If the rule doesn’t apply to you, it isn’t a rule. It’s a leash you only put on other people.

Rules with an exception at the top are not rules, they are an arrangement, and everyone underneath can see it immediately. The damage is less about the rule itself than about what the exception reveals: that the standard existed to control other people rather than to make the thing work. After that, compliance runs on fear and nothing else.

Take whatever you ask of your group and check when you last did it yourself. If there is a gap, close it this week and let people watch you close it. If the rule is genuinely not worth following, drop it for everybody.