“Loyalty is dead, the experts proclaim, and the statistics seem to bear them out. On average, U.S. corporations now lose half their customers in five years, half their employees in four, and half their investors in less than one. We seem to face a future in which the only business relationships will be opportunistic transactions between virtual strangers.”
–Frederick F. Reichheld
The Workforce Doesn’t Need More Lapdogs
We all know how loyal dogs are– unconditional love is what they’re all about. In fact, we often wish and wonder why people can’t be more like lovable canines. Who knows, maybe if we were, there would be a lot less hate in the world. Well, I’m here to tell you that isn’t so!
Hachiko: The Screwed Pooch
Not only do loyal people get walked upon like a doormat, even loyal dogs get screwed. I refer you to the story of Hachiko, an Akita who lived in Japan. He walked with his owner every morning to Tokyo’s Shibuya Station, licked him ‘good bye’ and sent him off to work. Loyal and trusty Hachiko would sit on the cold and rainy (and sometimes snowy) train platform and wait all day for his owner to return from work—anticipating their long walk home together. Hachiko and his owner relived this routine every day for two years. One day his owner suffered a massive heart attack and died at work, he obviously never returned home on the evening train. Loyal Hachiko, sat and waited all night, and into day break, for he just knew his owner would come home soon.
Day after day, Hachiko returned to the station at 6am, and waited at the spot where he last saw his owner. Most days, he would sit in the rain and snow from sun up to sun down—waiting for his beloved owner. Nine years later, while patiently and loyally waiting for his owner to return, Hachiko died on the very same spot he last saw his owner, near the steps of the Shibuya Station. He no doubt died of a broken heart. Some citizens of Tokyo, who recalled seeing Hachiko sitting alone in the snow over the years, erected a bronze statue in honor of the loyal pooch.
What Loyalty Gets You
My question is, why the (bleep) didn’t someone adopt the (bleepin’) dog instead of letting him roam the streets for 10 years? I’ll tell you why: Because if someone had adopted him, and removed him from that neighborhood, the thousands of spectators of this remarkable display of loyalty would have lost a front row seat to their nine-year freak-show. In other words, loyalty gets you honorably kicked to the curb; in Hachiko’s case, literally and figuratively.
Case Study: Loyal Lester
My ex-client Lester is loyal and easy going but it gets him second-class treatment. Every time some sort of change in company policy or procedure comes down the road, those who are not loyal to his boss begin their smear tactics. They gripe, moan, spread rumors and complain about our boss’s leadership style. Then, in the heat of the fury, while all of the hornets our stirred from the hive, those who are disloyal, converge on his boss and “cry” to her in unison. To make the pain go away, she gives them exactly what they want. In fact, there has not been one instance where they haven’t gotten their way.
Predicability is his Fatal Flaw
But Loyal Lester, he confides in his boss and explains to her what is happening. He tells her how he even tries to stop the rumors, gossip and slander about her. In fact, he has taken many “bullets” for her over the years—she doesn’t acknowledge it because she doesn’t see it. All she sees is the negative vitriol from those who want to dethrone her. Loyal Lester, like a trusty guard dog, barks about all of the dangers around her and growls when the trespassers come near, but his boss pays no attention. Instead, she believes Loyal Lester is Chicken Little and is worrying over nothing. As a result, when the complainers and the moaners and the deceitful dethroners get everything they want and more, Loyal Lester is the one who is stuck with the crappy responsibilities that they all successfully avoided.
Loyal Lester is the one who gets nothing in the departmental reorganization. Loyal Lester often gets overlooked for promotions. Loyal Lester is the Screwed Pooch. Why? Because he is so trustworthy, so predictable, so unassuming, so easy-going. He’s a quintessential teammate who will sacrifice himself, his needs, his career for the good of the group. And that, my dear reader, is his downfall. Even his boss, for whom he is eternally loyal and faithful believes that his intense trustworthiness is a fault.
Never Confuse Loyalty with Friendship
The opening quote mentioned that “business is an opportunistic venture between strangers” or that in the future it will be. This seems to be true because it is extremely difficult and rare to mix the loyalty of friendship or even the loyalty of teammates with the lusty and alluring ventures of business. Case in point, I give you a quote by Cassius in Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar:
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
Loyal = Gullible
I would take Cassius’ quote one step further and say, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in our LOYALTY, that we are underlings.” It wasn’t until Brutus killed Caesar and said, “It is not that I didn’t love Caesar less, but I love Rome more.” that he was freed from the chains and obligations of loyalty. Julius Caesar and Hachiko were too gullible, too loyal. Even though they had hundreds of people around them, literally watching them die a death of deceit and disrespect, they stayed loyal to the end. And now they both have statues to remind us of their gullible and erroneous ways.