zero tolerance

What does zero tolerance mean?

You have to, right from day one, be totally on top of the discipline issue. Remember earlier we talked about how looking after your team can be a bit like being a parent? Well, as a parent you pretty well have to set boundaries and practice zero tolerance to survive. Give them an inch and they will take the whole rope. If you are seen to be 'soft' they will take advantage. The good thing with clear boundaries and zero tolerance is you have a finite line – a yardstick by which you can judge everything. All you have to do is ask, 'Is this a breach of the rules?' If it is, stop it. If you do allow it, where do you stop?

Oh yes, about for my money the context is:

Before we begin, it might be worth taking a moment or two to determine what exactly we all mean by 'management'. And that isn't as easy as it sounds. For my money we are all managers – parents, * the self-employed, the entrepreneur, the employed, even the ones who inherited wealth. We all have to 'manage'. It might only be ourselves, but we still have to cope, to make the best use of resources available, motivate, plan, process, facilitate, monitor, measure success, set standards, budget, execute and work. It's just that some of us have to do all that with bigger teams. But the fundamental stuff doesn't change.