What Does it Mean to be Loyal at Work? Loyal to Who? And Loyal to What?
Loyalty at work – but to who or what?
I had a beautiful dog named Eeyore years ago. Eeyore was half black Labrador retriever, half Bernese mountain, and half stubborn (there’s a reason he was named Eeyore), but he was the most loyal dog you could imagine.
Loyalty is a trait we greatly admire in dogs, friends, and partners, but what does it truly mean to be loyal to an organization? And to whom or what do we expect employees to be loyal?
Defining what it does and doesn’t mean to be loyal is an important part of this conversation. Too often we confuse loyalty with blind agreement. We are sometimes told by leaders that to disagree with a decision is to be disloyal to them or to the company.
Now, I’m not suggesting that it’s acceptable for employees to publicly dump on your company whenever they don’t agree with a decision, or to endlessly whine about a decision after it’s been made.
However, if you are going to create a culture where everyone’s voices are valued in the hopes of getting to the best possible ideas and answers, employees need to understand that they are not being disloyal when they speak up, offer a different opinion, or challenge an assumption.
Imagine a scenario where a decision is being made that appears to go against one of your core values, that will damage your relationship with your customers, or, worse, violate a safety or environmental law. In those scenarios, isn’t speaking up the most loyal thing an employee can do and, in fact, a sign that you’ve trained and coached them well?
So, have an honest conversation about what it means to be loyal. Are employees expected to be loyal to their boss, team, the values of your company, your customers, or to your community?
The upshot of having these conversations is that, by doing so, you’ll foster more passionate loyalty from your employees!
(A proven way to increase loyalty at work is to hold regular check-in conversations with employees. For a list of check-in questions, hop on over to The Power of Check-in Conversations.
What do you think? What does loyalty look like for you? Have you ever been accused of being disloyal at work? Please leave a comment, questions or idea below!
Kno
wn as “The Workplace Energizer!” Michael Kerr is a Canadian Hall of Fame keynote speaker on workplace culture, workplace culture leadership, and humor in the workplace. Michael Kerr is the author of nine books, including Small Moments, Big Outcomes: How Leaders Create Cultures That Fuel Extraordinary Results. Michael is known as one of the most entertaining, humorous, and insightful keynote speakers on workplace culture and leadership in Canada.
“By far, Michael Kerr was the best speaker we ever had.” Rod Smith, VP Business Development, Century Vallen
