not be self-centered . They don ' t pretend to listen and follow . They do it from their heart . They tune-in with their leader and try to clone themselves . Loyalty might develop intellectual complacency . The employee delegates the power to think and analyze to his leader .
Loyal Employees
Some employees work more than 12 hours a day , 6 days a week . They work not only on holidays but also during their leave time . Their canceled vacations outnumber their family vacations . Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took just a 2 day leave during his entire tenure of 10 years . Some employees are talented . They work smarter . They deliver results through an innovative approach , out of box thinking and risktaking ability .
Aspiration is the driving force behind employees who work hard and smart . Those who work harder or smarter want to grow faster . They want to achieve the positions and rewards in their thirties which earlier generations achieved in their fifties . They feel frustrated if their efforts are not recognized . They expect the words of appreciation to be backed up by annual increments , exgratia and higher opportunities . Those are their stimuli .
They have their agenda and ax to grind . ' What is in it for me ?' is their perspective towards any new thing . Transforming these aspirational employees into loyal employees poses a major challenge to the leadership .
Great organizations are built by sweat and blood . They need selfless contributions and sacrifices . Leaders have to make performers good team players . They have to develop loyalty for the organization , its mission and vision , and for the leadership too . Making loyal employees perform is equally difficult as making performing employees loyal .
Loyalty should be gravity that pulls everything towards the core . Mission and vision form the core . Loyal employees pull all resources , energies towards mission and vision . They make everything rotate around the core of the vision and mission .
Sycophancy Is Not Loyalty
Loyalty can breed sychophancy . Sycophancy is obsequious behavior towards someone important in order to gain an advantage . It is ' projected loyalty ' which is skin-deep . It is driven by the feeling of insecurity . It is the ' unidirectional relationship ' focusing on selfish interests . Sychophants turn tables easily . Their loyalty is to feed their narrow selfish interest . They intend to bend policies , processes and structure in their personal interest . Sycophancy can develop a parallel organizational structure that is virtual and can graft informal organization structure which develops like a parasite .
In a nutshell , leaders have to understand loyalty very well . They have to handle loyal employees with emotions and manage their expectations . Loyal employees must be recognized and duly rewarded . The organization culture must respect loyalty .
If not , loyalty can turn lethal for the organization . Sycophancy is not loyalty and it will only harm the team . Major leadership challenges are how to maintain the team dynamics which has a combination of loyal and new employees . Similarly , how to make performers loyal and loyal employees performers .
Prof . Dr . Ajit Patil was awarded ' Top Voice on LinkedIn - 2017 '. He is a Management Writer ; Marketing , Business Development & Retailing Consultant . He conducts Management Development Programmes ; trains & coaches Sales & Marketing teams . He has been teaching MBA students in India & overseas for over 20 years . He can be reached at : Ajitpatilmumbai @ yahoo . co . in .