The Platinum Rule in business is: "Treat others as they want to be treated," a step beyond the Golden Rule ("Treat others as you want to be treated") that emphasizes empathy, adaptation, and personalization to build stronger relationships with colleagues, clients, and teams by understanding their unique preferences and communication styles. It involves learning how individuals prefer to receive information, give feedback, or collaborate, leading to greater inclusion, understanding, and productivity in the workplace and with customers.
Most of us grew up with the Golden Rule (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you). The “Platinum Rule” is a common business buzzword. The Platinum Rule states that instead of treating people the way you want to be treated, you should invest time in discovering how they want to be treated.
The Platinum Rule was popularized in Dr. Tony Alessandra's book of the same name. The Platinum Rule goes this way: “Treat others the way they want to be treated.”
Instead, taking the time to consider how each of your employees, team members, and colleagues want to be treated individually will improve workplace morale. It will also improve productivity and organizational success. If you want your colleagues and your business to thrive, practice The Platinum Rule.
The golden rule is to do unto others as you'd have them do unto you; the platinum rule is to do unto others as they'd want done unto them. In other words, reject reciprocity as an ideal, in favor of something like empathy. There may be settings in which this makes sense.
In this scenario, you apply the Golden Rule because you treat others how they would like to be treated... even if you friend might hate coffee. Platinum Rule: “I want to get my friend the beverage she likes, therefore I will ask her what she would like to drink.”
The 3-3-3 rule in sales is a versatile framework for structuring outreach and engagement, often meaning making 3 touches (calls/emails/social) over 3 weeks, or focusing on 3 seconds to grab attention, 3 minutes to build interest, and following up within 3 days, or even 3 contacts across 3 levels in a company to deepen relationships. It emphasizes consistency, clarity, and strategic focus in prospecting and nurturing leads to build stronger connections and improve conversion rates, according to various sales experts.
You're probably well aware of both rules I'm referring to. The Golden Rule states that you should treat others the way that you would want to be treated, while the Platinum Rule shifts the focus a bit and says that you should treat others the way that they want to be treated.
The Golden Rule is well known: “Do to others as you want others to do to you,” or, in John Stuart Mill's concise version: “To do as you would be done by” (1).
Leaders can apply the Platinum Rule by employing strategies such as engaging in one-on-one conversations, customizing recognition, embracing flexibility, fostering open communication, and leading by example to cater to individual needs.
It encourages individuals to treat others how they would want to be treated, barring the way you want to be treated is exactly the same for everyone else. A bold assumption. A more modern take on this idea is the Platinum Rule—treating others the way they want to be treated.
The Platinum Rule encourages individuals to "Treat others as they would like to be treated." In other words, it emphasizes the importance of understanding and respecting the preferences, communication styles, and needs of others to foster stronger relationships.
The Platinum Rule, which would have us consider—doing unto patients as they would want done unto themselves—offers a standard that is more likely to result in treatment decisions that are consistent with patients' personal needs and objectives.
It's important that we help others achieve what's important to them, regardless of our preferences. (Some call this the Platinum Rule: “Treat others as they would like to be treated.”) Although the Platinum Rule is simple and straightforward, it can be difficult to put into practice.
The "3 Fs in sales" most commonly refers to the Feel, Felt, Found technique for handling customer objections, where you empathize ("I understand how you feel"), share that others have had similar experiences ("Others have felt that way"), and then offer a positive resolution ("What they found was...") to build rapport and guide them to the solution, moving focus from the objection to the benefits.
At its core, the 60/40 rule says this: For maximum financial performance, companies should spend ~60% of their budget on brand building and ~40% on sales activation.
The "7 Cs of Leadership" aren't a single, fixed model but represent core qualities like Character, Communication, Commitment, Courage, Compassion, Consistency, and Confidence, which form a blueprint for inspiring, building trust, and guiding teams toward shared goals, emphasizing inner qualities and outward actions for impactful, authentic leadership.
Top CEO books cover leadership, strategy, mindset, and personal growth, with classics like Good to Great, Start with Why, and The Hard Thing About Hard Things focusing on business fundamentals, while books like Atomic Habits, Dare to Lead, and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People build personal effectiveness, making a well-rounded library essential for CEOs. Key themes include building strong cultures, managing complex challenges, innovation, and self-improvement.
His approach is built around the four A's of effective leadership: awareness, acknowledgment, action, and accountability.