Loyalty

Loyalty is both ways. First Top to Bottom then, Bottom to Top.

Genuine Loyalty is born when the Top is loyal to the Bottom. That’s why great Leaders of the past understood this, they fill what Stephen Covey calls the ‘Emotional Bank Account’ of their subordinates, this is the greatest route to earning the Loyalty & Trust of your downlines. No matter what you do to the them, your several withdrawals from that account will not shake their loyalty to you. Watch what Jesus did to Mary & Martha when Lazarus died. Or the woman accused of adultery, who presumedly followed Him till death faithfully . Or Peter when he toiled all night, caught nothing then he received a boat sinking miracle, and when Jesus healed his mother-in-Law; you will understand why Peter was ready to kill at the arrest of Jesus.

There’s a story I want to tell you: Once upon a time there lived a king. Whenever any of his servants would do something to displease him, he would feed them to a pack of wild dogs that he kept in a special cage. Now this king had a servant who had served his master loyally for 10 years. One day this servant did something to displease the king, so the king ordered that he be fed to the wild dogs. “I served you for ten years and this is what I get in return? Please, give me ten days respite, then feed me to the dogs,” the servant begged the king. The king agreed. The servant then went to the keeper of the wild dogs and asked if he could help him take care of the dogs for the next ten days. The keeper was baffled, but agreed. So for the next ten days, the servant served the dogs. He fed them, bathed them and played with them. He took them out for exercise, stroked them and spoke kind words to them. When the ten days were up, the king arrived to witness his servant being thrown to the dogs. But when the servant was thrown into the cage, something unexpected happened… When the servant was thrown into the cage full of wild dogs, instead of tearing him to shreds, the dogs gathered round him and began to lick him. The king was surprised at this sight so he asked what had happened to his dogs. The servant replied. “I served these dogs for only ten days, yet they never forgot what I did for them. But I served you for ten years, and you forgot all of that at my first mistake.” Upon hearing this, the king realised his mistake and set the servant free. I served these dogs for only ten days, yet they never forgot what I did for them. But I served you for ten years, and you forgot all of that at my first mistake. The moral of the story is: always remember the acts of kindness done to you and never forget the good that people have done for you, even if it was only on a single occasion. (Story culled from Babra Ahmed)

A Subordinate becomes loyal to the Top when he perceives that the Top will be loyal to him. With that assumption he is devoted to the cause and to the person. No wonder the subordinate gets shocked when situation presents itself and his expectation is cut off by the way you treat him. But if you have filled his emotional bank account, your harsh treatment will mean nothing to him, because he will be willing to forgive you as if nothing happened. When you demand loyalty, you will end up with fair weather followers, that will abandon you at the slightest whiff of something better. Genuine loyalty is earned not commanded. Loyalty automatically follows a good & genuine leader who understands how to fill someone’s emotional bank account.

Everyone is a leader - no matter where you are in life, always look out for those looking up to you and ensure their emotional bank account is saturated and you will have genuine followers behind you. People that will be ready to die for you, Jesus’ disciples, died for the cause of spreading the gospel because of their loyalty. An animal usually associated with loyalty are dogs 🐶. They are very loyal. Their loyalty is born out of how you treat them. I had a dog once, an Alsatian, his name is Lynx. Before I go to school those days, I wake up very early around 5a.m and cycle for 3-4miles. One of those days, he joined me and because it was still dark, I kept asking him to go back home because I knew I was going to cycle on the motorway and I didn’t want the trucks to knock him down but he insisted. As I got to the edge of the motorway I sternly asked him to go back and he did but by the time i got back home, he wasn’t home and he never came home. I searched and searched for him and constantly looked out for him but that day was the last I saw Lynx. I was sad at the loss but his loss taught me a lesson on loyalty.

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