client engagements, difficult negotiations or high-stakes proposals. In those moments, senior leaders gain direct insight into how someone thinks, communicates and leads under pressure.
That experience builds trust.
When promotion committees meet, trusted voices inside the partnership play a decisive role. A senior partner who can confidently describe how someone handled a challenging client situation carries far more influence than a general perception of competence.
For consultants aiming at partnership, the lesson is straightforward. Visibility helps, but shared work builds credibility.
Strong sponsorship relationships usually develop through difficult projects rather than informal conversations.
From Individual Output to System Impact
Another clear theme from the partner class is the shift from individual output to system impact.
In the early stages of a consulting career, success is measured primarily through personal delivery. Analysts and managers build their reputation through rigorous analysis, clear problem structuring and the ability to deliver high-quality work under time pressure.
As consultants progress toward partnership, the criteria change.
Promotion committees begin to evaluate how individuals influence the performance of the broader system around them. The question is no longer whether someone produces excellent work themselves. The question becomes whether they create an environment where excellent work happens consistently across teams.
Several newly promoted partners described this transition in similar terms. They moved from focusing on their own performance to focusing on the performance of the people they worked with.
That shift involves mentoring junior consultants, building strong delivery teams and creating structures that allow work to scale beyond any individual contributor.
One phrase from the interviews captured this idea particularly well. Success meant leaving something self-sustaining behind.
In New Zealand, the (mighty) All Blacks describe this principle as leaving the jersey in a better place. Each generation of players is expected to strengthen the team for the next.
Consulting partnerships follow a similar philosophy. The most successful partners leave behind stronger teams, clearer capabilities and better client relationships than they inherited.
Focus Compounds Over Time
Another insight from the partner class is the power of sustained focus.
Many of the newly promoted partners described committing early to a specific capability or industry area. Rather than pursuing every opportunity that emerged, they built depth in a clearly defined domain and invested years developing expertise and credibility in that field.
Over time, that focus produces reputation.
Consultants who repeatedly work on similar strategic questions begin to accumulate pattern recognition that allows them to move faster and provide sharper insight. Clients begin to recognise them as specialists, and colleagues seek their input on relevant engagements.
Eventually, that reputation creates a form of professional gravity. Work begins to flow toward the individual rather than requiring constant pursuit.
In consulting markets where competition between firms remains intense, this dynamic becomes increasingly valuable. Clients facing complex decisions often prefer advisors who demonstrate deep understanding of their industry rather than broad but shallow expertise.
Depth compounds.
Consultants who remain disciplined about where they invest their time often see that discipline rewarded later in their careers.
Relationships Are the Real Asset
Across the partner interviews, one message appears consistently.
Relationships matter.
The newly promoted partners described building networks across offices, practices and client organisations over many years. These networks became critical to their ability to generate work and collaborate effectively inside the firm.
At partner level, relationships often determine commercial success.
Consulting firms operate through trust-based advisory relationships with senior executives. Clients rarely choose advisors based purely on analytical frameworks or methodologies. They choose advisors they trust to navigate ambiguity, manage sensitive situations and guide strategic decisions.
That trust develops slowly through repeated interactions.
Partners who invest consistently in client relationships often find that those connections generate opportunities across multiple projects and business cycles.
The same principle applies internally.
Consulting firms rely on collaboration across practices and geographies. Partners who build strong relationships with colleagues across the firm often find it easier to assemble teams, mobilise expertise and deliver complex projects.
In conversations across the UK and German consulting markets, we see the same pattern repeatedly.
Partners who consistently originate work combine credible expertise with strong relationship instincts.
Consulting remains, fundamentally, a relationship business.
The Often Misunderstood Role of Revenue
Many consultants assume that personal revenue generation is the primary determinant of partner promotion.
Revenue matters, but promotion committees tend to examine a broader set of signals.
In conversations with former senior partners involved in promotion discussions, one insight appears repeatedly. Committees pay close attention to how candidates expand opportunity for others inside the firm.
Partners who hold client relationships too tightly sometimes face criticism during promotion discussions. If a consultant effectively controls the client relationship but limits access for colleagues or other practices, that behaviour can reduce internal support.
Consulting partnerships reward people who expand opportunity for the firm.
The partners who progressed most consistently were those who built platforms that others could contribute to. They created work for multiple teams, developed junior leaders and opened client relationships to colleagues across the firm.
This behaviour signals a deep understanding of how consulting partnerships function.
Promotion committees ultimately want partners who strengthen the entire firm rather than simply maximising their own portfolio and P&L.
Consulting Partnerships Are Systems
Strategy consulting firms operate as interconnected systems.
Partners collaborate across industries, capabilities and geographies to deliver complex client work. A single partner rarely possesses all the expertise required to solve large transformation challenges. Instead, success depends on the ability to assemble the right combination of skills across the firm.
Because of this structure, promotion decisions increasingly evaluate how individuals contribute to the strength of the overall system.
Consultants who strengthen collaboration, develop new capabilities and expand client relationships across the firm become particularly valuable to the partnership.
Those who focus narrowly on their own engagements may deliver strong individual results but struggle to build broad internal support.
Promotion committees often ask a simple question.
Does this person make the firm stronger?
If the answer is clearly yes, the path to partnership becomes much clearer.
What This Means for Future Partners
For consultants two to four years away from partner promotion discussions, the signals emerging from the latest McKinsey class are relatively clear.
Promotion committees are not only evaluating project delivery. They are evaluating leadership behaviour and long-term contribution to the partnership.
Consultants who consistently build strong teams, mentor junior colleagues, expand client relationships and develop a clear professional reputation position themselves well for the transition to partnership.
Those behaviours demonstrate an ability to strengthen the firm beyond any individual engagement.
In the end, making partner is not about being the best consultant in the room.
It is about building a room full of great consultants.
And leaving the jersey in a better place.
Ben Appleton is the founder of Strat-Bridge, a specialist executive search partner to the strategy consulting industry. He works with global consulting firms and senior leaders across the UK, Germany, Switzerland, and beyond — helping them build capability at the Partner and Director level.
