Blair Singer argues that written codes of honor and explicit rules save businesses and families. He shares his household rules: daily communication while traveling, never going to bed angry, and calling timeouts for outside coaching. Leaders who focus on context, not just tasks, create stronger organizations.
Why are you in business? Why? What is your mission? My. Look, My wife and I have rule. Have a code of honor for our family, for our relationship. We have a mission with our children. It's not the same as my business, but we have both. Everybody understand? Yes. Yes or no? The code of honor saved my company. Now I run around the world helping other companies create theirs. But I also have a code of honor between my wife and myself. We have rules. I travel a lot, so one of the rules is no matter where I am in the world, we speak every day. Every day. There's no messing around, no flirting. We have another rule that we never go to bed in the middle of an argument. We also have another rule. If. If we get in an argument that goes too long, we call a timeout and I go. We both seek outside coaching from a coach because if I'm upset with her for more than an hour, it has nothing to do with her. Has something to do with my little voice. As leaders, your job is to focus on the context. More important.