The essence of climbing up the corporate ladder is defined by an employees ability to reach the

top of the management hierarchy. In the case of Morgan Stanley, that pinnacle for professional
investment banking is a managing director. In the case examined below the decision for whether
Rob Parson, a principal banker, is evaluated.

Parsons performance can be defined in a nutshell as a star producer. Parson was recruited to
join Morgan Stanley because his reputation precedes him and he proved to be a cut-above the
rest. Parson stepped into a position notorious for the challenges it posed and was able to turn
around Morgan Stanleys market share position from tenth to third in rank. He was instrumental
in increasing the market share 10.2%. Some of his major career highlights at Morgan Stanley
thus far were securing first time business and major deals with existing clients, which in turn
lead to considerable revenues. The facts are on paper Parson is a star performer who is able to
generate business when there is none. Numbers do not lie, but in business performance comes
down to more than just numbers.

Company image is essential to a company because it defines who they want to be; to their
customers, the markets, employees, and potential employees. People want to work for a
reputable company and do business with a company they can trust. In order to accomplish this
Morgan Stanley transformed itself into a One-Firm Firm. Under this goal they support the
needs for their clients, which Parson has proven to exceed in by developing strong relationships
with his clients. Where Parson is not performing is contributing to an environment that fosters
teamwork and innovation. Parsons behavior towards his coworkers is unstable, abrasive, and
cocky. Instead of working with his coworkers he is in a sense undermining his coworkers, which
might in turn affect his co-workers performance.

Based primarily on the performance aspects addressed, it should be decided that Parson should
not be up for promotion at this point of his career at Morgan Stanley. Although his business
performance is outstanding and undeniable; he does not display the leadership skills needed to be
in a managing directors position. Parson represents the rebel, as described in Managing Away
Bad Habits, because he is outspoken and has been resilient to change; when situation with co-
workers have arisen he has not learned and been moved to change his behavior. He also represent
characteristics that describe a bulldozer; because of how he represents himself at work he his
coworkers have developed negative connotations towards him but he remains loyal to his boss.

Leadership in essence is defined as the ability to influence others to aid and support a common
goal. The question to reflect upon is what qualities do you want in a boss? Although this is a
loaded question because it is very subjective and dependent on personalities, a common answer
would be someone you can talk to and someone who represents how you are supposed to act at
work. If Parson cannot address his own behavior how would he ever be able to address arising
issues within his team? Speaking directly to the description for a managing director- a person in
the senior firm leadership position needs to display leadership by clearly, credibly, and
consistently articulating departmental visions and strategies. Leadership by example for Parson
would lead to a potentially disorganized and individualistic team.

Coming into Morgan Stanley, Parson already knew he didnt fit the typical criteria therefore Paul
Nasr would have been his example. Unfortunately for Parson, Nasr didnt act to manage Parsons
bad habits, but at the same time Parson didnt escalate the his goals to Nasr that would aid to his
success. Nasr was well aware of the problems Parson was having at work and instead of
addressing the issues head on he would put the problem back into Parsons hands to deal with. If
Parson didnt know how to handle the situation he should have better communicated with Nasr
his needs; in essence manage his boss.

Parsons business performance should not go un-rewarded though. Excellent performers should
be separately rewarded, non-dependent on promotion, with incentives. The key is to job
performance from promotions, since as has been established one can be an excellent performer
without showing management qualities.

Given Paul Nasr has thus far failed in terms of managing Parsons bad behaviors, his first step
going forward should be to address the situation with Parsons co-workers and help to build up
Parsons leadership skills. In order to develop Parsons teamwork skills providing some team
building exercises within his department would help to bring together everybody so they could
connect. Going forward after that any issues that arise Nasr should handle head on so his teams
performance doesnt deteriorate because of building issues. Secondly, Nasr should get Parson
enrolled in some leadership development classes to help him establish how to handle
discrepancies at work and Morgan Stanleys company goals.

Nasr should take care to address Parson in a positive manner that provides constructive criticism
instead of deteriorating his confidence, especially given the fact that he has indirectly promised
Parson a promotion. Therefore, when Parson has a one-on-one discussion with Parson about his
performance evaluation Nasr needs to address Parsons positives to ensure him of his work ethic.
Then acknowledge his request to move into a senior leadership role and discuss what qualities
are needed for the managing directors position and where he is lacking. This is when the
discussion about how to attain those skills should be discussed and a time line should be
established for completion and evaluation of growth. A good way to manage Parsons bad habits
while letting him feel hes move towards more responsibility would be to make him responsible
for a high-profile task. This will engage him in cooperation with others, which will help to
develop his leadership skills and make him feel more important.

For Parson, he should set his short-term goals on fixing what he noted on his self-evaluation as
well as his follow-ups he discusses with Nasr. In his self-evaluation, Parson notes his patience
and his internal aggressiveness. These issues might go beyond the work environment and might
be better for him to address outside work by seeking anger management. When faced with
tensions at work he should use the five principles discussed in Rethinking Political Correctness,
which are pause, connect, question yourself, get genuine support, and shift your mind-set. Using
these principles will help him open his mind to the differences among himself and his co-
workers. Currently the polarization caused by how he engages with employees might be
affecting his co-workers work ethic and will lead to a decrease in performance later if he cant
work with others. And keeping up his performance should be an important goal in order to keep
demonstrating his technical expertise needed for a promotion.

Although controlling his aggression is important, if Parson can harness his intense emotions, it
could improve the quality of his decisions. According to Hotter Heads Prevail, the intense
feelings Parson possess could mean he would prevail in an upper management position. But
clearly Parson needs to increase his self-awareness to be able to understand how it affects others.

So it can be said that Parson has most of the qualities needed for the managing director and what
he doesnt possess he displays the ability to achieve and grow them. But that doesnt necessarily
mean it will take a whole year to obtain them. Under the performance evaluation process Parson
will have to wait a year until next evaluations to be up for a promotion. Nasr should try to
influence management to change the system to as shown promotion evaluations. Under this
system their could be continuously.add some more.

please remove the word cocky.use a nicer substitute for it

rob shud given more responsibility.... Plz explain abt that

mention the increase in no of evaluation s in year

we also talked abt the empathy he has to show....mention the word empathy