Employee loyalty is a plural. Leadership is the host of that plurality, always an irrational mix

6 days to go until my live webinar. Book your seat! ^[1] I’ll be discussing leadership as a praxis…’no one is ever a leader, becoming one is the quest’ to mark the launch of my new leadership book: Camino – Leadership Notes on the Road. Joining me is Anett Helling ^[2], consultant in organization and leadership culture development and Jayne Lewis ^[3], leadership coach and organisational development practitioner.

 Webinar includes a Q&A. Plus 10 copies of Camino to giveaway.

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What should employees be loyal to? Ask an average leader: to the company, of course. Loyalty may be disguised. It may be called something else, perhaps commitment, dare I say a form of (here we go again) employee engagement. In any case, as in ‘engagement’, there is no point asking for ‘loyalty’ without more qualifications. But there is a lot of a point in understanding that plurality.

People in organizations are loyal to many things:

1. To a cause. It may be the company’s cause, or not. It may be an ideal cause that the company may not even have, but people pretend it’s there.
2. To people, friends, colleagues. Sometimes, this is a reason to stay in a job that is not satisfying or to prolong the agony of a dysfunctional working situation.
3. To a place. People may find it difficult to move offices, or sites. It’s quite irrational sometimes, but powerful. Place and space have high magnetic properties.
4. To a figure, a person, a leader, such as the CEO. Even if that CEO has perhaps never crossed a personal word with you.
5. To themselves, their own idea of life or how life should be. Once there, it may become sticky and irrational. You think you fit in, so you do.
6. To your cognitive dissonance. Which is to say to your mind being in charge and not accepting that you made the wrong decision, such as joining that company.
7. To a product or idea, or something to develop. Many people work in some R&D or, say, pharma companies, just because of one single idea or product to develop and put it on the market. It’s the cure of, not the company that is looking for it.

All loyalties are irrational. All loyalties are a choice. All you can do as leader is to host that rich and irrational plural and provide the conditions so that at least one of them has to do with the organization itself.

Customer loyalty has been studied at nauseam. It’s often overrated. Employee loyalty has been buried in other things such as engagement.

Loyalty, unsettles me. I have it as number one in my value set. I am not sure why. Oh, I know, I just said, its irrational. That’s why its so strong.

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6 days to go until my live webinar. Book your seat! ^[1] I’ll be discussing leadership as a praxis…’no one is ever a leader, becoming one is the quest’ to mark the launch of my new leadership book: Camino – Leadership Notes on the Road. Joining me is Anett Helling ^[2], consultant in organization and leadership culture development and Jayne Lewis ^[3], leadership coach and organisational development practitioner.

 Webinar includes a Q&A. Plus 10 copies of Camino to giveaway.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dr Leandro Herrero is the CEO and Chief Organization Architect of The Chalfont Project ^[4], an international firm of organizational architects. He is the pioneer of Viral Change^TM, a people Mobilizing Platform, a methodology that delivers large scale behavioural and cultural change in organizations, which creates lasting capacity for changeability.

Dr Herrero is also an Executive Fellow at the Centre for the Future of Organization, Drucker School of Management. An international speaker, Dr Herrero is available for virtual speaking engagements ^[5] and can be reached at: The Chalfont Project ^[6] or email: [email protected]. ^[7]