Ancient Wisdom for Modern Leadership: Tang-Song Eight Great Prose Masters–Leadership Virtue #8: Leadership Is a Long Game: Zeng Gong and the Power of Building for the Future

By: Dr. Jian Zhang

“The true measure of leadership is not only what we accomplish, but what we leave stronger—the people we develop, the institutions we build, and the possibilities that continue long after us.”

— Dr. Jian Zhang

Not Every Great Leader Needs to Stand in the Spotlight

When we think about leadership, we are naturally drawn to dramatic stories. We remember the person who challenged the system. The person who spoke when others remained

silent. The person who led a major transformation. The person whose personality filled the room.

But leadership is not always dramatic.

Sometimes the most important leader is the person who quietly builds something that continues to work long after everyone else has moved on.

That is what Zeng Gong 曾巩 makes me think about.

Among the Tang-Song Eight Great Prose Masters, Zeng Gong may be less familiar to many readers today than Han Yu, Su Shi, or Wang Anshi. Yet perhaps that is exactly why he is the right person with whom to conclude this series.

His life invites us to consider a different measure of leadership: Not how brightly we shine in one moment, but how much of what we build continues to create value over time. In an era obsessed with speed, visibility, disruption, and immediate results, Zeng Gong reminds us of

something easy to forget: Leadership is a long game.

Leadership Virtue #8: Long-Term Thinking

Zeng Gong was born in 1019 in Nanfeng, in present-day Jiangxi. He demonstrated literary ability early in life, but his path to official success was not immediate. He eventually passed the imperial examination and went on to serve in both central and local government.

He was also connected to several of the figures we have already encountered in this series. Ouyang Xiu recognized his talent, and Zeng Gong belonged to the extraordinary intellectual world that produced so many of the Tang-Song Eight Great Prose Masters.

But Zeng Gong's leadership story feels different. He was not remembered primarily for a dramatic confrontation like Han Yu. His life was not defined by exile and reinvention in the way we remember Liu Zongyuan. He did not possess the almost larger-than-life cultural personality of Su Shi. Nor did he attempt transformation on the scale of Wang Anshi.

His strength was quieter.

He studied carefully. He wrote carefully. He governed carefully. He built patiently.

And that word—patiently—may be one of the most undervalued words in modern leadership.

We Live in a Short-Term World

Today's leaders operate under enormous pressure to produce results quickly.

Quarterly performance. Annual goals. Immediate financial returns. Rapid growth. Faster innovation. Constant visibility.

Even leadership itself can become shaped by the short term.

What can I accomplish this year? What can I announce? What can I show the board? What will people recognize me for?

There is nothing wrong with results. Leaders are responsible for delivering them.

But short-term results and long-term value are not always the same thing.

Sometimes the decision that improves this year's numbers weakens the organization five years from now. Sometimes we can achieve a goal by exhausting our people. Sometimes we can solve today's financial problem by postponing tomorrow's investment. Sometimes a charismatic leader can make an organization appear strong while quietly creating dependency on the leader.

That is why long-term thinking matters.

The question is not only: “What results can we produce now?”

It is also: What are we building that will still matter after we are gone?

Leadership Lesson One: Build Institutions, Not Dependence

As leaders become more successful, there is a subtle danger. The organization can begin to depend too much on them. People wait for the leader to make the decision. Relationships belong to the leader. Knowledge stays with the leader. Strategy lives in the leader's head.

When the leader leaves, the organization suddenly discovers how much of its strength was actually concentrated in one person.

That may look like strong leadership while the leader is present. But it is not sustainable leadership. Long-term leaders think differently. They ask: Have I built capable people? Have I created systems that others understand? Have I developed future leaders? Have I transferred relationships, knowledge, and responsibility? Can this organization continue to grow without me?

This connects directly with what we learned from Ouyang Xiu about developing others.

But Zeng Gong takes the idea one step further.

Developing people is essential. Building institutions is how their capabilities endure.

The goal of leadership should never be to make ourselves indispensable. The goal should be to make the organization stronger.

The Quiet Work of Leadership

Much of what creates a strong organization is not glamorous.

Building good processes is not glamorous.

Developing governance is not glamorous.

Documenting knowledge is not glamorous.

Strengthening financial discipline is not glamorous.

Mentoring future leaders year after year is not glamorous.

Creating a culture of accountability is not glamorous.

But these are often the things that determine whether an organization lasts.

I have learned over the years that some of the most important leadership work receives the least applause.

It happens before the crisis. It happens behind the scenes. And sometimes, when it is done exceptionally well, nobody even notices.

The organization simply works.

That is a different kind of leadership excellence.

Leadership Lesson Two: Consistency Compounds

One of the great lessons of long-term thinking is that small actions become powerful when repeated over time.

We understand this in finance. Compounding transforms modest investments into substantial value.

Leadership works the same way.

One conversation may not transform a culture. But thousands of conversations can. One mentoring session may not create a leader. Years of encouragement, feedback, opportunity, and trust can. One improvement may not transform an organization. But a culture that improves continuously can become extraordinary.

This is why consistency matters.

We sometimes overestimate the impact of one dramatic leadership action and underestimate the impact of hundreds of small actions repeated with discipline.

Long-term leadership asks us to keep doing important things even when the results are not immediately visible.

Character compounds.

Trust compounds.

Knowledge compounds.

Relationships compound.

Culture compounds.

And so does leadership.

Leadership Lesson Three: Plant Trees Whose Shade You May Never Sit Under

There is another dimension of long-term leadership that becomes increasingly important as we become more senior.

Early in our careers, much of our attention naturally focuses on achievement. What can I learn? What can I accomplish? What position can I reach? What difference can I personally

make?

But at some point, the leadership question changes.

It becomes: What am I creating for people who will come after me?

That is a very different question.

It requires us to invest in things whose full results we may never see.

Education. Leadership development. Organizational culture. Community institutions. Future generations. Young people whose careers will continue long after ours.

This is where leadership begins moving from achievement to stewardship.

We stop asking only: “What can I accomplish?” and begin asking: “What am I responsible for leaving stronger than I found it?” That may be one of the deepest expressions of leadership.

Great leaders plant trees knowing that someone else may sit in the shade.

Long-Term Thinking Does Not Mean Moving Slowly

There is an important distinction here.

Long-term thinking does not mean slow leadership.

Sometimes leaders must move extremely quickly. During a crisis, delay can be dangerous. Innovation often requires urgency. Transformation may require decisive action.

The lesson is not to move slowly. It is to think beyond the immediate moment while moving at the speed the situation requires.

This is where Zeng Gong provides an interesting counterbalance to Wang Anshi.

From Wang Anshi, we learned: Question the status quo. Innovate. Act. Execute.

From Zeng Gong, we add another question: Will what we are building last? Innovation and long-term thinking should not oppose each other. The strongest leaders need both.

Innovation asks: What must change?

Long-term thinking asks: What must endure?

That balance is essential.

From the Eight Masters to Eight Dimensions of Leadership

As I finish this journey through the Tang-Song Eight Great Prose Masters, I realize that I did not really write eight essays about ancient writers.

I wrote about eight dimensions of leadership.

Han Yu 韩愈 — Principles & Courage / 原则与勇气 Leadership begins with knowing what we stand for—and having the courage to stand for it.

Liu Zongyuan 柳宗元 — Growth Through Adversity / 逆境成长 Failure does not have to define us. Sometimes a disrupted path opens another possibility.

Ouyang Xiu 欧阳修 — Developing Others / 培养人才 Great leaders do not simply create followers. They create more leaders.

Su Xun 苏洵 — Lifelong Growth / 终身成长 It is never too late to learn, grow, or begin another chapter.

Su Shi 苏轼 — Self-Leadership / 自我领导 We cannot control everything that happens around us, but we can continue developing the person who responds to it.

Su Zhe 苏辙 — Quiet Leadership / 谦逊与稳定 Leadership does not have to be loud to be powerful.

Wang Anshi 王安石 — Innovation & Execution / 创新与执行 Question what no longer works, imagine what could work better, and have the courage and discipline to make change real.

Zeng Gong 曾巩 — Long-Term Thinking / 长期主义 Build something that can continue creating value long after you are no longer there.

Taken together, they offer something more than eight individual leadership lessons. They begin to form a leadership journey.

Know yourself.

Stand for something.

Learn from adversity.

Keep growing.

Develop others.

Have the courage to change what needs changing.

Build systems that can sustain the change.

And leave something meaningful for those who come after you.

Dr. Jian Zhang's Leadership Reflection

Over the course of my leadership journey, long-term thinking has taken on deeper meaning.

Earlier in my career, I thought a great deal about building organizations, solving problems, creating programs, improving systems, and achieving results.

Those things still matter.

But increasingly, I find myself asking different questions.

Who will carry the work forward? What knowledge should be passed on? What leaders can I help develop? What institutions can become stronger? What ideas can continue helping people after I am no longer the person implementing them?

Perhaps this is a natural evolution in leadership. We begin by trying to become capable ourselves. Then we learn to lead others. Eventually, if we are fortunate, leadership becomes less about what we can accomplish personally and more about what we can enable others to accomplish.

That is why I find Zeng Gong such an appropriate figure with whom to end the Tang-Song Eight Great Prose Masters series. He reminds us that leadership does not always need a dramatic ending. Sometimes the greatest accomplishment is simply to leave behind something strong enough to continue.

And perhaps that is the ultimate test of leadership: Not whether people still need us after we leave, but whether what we helped build continues to grow.

Leadership Is a Long Game

More than a thousand years have passed since the Tang and Song dynasties.

The world has changed beyond anything these eight men could have imagined.

We now lead global organizations. We communicate instantly across continents. Artificial intelligence is transforming how we work, learn, create, and make decisions.

And yet the fundamental questions of leadership remain remarkably familiar.

What do I stand for? How do I respond when life does not go as planned? Whom am I developing? Am I still learning? Can I lead myself? Do I have the courage to change what no longer works? Can I build something that lasts?

Technology changes. Organizations change. The tools of leadership change.

But many of the deepest questions of leadership do not.

That is why I began this series.

古为今用 does not mean looking backward with nostalgia.

It means looking backward with purpose.

Learning from the successes, failures, contradictions, courage, and humanity of those who came before us—and asking what their experiences can teach us about the responsibilities we carry today.

And 中西结合 is not about choosing East or West.

It is about bringing different traditions of wisdom together to develop leaders who are more thoughtful, more adaptive, more courageous, and more human.

The Tang-Song Eight Great Prose Masters began this conversation. But they do not end it.

There is still much more ancient wisdom to explore—and much more modern leadership to rethink.

For now, I will end this chapter with one question:

When your own leadership chapter is finished, what will still be growing because you

were here?

古为今用，中西结合。

Leadership is a long game. Build for the future. Develop people. Strengthen

institutions. And leave behind possibilities for others to carry forward.

— Dr. Jian Zhang