How Loyal are You as a Leader?
There’s a lot of talk about employee loyalty but not a lot of leader loyalty to team members. A recent incident involving an irate and borderline abusive client got me thinking. How loyal am I to my team members?
Willingness to Walk Away from Money
The customer is not always right! Contrary to popular belief, there are situations where the customer is downright rude, unable to regulate their emotions and hurl abuse at your team even when your employees are not at fault. Are you willing to confront the behaviour and risk losing the client? This is the test of loyalty to your team. I’ll admit that in the early years I bought in to the notion that the client was always right. I’m embarrassed to admit it but I always appeased the client and apologized even if it risked implying that my team member was in the wrong when they weren’t. Having been in business for twenty years, I’ve seen the majority of client interactions be smooth and positive. I’ve also seen people who were actually “BSC” (Bat @#$% crazy) lash out in inappropriate ways. They’ve brought their low level of emotional intelligence and self-awareness to challenges and mistreated my people. My team is my everything and so I’m pleased to say that now, I confront that behaviour even if it means jeopardizing the account.
Core Values Need to be Congruent
You see, its not about the money, it’s about being congruent with your core values as a leader. If I tell my team that I respect them and do my best to show up as a role model, yet tolerate a client who is disrespectful to them, I’m not living my truth. If I value ownership and expect it from my team but allow others to place blame and not own their role in a situation, all for the sake of saving an account and the mighty dollar, I’m not congruent. I’m aware that my team is always watching that what I say and do align, and I hope that it speaks volumes and they see me living to my values.
Assume the Best Intentions from Your People
I would consider myself to be a fairly optimistic, glass-half-full type of gal, however I’ll fill you in on a dark secret. When something goes wrong, I’ve had a tendency in the past to assume the worst intentions! It’s something that I’m working on in an intentional way to show up as a strong and more loyal leader. This means that when the ball gets dropped, I assumed that every effort was made from my team to make the situation right. They did everything in their power to control what they could. If the report is late, I assume that my team member saw an important and urgent task that demanded their immediate attention vs. thinking that they were lazy or complacent. Loyal leaders assume the best intentions from their team!
Keep Details in the Vault!
Having your team member’s back, providing a safe space for them to work, which may include protecting them from belligerent interactions and assuming that they’re doing their best, are all great ways to display loyalty to your team. The last and critically important point would be to fiercely protect their privacy. One of the fastest ways to break trust with someone on your team is to break confidentiality. I’ve been purposefully working on deepening trust with team members by treating our interactions and discussions worth of the vault. I’m privy to private information and you will be too during coaching and one-to-one discussions. Build trust by keeping confidentiality. One simple way to do so when something is on the tip of your tongue is to ask “Is this my story to tell”. And if not, stop yourself dead in your tracks. Bonds with your team with strengthen, they will see you, not only as a cheerleader and quarterback, but as a trustworthy confident.
All of this said, as leaders we need to evaluate if we’re showing up in the same fiercely loyal way that we expect from our team members. As always, we would love to hear your views on leadership loyalty and thoughts on this topic! For a fantastic talk on building deeper relationships, listen to Brene Brown’s talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuzXTQGFsOw
