There are many ways to live life. One approach is to follow your principles during pressured or problematic times. Different people do this in different ways.
Some people see such times as an opportunity to follow their principles. They often take time to reflect. They then focus on how they can translate their principles into practice and, if possible, get positive results.
Some people took this step after the shocks provided by elections in Europe and the USA. After a period of mourning, they chose to follow caring principles in a potentially uncaring world.
Some chose to follow certain principles during the Covid crisis. They chose to care for their neighbours, support medical staff, supply food banks and help others.
People who follow their principles recognise this can bring both pluses and minuses. The pluses can include them feeling true to themselves, helping other people and doing their best to get positive results.
The minuses can include feeling alone, not seeing instant results and being criticised. Bearing this in mind, such people try to build on the pluses and manage the consequences of any minuses.
Let’s return to your own life. Looking back, can you think of a situation where you aimed to follow your principles during a pressured or problematic time?
What was the actual situation? What were the principles you aimed to follow? How did you aim to translate these into action? What happened as a result of taking these steps?
If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to complete the following sentences.
Some Teams And Organisations
Follow Their Principles
Some people follow their principles as individuals. Some follow certain principles when working in teams or organisations. Let’s look at some examples.
Some sports coaches encourage their players to keep following the team’s principles. These principles remain constant. But the players are also coached how to express these in different ways in pressure situations.
Some organisations aim to follow their principles in their daily work. They also believe in encouraging their people to follow the principles during challenging times.
Some organisations prepare their people properly by doing an exercise called The Principles Challenge. They invite people to work in groups and do the following exercise:
To clarify a present or future situation that might challenge the principles;
To clarify the possible options for tackling the challenge and the pluses and minuses of each option;
To clarify the option that is closest to following the principles and how people can translate this into action in the challenging situation.
Sometimes there are no easy answers. The key is to encourage people to prepare properly, however, and to follow the option that is closest to pursuing the principles.
Following Your Principles
In An Unpredictable World
Great workers, teams organisations often focus on stability, stimulation and success. But this begs a question: How can you maintain stability in an unpredictable world?
One approach is to continue to follow your core principles. These provide an inner compass and consistency in what can sometimes be chaotic circumstances. Let’s explore this theme.
During the past thirty years it has become a cliché to say that we live in a VUCA world. The term was coined in the 1990s to describe a world that had become increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.
Some people find such a world to be frightening. It creates opportunities for demagogues who promise simplistic solutions or who create scapegoats.
How to live in such a world? How to deal with challenging events in the midst of what sometimes appears to be chaos? As mentioned earlier, one approach is to keep returning to your principles. It is to ask yourself the following questions.
“What are the principles I want to follow in my life? How can I follow these in my daily life and work? How can I translate these principles into action?
You can make your principles the internal compass for your life. These will help to prevent being tossed around by events. When in doubt, you can return to these principles. These can help to provide some stability in your life.
Let’s return to your life and work. Looking ahead, can you think of a specific situation where you may want to follow your principles in a pressured or problematic situation?
What may be the principles you want to follow? How can you translate these into action? What may be the pluses and potential minuses? How can you build on the pluses and manage the consequences of any minuses?
If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to complete the following sentences.
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