The reasons that people work can be reduce to a list of ten items.  Everyone ranks the 10 items in the following list differently.

• Work with people who treat me with respect.
• Be able to do interesting work.
• Get recognition for good work.
• Develop and learn new skills.
• Work with people who communicate and listen.
• Have a chance to think for oneself.
• See the end results of a task.
• Work with efficient and effective managers.
• Have a job that stretches me.
• Have job security, high pay and benefits.

Notice that having high status and power is nowhere on this list.  That is not to say that there are not people in your workplace that place the accumulation of status and power at the tops of their lists.  However, most people will find the reason that they come to work every day in my list.  In addition, if you delve into the personalities of Jim Collins' Level 5 managers, you will find that their primary reasons for coming to work fall into the list above.

The quest for excessive wealth, status and power can lead to abuses of corporate power.  Such abuses get spectacular headlines in today's news where we can list the massive financial failures of the last two years with the gaudy excesses of Enron.

Verse 3* of the Tao deals with the how a manager needs to deal with the reasons for coming to work every day.

"Putting a value on status
     will cause people to compete
Hoarding treasure
     will turn them into theives
Showing off possessions
     will disturb their daily lives

Thus the Sage rules
     by stilling minds and opening hearts
     by filling bellies and strengthening bones
He shows people how to be simple
     and live without desires
To be content
     and not look for other ways
With people so pure
Who could trick them?
What clever ideas could lead them astray?

When action is pure and selfless
     everything settles into its own perfect place

*Tao Te Ching, The Definitive Edition, Lao Tzu with Translation and Commentary by Jonathan Star, Jeremy P Tarcher/Penguin, 2001, page 16