When you have to write rules because your relationships suck, you may want to start investing time in your people.
Poor leaders write ironclad rules based on an exception, which allow for no flexibility or decision-making.
Great leaders talk to the person with the behavioral exception and clarify the expected frameworks we operate under. Then, they trust their people to execute based on values and principles.
Relationships are the foundation of success. If you don’t have them, you write rules for the masses. A long list of them…
Are you writing rules? Or building relationships.
The leadership version of this essay is the keynote Creating a Culture of Accountability: the line between accountability and policing, and what to do Monday with the person who keeps missing.