What Happened to Loyalty?

One of the words I often hear when leaders are describing the kind of people they want to have in their company is “loyal”. I also have heard the word in the context of losing customers who had been “loyal” to the company for years.

It’s painful to lose employees or customers you have expended time, money and other resources to develop. It’s easy to blame the employee or customer and charge them with a character defect, to say they lack loyalty when in fact, that isn’t true.

People are loyal to what they care about. If your employee or customer doesn’t care about what you care about, they will leave you and connect with someone who aligns with their values. Expecting something else just sets you up for disappointment.

If you want to experience loyalty from employees and customers, clearly define and make sure people understand what you value most. That will make it easy for those who share your values to align themselves with you.