Most organizations have clearly defined values. The challenge is getting those values to show up at the moments that actually matter, when an employee is navigating a hard conversation, processing feedback, or working through a team conflict.
Cloverleaf's Discover feature can be used to prepare for these and more. Guiding Principles lets your organization put its own voice in the responses from Discover there too.
By embedding your values, communication standards, and cultural norms directly into Cloverleaf, Discover search results reflect how your organization actually works, not just generic best practices. The result is consistent, values-aligned guidance at scale, without adding headcount or relying on manager consistency.
To get Guiding Principles enabled for your organization, contact your Customer Success Manager.
What Is a Guiding Principle?
A Guiding Principle is a short, structured piece of guidance that Cloverleaf references when employees use Discover to search for coaching advice. When a relevant principle exists, Cloverleaf surfaces it as part of the search results rather than defaulting to a generic answer.
For example, if your organization follows an "Assume Positive Intent" principle and an employee searches for help navigating a difficult colleague conversation, Cloverleaf will weave that principle into its response, suggesting they approach the situation with curiosity rather than judgment.
Transparency built in: When Cloverleaf uses one of your principles in a Discover result, it shows the employee which principle was referenced. This reinforces your organization's values in context, at the moment they're most relevant.
What Makes a Strong Principle?
The best principles are short, memorable, and actionable. Cloverleaf works most effectively when principles are written for interpersonal and professional development contexts, not technical or procedural ones.
A well-structured principle includes:
Title: Clear and memorable (e.g., "Own Your Impact" or "Lead with Curiosity")
Explanation: 2 to 4 sentences describing the principle and why it matters
Actionable guidance: How an employee should apply this day to day
Example:
Disagree and Commit Voice concerns and debate ideas openly before decisions are made. Once a decision is reached, everyone commits fully to making it successful, even if they initially disagreed. This builds trust and keeps teams moving forward together.
What Should Not Be Used as a Principle?
Not all organizational content is a good fit for the Discover context. Avoid using Guiding Principles for:
Technical or hard skills: Software instructions, coding practices, or tool-specific procedures
Detailed policies or procedures: HR processes, expense policies, or compliance workflows (these belong in your employee handbook or intranet)
Role-specific instructions: Guidance that only applies to certain job functions or departments
Long-form content: If a principle needs multiple paragraphs, break it into smaller, more focused principles
If content doesn't fit naturally into a coaching conversation, it likely belongs somewhere else.
How to Organize Your Principles
Principles are grouped into Principle Sets, which let you manage related principles together. You can enable or disable an entire set at once, making it easy to test new content or pause outdated guidance without deleting it.
Tips for organizing effectively:
Group by theme: "Core Values," "Communication Guidelines," "Leadership Principles"
Group by source: Keep principles from different initiatives in separate sets for easier tracking
Start small: Begin with 5 to 10 of your most important principles and expand over time
You can enable or disable individual principles or full sets at any time. Disabled principles are excluded from Discover results but remain saved for future use.
How to Import Principles in Bulk
If your principles are already documented elsewhere, the fastest way to load them into Cloverleaf is by uploading a CSV file.
Steps to import:
Navigate to the Import tab
Enter a name for your Principle Set (e.g., "Company Core Values")
Download the template CSV or create your own with three columns:
title,principle_text, andadditional_infoUpload your CSV and review the preview
Select the principles you want to import and click Import Selected
CSV column reference:
Column | Required | Description |
| Optional | The name of your principle |
| Required | The main content explaining the principle |
| Optional | Extra context, examples, or notes |
How Sharing and Inheritance Work
If your organization has child organizations, you can share Principle Sets downward so they automatically inherit your guidance. This is useful for rolling out company-wide values across multiple teams or divisions without duplicating work.
To share a Principle Set:
Check the Shared checkbox next to a set
The set must also be enabled for child organizations to see it
Uncheck Shared at any time to stop sharing. The set will disappear from child organizations on their next page load.
What child organizations see:
Inherited sets appear in a dedicated Inherited Principles section. Each set displays the parent organization it comes from. Inherited sets are read-only: they cannot be edited, toggled, or deleted at the child level. Only the parent admin can make changes.
Note that inherited principles count toward the child organization's Discover context limits, so factor this in when managing your principle volume across the hierarchy.
Principle Limits and Why They Exist
Limit | Value |
Principle Sets per organization | 20 |
Principles per set | 50 |
These limits are intentional. Too many principles reduce the quality of what surfaces in Discover results. Staying within limits keeps the most impactful guidance front and center.
Tips for staying within limits:
Combine similar principles into one comprehensive entry
Prioritize principles that apply broadly across the organization
Regularly review and retire principles that no longer reflect how your team works
Disable rather than delete principles you may want to reactivate later
Getting Started
To enable Guiding Principles for your organization, reach out to your Customer Success Manager. Once enabled, you can begin building your first Principle Set directly in Cloverleaf.