Corporate image: how tough are you, really?

I was prompted to write this post, because as a  company man, which I have been for the last 10 something years. I have been able to observe the modalities of behavior on the company floor, in the office space and all around it. Being located in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan gives me a great chance to look and observe what people are made of, what they think they are made of, and various attributes of their personalities that come to define the ultimate goal of the workplace - total success symbolized by a promotion, a movement upwards.


These are indeed the goals to be achieved, and I can't claim success in that respect, as I have pretty much stayed put in my job. But I have watched others on their way up, and I have noticed that people moving up inevitably develop a new ego - they start dressing differently, have a different look in their eyes, they find new friends and generally start to associate with other people. Their tone of the voice - changes. Indeed, it seems like you are talking to a whole new persona.


Of course, if you are the one promoted, these changes seem all the more natural as you are immersed in your victory, you are a star of the show, at least for that day. You are not thinking for the challenges to come and it is all just one big party, just as when you were a child.




However, the challenge presented is this: if an upward movement breeds greedier employees, more ignorant personalities, and greater negligence of all things that came to be associated with humanity, how good is that for the individuals? Furthermore, how good is that for the company?


I mean even from a bit of history that we have learned in school we know that the greater the station, the greater is the responsibility of a true ruler to be in touch with what is going on his realm. During the younger years the blue bloods had to be treated "as everyone else" - sleep and eat with the soldiers, acquire all the necessary skills for survival, taste the bitterness of an outdoor life on a campaign, etc. etc. When that was accomplished, a newly trained ruler would acquire the necessary bent of character to be real, i.e. to be human, to understand others, thus having capacity to make proper decisions, on which the lives of many will be relying. This is how elite was really nurtured from the immemorial time on.


Looking at many company employees, I sense that they haven't read any history, or if they did - probably haven't extracted any lessons. It seems like they are doing just the opposite: they are surging up with no moral underpinning at all - the only point is self-recognition as a part of a newly found elite. So the higher they climb, the less contact there is even for the most talented with the foundation within the company. Along side, the one surging up is struggling to completely forget what has happened to him during his years as "a commoner", and indeed the vacant look on their faces is a proof that they have reached the Elysian Fields, they are not human no more, but gods, separated from the ground by the clouds; hidden from the human eyes at their managerial Olympus.


While the tone is someone sardonic, I do urge people to get down and look around themselves, get real with where you really are! A higher position can serve as an instrument of greater humility, and greater benevolence. Not required, but very useful to look at things through a humbler prism.


Just moving up and feeling like you are a ruler of the world may not last for very long, and may cause a long term suffering from the glorious inebriation. Stumbling even a half step down may feel like a tragedy, since you already have a conviction of your separation from the ground upon which you stand.


There are many tough facades in the corporate work place, but no matter what position you occupy, you can still fulfill your managerial functions without being overly proud, unreachably snobbish, or simply dumbly narcisstic.


I think the change is going to come when self assertion is going to be separated from the pride. When the intelligence is going to join hands with vision, and when people simply realize how great it is to grow and feel like a flower in the morning sun, thus sharing their radiance with all around, enriching the company space, and the others, indeed being a true "co-worker".

Is there greed in the world?

Being greedy is "not nice", we are being taught when we are kids. But without being a little greedy the boundaries of the selfhood seize to exist. That means that we as social beings have to maintain some sense of personal, "mine", and "yours". But do we really?


Of course, human history, as it is written in the school's naïve text books proves that there has been a lot of confrontation over the possession of goods, wealth, and property. People and states apparently has gone to war over such things as gold and mineral depositories, and other measurements of property and wealth.


However, I am pretty much sure that it hasn't always been like this, as people within the "tribal" communities have always shared the common goods, tools and other resources. It is the feeling of "other", the "otherness" that created a strong boundary between us and them, the enemy, who we must protect against. Fight and kill if necessary. This feeling amplified, and we get the common text book history of the word.


It seems like we, as humans often times don't know any better, and have to function within the very strict confinements of our own personal walls that we create, and reinforce with the objects of worth.


However, I have to argue that being truly human, a noble human in a sense of Chuang Tzu is a harder task, than just having a good read, as one has to think carefully before sinking his or her claws into another, just because they have transgressed the illusionary boundaries of the personal space. Being a "noble" man means that one remains calm and even equanimous, when shit around him is happening. He is not eager to act, as it was said that the "sage resides in non-doing and thus completes everything". What does that mean? That means just that - one prefers non-action, but it is non-action with the straight back, a chosen non-active form, which is full with energy, because it is a personal choice. Thus, one attempts to reach sagehood.


Another oldie but goody is "Sage has nothing, and thus has everything". I think this may be a Lao Tzu citation. How is that possible? Just the same - reside in the center of the wheel, be the empty axis, rather than only one of the spokes. Acting makes us spokes, as we has placed our choice on one of many infinite possibilities. Once that has been done, there is no way of resisting an urge to plunge into the situation at hand, and one has to be very savvy and artful in order to be able to do that.


Many questions arise....one is "how do I remain in non-action if someone is trying to rub me?" Or "how do I remain in non-action if someone is trying to threaten my life or the life of my loved ones?"
The answer cannot be one-sided, as obviously if the situation arises one must act. But it may not be so obvious that if there is such thing as the "mastery" of non-action, the threat may not seem so threatening. This is an ideal, but it is not unreal, as we in the art of Tai Chi, practice that daily, and as the stakes rise higher and higher with the greater amount of energy, the vigilance must rise also. But it is not vigilance against the other, it is vigilance against one's own old patterns, unresolved conflicts, "tensions" as they are ol' too simply classified in Tai Chi. On that level of contemplation pretty much anything that is not flowing like a river, is a rock to be flown over and around.


So, is there a greed in a world? Considering that everyone is fulfilling one's own will - no, but in the interaction between one and the other, what seems like "greed" is a lack of desire to accept the will of the other, that "that is just what they want". Once you accept that, you can start thinking about whether you really need to be protective.