The London TimesNot much Christmas cheer, I'm afraid, for the wrinklies* in the boardroom. If you are old enough to draw a pension, then you are probably past your peak as an executive. Worse still, you don't even realize it. According to Dr. Siegfried Streufert, professor of behavioral science at America's Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, new research shows a sharp drop in executive performance after the age of 65, Dr. Streufert says. Executives in the age range between 65 and 75 believed that they were doing exceedingly well — but, on average, they were exceedingly wrong in that belief. Older management teams discussed policy and talked about plans to a much greater extent. However, their extended discussions produced relatively few needed actions. In many cases, they were insensitive to incoming information, frequently ignoring it altogether. Strategy development was often missing or quite poor. Dr. Streufert offers two crumbs of comfort. He says it is dangerous to generalize, and it is never too late to retrain.

*Derogatory way to refer to elderly people