Leadership and Loyalty
It is often said that people are not loyal to organizations, they are loyal to their direct supervisor. Many times when a good leader leaves an organization to move on to another organization, he/she takes at least one or two good employees along, because those employees have grown loyal to that boss - not necessarily to the organization. They respect that boss and have a great relationship with him/her. The boss stays in tune to the changing needs of each individual employee, gaining his or her trust and loyalty. That is a true sign of a great leader. Discuss a leader with whom you are familiar that has the loyalty of his or her direct reports to the point that the reports are more loyal to the leader than they are to the organization. What are some of the techniques this leader uses to earn and maintain this type of loyalty from his or her employees? If you were in a leadership position, what would you do to ensure that your employees were loyal to you and that they stayed motivated by you?