Personal and Corporate Loyalty

If you expect employees to have your back, you’d better have theirs

Editor’s note: This continues Jack Dunigan’s series about unsung heroes in the workplace, and the 16 traits they all share.

“You can buy a person’s hands but you can’t buy his heart. The heart is where enthusiasm and loyalty are.”
—Anonymous

You can’t build a team without team players. Experience teaches that those who hold a job solely for personal advancement will not be team players. They will, whenever the opportunity presents itself, choose personal gain over group gain.

Now, I am not so naïve as to think every person should be altruistic and self-sacrificing. I’m not even inferring that. I am, however, suggesting that there are associates who can balance personal ambition (not a bad thing) with team-building.

Loyalty manifests itself in two dimensions—personal and corporate.

Loyal associates are people who will have your back, not stab you in it. They are people in whom you can place complete confidence knowing they will do what is right for themselves and right for you.

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Comments

A daring column

Yes, Mr. Dunigan: in times when "everybody is looking for something", namely money, writing about loyalty, takes courage. The latin "do ut des" has been variously translated, not last the "trange frange" in Serbian language. Loyalty can neither be bought nor built: I recently wrote some lines on the subject "auditor of fortune", meaning that, more or less, we are all mercenary soldiers of the finance army - though often we don't realize it. Anatole France did. I believe in loyalty, indeed, my inner scars demonstrate it, were they visible. Being loyal is a costly merchandise nowadays: you put it onto your cart and you go to the market square; and there'll be always somebody approaching you and ask"what's the discount?" Thank you.

Loyalty

Jack, You just nailed it right. Interesting read and like the closing remarks "Loyalty indicates enthusiasm, that intangible source of energy and creativity that makes the entire machine work more efficiently and effectively. You can buy time and effort. You can rent cooperation. You can neither buy nor rent loyalty. It resides within the heart of a character-driven associate."

Thank you for the interesting article.

Regards,Sudarsan