If you get the principles right at the start, the rules are easy.
If you try the rules without the principles it is a disaster.
Let’s take the example of the business owner who demands respect from his staff by putting a list of rules on the wall, gets drunk at the Christmas night out and sleeps with the Junior.
Rules are right, principles are not.
Let’s flip it round and take the business owner who helps out team members in times of extreme difficulty for them and then suffers hard times, what’s the likelihood of their team working longer hours, putting in harder shifts and doing what is necessary to keep things going?
Rules are fine and often necessary and particularly so in bigger environments.
But principles are essential.
Always set by example.
Rules set without principle are a stick to beat slaves.
Setting principles first sets culture, it creates a club or a tribe where people can flock if they share the same world view.
Rules are fast.
Principles are slow.
Rules are very short term.
Principles last forever.
Blog Post Number - 2179