Loyalty is a virtue difficult to be practiced in the corporate world, for there is only loyalty when we remain true to ourselves. It depends on a series of factors rooted in childhood: the environment in which we were raised, our personal history and, above all, the values and principles adopted by our parents in the family.
Loyalty means being true to yourself. When this occurs, it becomes easier to adopt this virtue in the relationship with the other people around us. Unfortunately, because of the unbridled competition we experience in the corporate world, loyalty is second to none too easily when our ambition is unreasonable or we operate under pressure.
Loyalty is different from fidelity. The first requires, first of all, the truth with itself; the second also demands truth from the people with whom we relate. However, there is no loyalty without fidelity and vice versa, which is why the two virtues are difficult to practice.
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Being loyal to someone, to the country, or to a business means that you will never harm them, whatever. You can change your partner, position or company, but loyalty presupposes that the commitment is true to the end, otherwise the principles are impaired.
For several companies where I passed, I met few professionals capable of maintaining loyalty. The speech was good, however, loyalty fell to the ground in the first discussion with the boss or when, given the possibility of ascending to a new position, the opportunity was given to another. For many, loyalty ends on the day of dismissal, when the spirit of vengeance comes on the scene. What you defended for a long time becomes a motive for defamation.
In many cases disloyalty was justified by the confusion between values and principles, which leads to incorrect reasoning of a given situation. Things like ‘I earn little,’ ‘the company does not deserve my loyalty,’ ‘I will guarantee mine, the rest will screw up,’ or ‘if everybody does it because I can not do it’ was common.
The biblical maxim remains the same, after two thousand years: ‘You can not serve two masters at the same time.’ This is true for marital relationships, for friendships, and for work. However, we speak of the human being, subject to failures and deviations of any nature, hostage of the environment and misperceptions throughout his personal and professional experience, sensitive to the pressures of the world dominated by mistaken values.
Faced with the difficulties of mastering this special virtue, I want to share some lessons that allowed me to align values with my conduct wherever I went. Each person builds his or her own story and what counts for me may not be valid for others, however, as stated earlier, principles are non-negotiable.
In the corporate world, loyalty will be recognized in simple actions, such as: not speaking badly about the company and colleagues against others; defending colleagues and business through vicious comments; honor the commitment and the word assumed from the beginning; demonstrate interest and dedication to the company; remain faithful to the principles, regardless of the circumstances. There is no partial loyalty. You are loyal or not.
