The deadly sins and the workplace

Nobody’s perfect. Managers should not forget that

If management is about getting the best out of people, it helps to understand base behaviours as well as noble ones. PHOTO: ST FILE
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The arc of current management thinking bends towards virtue. Co-operation is what makes teams purr. Low-ego empathy is the hallmark of a thoroughly modern boss. Purpose matters to employees as much as pay; society looms as large as shareholders. But appealing to people's better nature, and ignoring their vices, is an incomplete approach. Nor is being good necessarily great for your own career.

Take a look at the seven capital virtues and the seven deadly sins laid out in Christian tradition. The virtues are chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, kindness, patience and humility; the vices are lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, envy, wrath and pride.

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