Wanted to see if I could solicit some responses to this quote by Robert Greenleaf that I’ve been thinking about this past week. He writes,
“There is no one best way to live a life, I have concluded. There are penalties and compensations for being “good” as well as for being “bad.” Paradoxically, one must be both good and bad to enjoy this life to the full or to comprehend its meaning.” (Servant Leadership, 257)
For some context, Greenleaf is responding in much of his writing to the phenomenon of restrictive structures and codified rules of behavior in a corporate or community context. He’s not necessarily exploring morality issues, but about navigating the “rules” and “what’s appropriate.”When you think about this life, whether it’s a specific leadership context or life in general, do you agree with Greenleaf that to fully enjoy this life and comprehend its meaning you have to be in some ways both good and bad?
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