The Fine Line of Loyalty
Loyalty is a tricky thing. When examining loyalty in the corporate world it often means that being overtly devoted to one person or entity over another can create serious challenges. Determining where our loyalties should lie can be pushed and pulled by various factions. Our employees believe we should be loyal to them and always look out for their best interests and our employers think they should have our loyalty—particularly since they are paying us. We also have external forces like service providers and clients who expect loyalty as well.
You don’t have to choose
But loyalty isn’t something we can require. It is earned. When someone expects loyalty, that is when they are least likely to get it. Just because someone signs our paycheck doesn’t guarantee a devoted employee. It stretches much bigger than dollars. It’s about creating a space to belong and contribute and grow. When an employer listens to legitimate input and actually reacts, the employee satisfaction goes way up. The great resignation has shown that. For example, people want to work remotely. Period. And employers better figure out how to accommodate that to hang on to their best employees.
For many years I was fiercely devoted to the company I worked for and in the long run, that loyalty was misplaced because I thought they felt the same way about me and my staff. It’s just business after all. Today I have realized that I owe no loyalty to anyone but myself. We have to be true to ourselves and if someone earns it, then our loyalty can be shared, particularly if they give that loyalty back.
How do we choose where our loyalties lie? We don’t. Each situation has to be evaluated to determine how to maneuver through the landmine that may look like loyalty.
When to push the envelope
I was speaking to a friend last week and she was struggling with trying to appease her employees who are grossly overworked. Her bosses were nit-picking her employee’s performance, but truth be told, they are understaffed and barely keeping their heads above water. How do we finesse a situation like that by protecting our employees, but executing the business on behalf of our leaders?
It can be messy in the middle. When we have loyal hardworking employees we have to stand up for them. But when our leaders have dug in their heels and believe it is the employees who are creating the problem, it comes down to examining where the roadblocks are. Are the employees struggling because they have too much work? Why won’t the leadership allow us to hire more people? Not easy an easy answer on the surface.
If we have determined that our employees are working at maximum capacity and feel overloaded then mistakes will start to happen and turnover will eventually kick in. The key is to prove to our leaders how much it costs when mistakes are made and how much downtime turnover costs the company. When convincing leadership they need to hire more, the key is to show them what it costs when they don’t hire more. How much lost time hiring and training costs and then translate that to dollars.
Calculate the results not the expense
When you can say we lost X dollars due to X, we can conversely say we made X dollars because we invested X in additional resources that produced X in additional revenue and profits. It is typical that the additional expense is far outweighed by the increased productivity eventually. It may mean using temps or VAs or interns until we can find a permanent solution. So this isn’t so much about being loyal to anyone, it is about using good business sense to show our leadership how a small investment will glean big results. It’s about creating an environment that will lead to loyalty from both groups by achieving both sets of goals.
We can’t always defend people who don’t make the effort
Conversely, when we have underperforming staff, it is our responsibility to alert our leadership and determine what the cost of replacing or retraining that staff would be and what the increase in projected revenue, customer satisfaction, and morale would be in the long run. But more importantly, what is the cost of lost revenue if you don’t make changes. Even if those employees are loyal but unmotivated or have a bad attitude, at some point we have to separate loyalty from the job at hand. Just because we are their leader doesn’t mean we owe them unconditional loyalty. Leaders who tolerate divisive attitudes in exchange for results undermine team morale and effectiveness over the long term.
Sometimes just showing up, along with average performance can be mistaken for loyalty. If they are making a good living and don’t have to work too hard, they may never leave. But they may also never take your business to the next level. Or worse, they may drive our good performers away. Just because we don’t get complaints about their work, doesn’t mean they are doing everything they can to move our business forward.
People like that are typically terrified of change because it means they might have to work harder. But think about how productivity, service scores, and profits might increase if we had passionate people who were eager for personal and company growth and supported each other. Then we have a team effort where everyone is working towards the same goals. And those goals shouldn’t look anything like the status quo.
When it comes down to it, the measure of loyalty is determined by us. As leaders in a company, we have to segregate loyalty from productivity. As I said many times when I was managing a lot of people, “we aren’t running a fraternity here”. It’s just business after all. But even though it’s just business, it’s still about the people. If there is no expectation of performance or cohesiveness, then let loyalty rule. But there is no company that wants a bunch of loyal underperformers. The key is to bring them along and show we believe in them. Give them the tools to grow, and have some fun and the loyalty will follow along with the profits.
“The primary rule of business success is loyalty to your employer. That’s all right as a theory. What is the matter with loyalty to yourself?” ~ Mark Twain, American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer.
