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The Twin Faces of Loyalty
The “New Loyalty” at Work Is a Two-Way Street
Loyalty to whomever you work for is extremely important. The problem is—it is not the most important thing. When it comes to not admitting mistakes, or covering up, or not rectifying things just to save face . . . that’s a problem.
—Coleen Rowley, 24-year veteran FBI Agent, Testifying before the 9/11 Commission
I received the following letter recently from one of my readers:
Dear Nan:
My assistant challenged me to get your opinion through your column—so here goes.
I think a boss deserves unconditional loyalty, and my assistant disagrees with me. As a manager, I value loyalty above all else. In fact, loyalty is my simple definition of professionalism. None of our jobs are so tough that 100 other people could not do them. The only really special thing we bring to the table is our loyalty to each other because that is what inspires our team to be great performers.
Some call this chemistry; I call it loyalty. When one of us isn’t a saint and does something wrong or stupid, I believe loyalty trumps everything and you should do whatever it takes to protect each other.
—The Boss, Elburn, IL P.S. I promise no one will get fired because of this disagreement.
You can imagine the flood of mail I received in response to this missive! Loyalty is the up-close-and-personal aspect of the “new accountability” we explored in the previous chapter. As we assume an increasing amount of legal and other liabilities, we have ...
