REAL POWER: Business Lessons From The TAO TE CHING.

Autry, James A. & Stephen Mitchell

ISBN 10: 1573220892 / ISBN 13: 9781573220897

Published by NY. 1998. Riverhead Books / Penguin Putnam., 1998

About this Item

white, tan & gilt decorative hardcover 8vo. (octavo). dustwrapper in protecive plastic book jacket cover. very fine cond. mint cond. looks new. like new. as new. binding square & tight. covers clean. edges clean. contents free of markings. dustwrapper in fine cond. not worn or torn or price clipped. nice clean copy. no library markings, store stamps, stickers, bookplates, no names, inking, underlining, remainder markings etc~. first edition. first printing (#1 in # line). decorative title pg. xviii+217p. resources. philosophy. psychology. ancient literature. chinese history. ~ A premier business consultant offers practical lessons from one of the world's most profound works of wisdom and shows how to transform the workplace into a source of immense satisfaction and fulfillment. Legend has it that as the sage Lao~Tzu was leaving the country of Chou at the end of his life in the sixth century B.C.E., a frontier guard asked him to write something that would teach the art of living. The result was a text called the Tao Te Ching. It is the world's oldest leadership manual, written to help everyone who is in a position of power ~ farmer, landlord, parent, head of household, local politician, head of state ~ to turn that position into an opportunity for creating both inner and outer harmony. Widely considered the wisest book ever written, the Tao Te Ching shows leaders how to guide their communities to peaceful productivity and happiness. James Autry and Stephen Mitchell have now brought this wisdom to bear on the most significant arena of life outside family: work. "Management," writes Autry, "is a calling, a sacred trust in which the well~being of other people is put into your care during most of their waking hours." Real Power will change the way working people look at how they spend this time, and shows how to create an environment in which everyone's power can be expressed in order to produce the best results for everyone. Autry and Mitchell make clear the paradoxes of winning at work: that only when we learn to let go of the illusion of control can we empower others and ourselves; that conventional displays of power are the least effective ways to get things done; that helping our competition (inside or outside the company) can bring us the greatest benefit; that employees already have power in their skills, their commitment to their job, and their passion for their work. "In Real Power, Autry and Mitchell demonstrate that ancient wisdom is good business. This unique partnership uses the time~tested lessons of the past to enable success in today's business world. Real Power is a guidebook no serious person can afford to miss. It will change the way you work and deepen the way you live." ~RACHEL NAOMI REMEN, M.D. author of Kitchen Table Wisdom. Read the book straight through, contemplate a piece from the middle, or skip around to find what suits you. Each of the brief, poetic essays commenting on a selection from the Tao Te Ching carries an essential lesson which can be held throughout the day as a reminder of how to build an ideal environment. Integrating the elegant wisdom of Real Power can transform the workplace from a source of stress into one of deep creativity and even joy. Whether you're at the top of the corporate ladder, the middle, or the bottom, this guide will help you make your work fulfilling on every level from financial to personal. Seller Inventory # 2262001

Bibliographic Details

Title: REAL POWER: Business Lessons From The TAO TE...

Publisher: NY. 1998. Riverhead Books / Penguin Putnam.

Publication Date: 1998

Binding: Hardcover

Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

A former Fortune 500 executive joins forces with the best-selling translator of the Tao Te Ching to show managers how to use the Tao's philosophy of power to bring out their employees' best and increase their company's competitiveness.

Review:

The Tao Te Ching,more commonly known these days as "the Tao" is, after the Bible, the most widely translated book in history. Written by a Chinese scholar in the sixth century BC, while we in the West were still daubing ourselves in woad, it's a compendium of gnomic life- advice for the perplexed, specialising in tips of the "less is more" variety.

Here, James Autry, who comes from the compassionate wing of modern business practice, has got together with translator Stephen Mitchell to produce a modern-day guide to management and business based on the Tao.

Autry, whose previous literary credits include "Love and Profit: The Art of Caring Leadership", describes the starting point for his humanist approach to business thus: "..managers put too much faith in systems and not enough in people." And he claims that the Tao "is perhaps the world¹s most profound book of leadership wisdom..." It "...talks about the principles that underlie all truly fulfilling enterprises."

The book itself is designed to be dipped into rather than read cover to cover and consists largely of short (heavily adapted) extracts from the Tao followed by a two or three page commentary.

The central theme is the paradoxical idea that only by "letting go" can you really control your business. "The acceptance of non-control is the only way to manage things," writes Autry. "There aren't any rules. There is only a way of being. If you use this little book as a guide, all you need to do is look inside yourself and determine what you should let go of, then let go of it every day."

This may be little rich for many tastes, but the book's great strengths are its compassion and its stillness. It will make a handy vade me cumfor rushed business people, a portable reminder that behind all the haste and day-to-day pressure of the modern business world, there can be decency and a greater purpose. This is a bit like the literary equivalent of Valium--reading it leaves you feeling calmer, although unlike Valium, it leaves you feeling clearer too. -- Alex Benady