To start, let’s define the Golden Rule, rather than just assuming everyone knows. It was first spoken by Jesus and is a basic principle of life. The premise: treat others as you would have them treat you. If you want respect, give respect. If you want loyalty, give loyalty. If you want courtesy give courtesy. Will you always get what you give? Not always, but here are five reasons why you should still employ and encourage others to employ the Golden Rule in business dealings. They work in tandem with each other.

Better working environment.

If you want others inside and outside of your organization to not only get along but build trust and rapport, then this is foundational. You must build relationships to succeed. It starts with how you treat people. People and relationships flourish in the soil of appreciation, respect, and trust. If you or you allow others, to mistreat those within and without your organization, this equates to abuse. “Even a dog will stop being your friend if you continue to smack him.” Everyone by the very virtue of being a human deserves respect. Insubordination goes only one way – up. Respect and disrespect go two ways. It has been said, “employees don’t quit jobs, they quit bosses.”

Law of Unforeseen Consequences.

A maxim I have used many times is “Be careful of the hell you create today. You will have to live in it tomorrow.” The way you treat people is a decision. A choice. Each choice we make, notice I said, choice not action, has consequences. Non-action is a choice. If we allow or exercise mistreatment, betraying of trust, gossip, or backbiting, then it will come back on your organization. Usually, this is in ways that were unforeseen and to a level, we did not expect. The same is true for treating and encouraging others to treat others well. It’s also the principle of sowing and reaping. You reap what you sow. Sow kindness, get kindness, sow trust, get trust, sow honesty, get honesty.

Structures and relationships will always change.

You do not know today what the structure is going to be like tomorrow. How many times have you seen someone work their way from an entry-level position to one higher than yours or to become your boss? Another saying: “Be careful of who you tick off today, you may need them tomorrow (or they may be your boss tomorrow).” I could probably write pages about this one.   

I once knew a paramedic who was speeding and was stopped by a state trooper. The trooper gave the paramedic a hard time about obeying the law and how he was in the public eye, etc. etc. They got into a heated discussion. The trooper got mad and wrote the paramedic the maximum ticket. Several months later, the trooper flipped his car during a high-speed chase. Guess who responded on the ambulance? The paramedic. They remembered each other. The paramedic took the high road and gave the trooper the best of care.

Seek first to understand.

We all want others to listen and understand us. If something must change in your organization, seek to understand what effect it will have on others. If you must “take down a fence (especially a sacred fence) seek to find out why the fence was placed there to begin with.” If you start a stampede you might wish the fence was still there.

We need each other.

“The turtle on the fencepost didn’t get there by himself.” For fun, people will put turtles on a fencepost (yes I know it can be deemed animal cruelty, but bear with me). The point is that turtle got there with some help. So it is in the success journey we are all on. We need others to help us. If we are too stubborn or prideful to seek or accept help, if we get to the top it will be lonely. If we do accept help, we should be quick to give credit where credit is due. I am not talking about handouts here, but hand ups. Help others and it will come back to you visibly in ways you would have not expected and invisibly in ways, you may never know.

There are many more ways you can improve the relationships you have worked so hard to develop. I have given you five here as a foundation treating others how you want to be treated. Employ these and see how the environment changes. The good thing – these can be used in any relationships to strengthen them.