As leaders, we all want loyalty. The tough part is that to get loyalty you have to give loyalty.

I can’t (or…shouldn’t) ask you for something that I am not willing to give you. In the same way I can’t (or…shouldn’t) ask you to do something I am not willing to do myself.

Here is the issue with giving loyalty and conveying loyalty to your team – things change.

If you have been reading any of the blogs over the past month, then there is a common theme – change.

Whether it is evolution or revolution, change is necessary – especially for a business.

[You can read the previous blogs about why it’s necessary.]

Here is the scenario that happens:

“Team – we value all of you. You mean so much to us. We can’t succeed unless you succeed. So we are here to help and support you, so that you can help more customers win, which means you win, which means we as a business win.”

Everyone – hopefully – is on board, all heading the same direction…on the path of your mission/vision, embodying your core values.

Then the business leadership realizes something(s) must change for that successful trajectory to continue. It might not lead to the bottom performers being happy. Hopefully the right people will keep on winning.  But it’s not always a change people will like.

One part of you has been making the statements to the team of “we are loyal to you” – in some version of the words and actions you have historically taken. Then a change needs to be made. That change to the team will feel like “they only care about themselves (leadership/owners) and bottom-line profit – they don’t care about us.”

And with that they feel like the company is not loyal to them, only themselves.

This is where my concept of Marry The Vision, Date The Strategy is so critical.

The loyalty and trust that the team has in you, and you have in them is about the vision/mission. It’s about the destination that everyone is trying to reach. It’s not about the strategies and tactics that occur on the short-term basis. 

Loyalty is a great thing to have, but what is more important – and critical to focus on first (and then Loyalty will come) is trust.

Your team should trust the business and leadership. That trust should be focused on the success of the business, the success of the team, and the transparency of leadership to the team as to how things are going with the business, any challenges that are pending/forecasted or currently happening, and what necessary changes are coming up.

If the team trusts leadership to always have everyone’s best interest in mind – again, at least the team members who are onboard mentally and with their actions – then the loyalty will come.

First, they must understand the mission, vision and values.

Then you can earn their trust, by showing them that they can trust you with their livelihood – as long as they are putting in the work on their end.

Then they will be loyal.

At that point they will follow you, your leadership, and the company into and through whatever challenges come their way.

The repeated battle scenes in Braveheart (and the opening scene in the original Gladiator movie) didn’t just happen one day, where everyone decided to show up on the battlefield and fight to the death. No…it was a progression of vision, trust, and loyalty.

Where is your team at in that progression?