The Executive Altar: Balancing Vices and Virtues in Management

Modern management likes to preach virtue, but human motivation is rarely so pure. While diligence, humility, and empathy matter, an exclusive focus on moral excellence can miss the darker forces that actually drive performance. In this episode, we explore how traits usually condemned as vices—envy, pride, even controlled anger—can, in measured doses, sharpen ambition, spur competition, and jolt organizations out of complacency. The story argues that effective leadership is less about moral perfection than realism: understanding that people are moved by a mix of higher ideals and base instincts, and that progress often depends on knowing when to harness both.https://www.economist.com/business/2022/09/29/the-deadly-sins-and-the-workplace