For two out of three CEOs in our database, performance was lower in their years six to ten than it was in years one to five. Some gave up their gains of the first five years altogether. Results may not actually dive into negative territory, but if they do, they vacillate up and down around a mean, which only reinforces the sense that one can let up on the gas.

The danger is exacerbated when boards also become less energetic in pushing for vigorous changes in strategy or operations. As director Ann Hanley shared, “It’s easy to get into incremental mode.” A CEOs internal team may resist a continuous quick pace of change.

In our Life Cycle study we looked at how many of the top one hundred performers were sprinters or mid-distance or marathon runners, with a range of measures for performance. Note that in the full set of CEOs, there are roughly equal numbers of sprinters (38 percent), mid-distance runners (31 percent), and marathoners (31 percent). Yet, top performers tend to be sprinters and marathoners. And there are important differences in the nature of their performance success.

When CEOs depart during the Complacency Trap stage of the life cycle, generally from years six to ten, inefficiencies that have crept into the organization and problems that have been festering— such as an underperforming unit or product line— constitute much of the low-hanging fruit their successors immediately go after. This invites the question: If those problems are so apparent to new leaders and boards that appoint them, why haven’t they been more effectively addressed?

As former Intel CEO Andy Grove wrote in his influential book Only the Paranoid Survive, “Business success contains the seeds of its own destruction.” CEOs who make it to the Complacency Trap stage have navigated the rough-and-tumble of the Launch, Calibration, and Reinvention stages of the first few years. One unintended consequence of leading their firms adroitly can be an overly assured attitude about the course they’ve set and the organizational improvements they’ve made.

6. Legacy

As opposed to large spikes up and down in TSR often seen in earlier stages, in the Legacy years results tend to be steadier. Although a CEO’s highest performance throughout their tenure might occur in earlier stages, resulting from, for example, the honeymoon lift or the beginning of the Reinvention stage at about year three, the Legacy years are distinctive for their reliability. Leaders in their Legacy stage more consistently deliver strong results.