Jane Doe
MGT 537
Article #xx - Outline
yy/zz/11
Parsons, George D. & Richard T. Pascale. “Crisis at the Summit,” Harvard Business Review:
2007. pp. 80-89.
I.
II.
Introduction - The path to the top is often not smooth, even for the most gifted
leaders.
Summit Syndrome, which often occurs between mastery of the current level and
advancement to the next level, can derail promising careers.
A. Example – Andrew Thompson
1. Had a dream career at an elite investment bank
2. But boredom set in – Thompson became distracted from his work (taking
calls from headhunters, working the crossword puzzle)
3. Began to wonder if he’d lost his edge
B. What the Summit Syndrome is NOT
1. Frozen out – clash with superior’s personality or org. culture
2. Burned out – overwhelming workload, inability to see the positive impact
of one’s labors
3. Psyched out – biological or psychological changes trigger a midlife crisis
4. Flaming out – fundamental incompatibility between your abilities and the
requirements of the job
C. What the Summit Syndrome IS
1. Summit syndrome affects extreme overachievers who thrive on challenge.
2. The rush from pushing beyond their limits tends to dissipate once the new
territory has been mastered. Their identity begins to be lost as they near
the peak of a learning curve.
3. This is not a one-time event – the careers of most overachievers are a
series of such S-Curves.
D. How Summit Syndrome affects people
1. Those with the smoothest glide to success experience the greatest degree
of confusion
2. Costs to the individual are high
a. Job performance
b. Health
c. Family
3. May derail their career unexpectedly
E. How Summit Syndrome affects the organization
1. It’s expensive a. Lost contribution
b. Organizational disruption
c. Price of counseling
2. People may leave the company altogether – needlessly robbing the
company of its most promising talent.
III.
3. Collateral damage of Summit Syndrome has been observed at even the
largest organizations
F. Recognizing the syndrome – early intervention is the best defense, and this is
mainly accomplished by the overachievers themselves, not the organization.
1. Approaching
a. Realization that they’ve just about conquered the job
b. Still performing well at this point, but they are disturbed by the
fact that internal job offers and adventure schemes suddenly seem
intriguing
c. They say things like, “It’s still challenging, but it’s not the way it
used to be.”
2. Plateauing
a. Absent new challenges or a new job, the syndrome will progress if
early symptoms are left unattended
b. They know they have mastered the job, but their enthusiasm
continues to wane.
c. Distractions become attractive – this may manifest itself in a
number of ways.
i. Meaningless games & puzzles
ii. Adventure schemes
iii. Extramarital affairs
iv. Precipitous career choices
3. Descending
a. It becomes obvious to themselves and others that something is
wrong.
b. Self-inflicted career sabotage or stress-related health problems are
common.
c. Unhappy ending – a radical change is made for all the wrong
reasons, or a forced lateral move or demotion occurs
Overcoming the confusion
A. A Winning Formula – this is each person’s distinctive way of making a difference
– this may include what you pay attention to, as well as what you do about it
1. With some earnest introspection, most of us can describe our winning
formula and articulate the well-honed skills that support it.
2. Realize that your winning formula may need to be tweaked, now that you
are approaching the top.
B. Life’s Grand Purpose
1. At the same time that the effectiveness of the winning formula begins to
dwindle, think about how your career fits into what you want out of life.
2. Now that the job is not all-encompassing this purpose, this must be
reassessed.
3. Possibly utilize a coach to prepare a series of lists identifying what is most
important to you
4. What do you want people to say about you after you’re gone?
5. Once you have determined these things, you’re in a position to articulate
what you want out of your current job and future career.
IV.
a. How will you broaden your focus?
b. How do you want to influence others?
c. How do you want to influence the firm’s strategic direction?
d. How do you achieve work-life balance?
Moving off the summit
A. The power domain
1. During the course of their careers, leaders must learn how to use their
power in different ways.
2. Good leaders learn how to share or transfer power through delegation
3. This requires leaders to embrace the counterintuitive lesson that in order to
be more powerful, they must learn to give up their need to control.
4. They must figure out how to pick team members so the strengths of some
compensate for the weakness of others.
B. The conflict domain
1. Leaders must learn how to manage conflict- addressing complex
challenges, moving beyond obsolete behaviors, beliefs, & practices.
2. Stimulating and guiding the right conflicts requires leaders to learn how to
design and facilitate meetings where vigorous debate is the norm.
C. The relationship domain
1. Leaders learn to understand, appreciate, and relate to a broad spectrum of
individuals with different styles & beliefs.
2. Leaders must learn to recruit a diverse team of people who are not like
themselves.
3. Leaders must think politically and plot a sequence of moves toward
relational growth.
D. The future domain
1. As their careers progress, leaders learn to shape larger visions & strategies
2. One of the most difficult lessons for leaders to learn is that although they
need to be able to recognize a resonant vision, they do not have to create it
by themselves.
E. The learning domain
1. Later in their careers, once leaders have mastered their own craft, they can
evolve into coaches.
2. The coaching accelerates the subordinate’s progress and strengthens his or
her ties to the organization. This process is one of the best ways to ensure
leadership continuity.
F. Conclusions
1. Leaders naturally visit the domains listed above as they take on a new role
– automatically seeking to develop the skills and insights appropriate to
each job cycle.
2. Leaders should learn to recognize that when their quest for competency
begins to dry up, this is an early indicator of summit syndrome.
3. Consciously re-exploring the domains and identifying the next set of
needed competencies enables overachievers to reinvent their winning
formula.
V.
4. The process for recognizing and treating the summit syndrome can
dissipate the disorientation that often strikes overachievers as they
approach the summit.
Summary
A. Four part inquiry on the part of the overachiever
1. Understanding your winning formula
2. Reconnecting with a core purpose
3. Recasting your current or future job to better align your inner aspirations
with the external requirements of your work
4. Creating a developmental path to take your competencies to the next level
B. Organizations can help
1. Educate high performers and their managers about summit syndrome
2. Create opportunities for evaluation & mentoring
C. Remember that a successful career is not just a straight line to the top – it is a
series of S-curves, which can be marked by confusion.
D. Anticipating the summit syndrome, recognizing its onset, and dealing with it in its
earliest stages can revitalize careers and propel talented leaders to greater heights.