There are many ways to manage situations. One approach is to follow your principles when managing problems. It is then to do your best to get positive results.
Different people follow this approach in different ways. Let’s look at some examples.
People Who Follow Their
Professional Principles
Some people aim to follow principles that apply to their profession. These principles provide a compass they can use when making decisions in their daily work.
People who work in medicine, for example, focus on certain ethics that guide their actions. They are encouraged:
To follow the key medical principles – such as being caring, respecting a person’s autonomy and aiming to do good rather than harm;
To apply their medical skills and deliver consistently high professional standards;
To do their best to help the patient and achieve the desired positive results.
People who work as mediators also aim to follow certain principles. Here is an excerpt from the Mediate.com website that gives an overview of such themes. Good mediators are encouraged:
To think before reacting – such as to buy time and consider the possible ways forward;
To respect people – to listen actively and check you have understood what people have said;
To assure fair process – to behave in a fair way and, as far as possible, ensure that people see the process is fair;
To focus on the future – to understand what has happened in the past but to then focus on how things can be in the future;
To seek options for mutual gain – to aim to, as far as possible, find win-win solutions for people.
Different people follow principles that relate to their particular profession. They may do this when working in healthcare, education, sports, business, government or other fields.
Many people who follow the principles approach are serious. They actually aim to follow the principles when making decisions and translating these into action. They find this can be useful – especially during tough times.
Some people say they follow stated principles but actually follow other principles. Some organisations, for example, may find ways to justify doing things that stray from their stated principles.
People Who Follow Their
Personal Principles
Some people follow their personal principles. They may aim to follow their own moral compass, a spiritual faith or a philosophy that they believe in following.
They focus on their principles when making decisions, managing situations or working towards a goal. They take this approach when building on successes or managing setbacks.
Different people may follow different principles. Here are some that people mention when describing their approach.
My Principles – The principles
I want to follow in my life are:
To encourage people … To care for my loved ones … To do positive work that helps people … To deliver high professional standards … To find positive solutions to challenges … To do my best during my time on the planet.
Such people find that following their principles gives them strength when tackling challenges. They may also borrow from various creative problem solving approaches when tackling situations.
Some take the following approach. Bearing in mind what they can control in the situation, they translate the particular challenge into ‘How to …?’ and positive terms. Let’s look at some examples.
Imagine that a leader has a talented team member who behaves in an unprofessional way towards their colleagues. The leader will focus on the real results they want to achieve.
The real results to achieve may be: “How to build a positive team that consistently delivers peak performances?”
The real results to achieve may not be: “How to spend time trying to get the unprofessional person to behave in a professional way?”
Imagine that a parent has a dyslexic child who has certain strengths but finds it difficult at school. The parent will focus on the real results to achieve.
The real results to achieve may be: “How can I help my child to build on their strengths, do satisfying work and achieve success?”
The real results to achieve will not be: “How to get my child to fit into the academic world’s targets for achieving success.”
Imagine that a person is worried about the way people are mistreating the planet. Bearing in mind what they can control, the person may focus on what they can do rather than what they can’t do.
The real results to achieve may be: “How can I be a positive model for other people and do positive work – however small – that helps people or the planet?”
The real results to achieve will not be: “How can I stop worrying about what people are doing to the planet?”
Let’s return to your own life. Imagine that you want to follow your principles when focusing on a specific problem. Bearing in mind what you can control in the situation, you may want to explore the follow questions.
What are the real results I want to achieve in the situation? How can I translate these into ‘How to …?’ and positive terms.
Imagine that you have taken this step. If appropriate, you can then explore the following themes.
What are the principles I want to follow in my life? How can I follow these principles in this situation and do my best to get positive results?
People who take this approach build on what they can control and follow their principles. They aim to be true to themselves and do their best during their time on the planet.
Let’s return to your own life and work. Looking ahead, can you think of a situation where you may want to follow elements of this approach? This could be in your personal or professional life.
If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This involves completing the following sentences.
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