Compromise Your Principles

Compromises

You try to live with zero disposable plastic.  Then Wuhan Coronavirus strikes and you buy food packaged in plastic with long shelf life.

You try to buy fresh food and eat healthily. Then you find yourself buying processed food that is easy to prepare and with a long shelf life.

You try to live with a direct connection with people, yet you have nearly completely converted to tele-conferencing.

You try to provide a safe secure job for your employees, yet you had to lay off and furlough many of your staff because of the lack of business.

Compromises Are Sometimes Required

It's not a question of if you need to make compromises to your principles, it's a question of when, and why.

So what defines the when? 

My thought is that many of the guiding "principles" that we have are not absolute.  It's a rare individual who will not enact prudent and necessary compromise when needed.  To "stick to your principles" is sometimes a very bad idea.

It's also about options. 

Is there a difference between furloughing your staff when there is no revenue to pay them compared to having them lose their job permanently a couple of weeks later if your business runs out of money after paying them during that time and then goes out of business?  You bet there is! These two options have a similar short term effect with workers losing their jobs, but the former is a temporary loss, the latter a permanent loss.  Neither is a good thing, but one is far worse than then other.

In this current crazy situation the world is in, would it still be a good idea to hold onto a principle of "nobody is laid off, ever..." that was created in good times?  While it sounds great in good times, such a principle is a disaster for everyone's jobs when times are bad.  There are some situations where you have to compromise your principles for the better and longer-lasting good.  Some principles seem invoilate, but are they?  Even the principle Thou shall not kill may need to be violated in self-defense if someone is trying to kill you.

Principles Are Good to a point

I think that principles are good and can help us discipline ourselves to do the things we believe in, but nearly all principles have a breaking point.  Some take very extreme situations to be challenged and broken, others less so.  

If you are a good leader, you need to have the fortitude to uphold your guiding principles.  But to be a great leader you need to know when and how to compromise those principles for the greater good.

Will you be able to identify that point that may require you to compromise?

How will you act when that situation arises?

Will you be a good leader? Or a great one?