I’m ever surprised at where the inspiration for the Weekly Thoughts come from.
This week Ross and I were watching a series called “Shantaram” on Apple TV. It was based on the book by the same name and means “Man of Peace”.
There was a scene where two very powerful women were testing each other out with their words.
Asking about a man that one of the women was close to, the other asked, “Are you in love with him?”
To which, she replied, “No, but I am loyal to him.”
“Ah,” replied the questioner.
“There are only 3 reasons why people are loyal:
- They are in love
- They are afraid
- They feel obligated, so, if you are not in love, then you must be afraid or obligated?”
Dictionary.com defines Loyalty as, “the state or quality of being loyal; faithfulness to commitments or obligations. faithful adherence to a sovereign, government, leader, cause, etc.”
I don’t know about you, but I’ve not thought about this before and the exchange got me thinking.
Many of my clients view loyalty as a very important trait in employees.
In fact, we can measure a person’s loyalty with the Integrity and Values profile that I use for recruitment and/or coaching purposes.
The description for someone who is loyal according to Integrity and Values is, “Committed to the organisation; prepared to put personal needs or goals to one side; does what is required of them – not just what they want to do or what will be good for their career.”
According to Integrity and Values research, Loyalty is one of the 5 most important values both employers and employees want to see in the workplace.
It goes both ways. Employers want loyal employees and employees want leaders who are loyal to them and “have their backs”.
Based on this little exchange in the TV show, I’m now looking more deeply at the concept of loyalty because it would distress me to think that employees, in particular, say they are loyal and yet are really afraid.
What do you think?
Is this something worth discussing with your team?
What is your definition of loyalty and is it an important trait for you?
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