According to Barbara Kovach in Survival on the Fast Track, there comes a time in the career of every ambitious person when it is necessary to slow down a bit. The Reason is this: At some point in your race up the ladder, some insecure-yet-powerful senior managers will begin to see you as competition. They will begin to focus on your flaws and look for reasons to push you off the track. Though your opinion once counted, you may begin to be ignored.

Kovach, who studied the lives of those who made it to or near the top, found that this is normal transitional period. The thing to do at this point is slow down. She offers the following advices:

1. Give up a competitive orientation for cooperative one.
2. Develop interpersonal rather than achievement-oriented skills.
3. Replace an emphasis on substance with one style.

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