Rob Parson at Morgan Stanley

Striking the Balance of High-performance and High-value Rob Parson, a young banker with strong relationships with the important players and a proven track record in the financial services, made significant gains in building Morgan Stanley’s reputation and revenues in the financial services sector (“Rob Parson,” pp. 90, 93). He has thorough marketing and product knowledge, approaches and works with clients brilliantly, and pursues the business aggressively and successfully (“Rob Parson,” pp. 95, 96, 97). However, from the 360-degree evaluation, his “soft skills” do not appear to be as strong as his technical ones. He needs to improve his interpersonal skills, respect and trust his colleagues, and adapt to Morgan Stanley’s organizational culture (“Rob Parson”, pp. 87, 93). Being a high performer, should Parson be promoted to Managing Director? I think not. First of all, Managing Director needs to command respect for knowledge and insight among people both inside and outside the firm (“Rob Parson”, p 102). From the evaluation, instead of being open to others’ ideas, Parson always thinks that he has the right answer (“Rob Parson”, p 91). Second, Managing Director needs to acquire highly developed organization skills (‘Rob Parson”, p 102). Contrary to the average score of 3.80 for professional skills, Parson was scored at only 3.13 for his management skills (“Rob Parson”, p 100). Without competent management skills, Parson will have difficulty communicating with, motivating and empowering employees. Thirdly, the ability to articulate departmental visions and strategies is an important responsibility of managing director (‘Rob Parson”, p 102). Coming from smaller investment banks, Parson kept the same work style, which conflicted with Morgan Stanley’s culture and norms(‘Rob Parson”, p 91). He will not lead a good example to employees in demonstrating Morgan Stanley’s vision and strategy. In many organizations, there are high performers like Parson who works