Leadership Lessons from Confucius: a grasping boor

Confucius said: “Is it possible to work with a grasping boor in the service of a lord? Before they are appointed to an official position, their only concern is getting one; once they have been appointed, their only concern is keeping the position; when their only concern is keeping the position, they become capable of anything.”
子曰：「鄙夫可與事君也與？其未得之也，患得之；既得之，患失之。苟患失之，無所不至矣！」

When you are recruiting new staff, you need to look beyond a candidate’s education, skills, and experience in order to determine whether they have the right personal qualities to become an effective member of your team.

If a candidate claims to have achieved a complex multimillion-dollar sale, for example, dig deeper by asking which internal departments they had to work with to make it happen. You can learn a lot about how they operate from how much credit they give to others for the deal.

If a candidate says that they are looking for a new challenge because their boss does not recognize their contribution, do not be afraid to make a few calls to people who have come into contact with them as a colleague, customer, or supplier. If their story turns out to be true, great. If not, then you may very well have dodged a bullet.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is adding a dead weight to your team by failing to carry out the necessary checks before bringing someone new onboard.

Notes

This article features a translation of Chapter 15 of Book 17 of the Analects of Confucius. You can read my full translation of Book 17 here.

(1) The character 鄙 (bǐ) means “rustic”, “coarse”, “vulgar”, or “base”. Confucius employs it in order to express his deep contempt for people whose sole motivation for becoming an official was the salary and status of the position.

I took this image in the Four Beasts Scenic Area in Taipei.