Happy birthday Osoko!
The enigmatic governor of Ekiti State, the Apagunpote of Ado-Ekiti, Oshokomole, Mr. Peter Ayodele Fayose, turned 57 on Wednesday. An acquaintance of over 25 years, like him or hate him, just when you think he can be ignored, he comes up with something new that puts him perpetually in reckoning! May the years ahead of you be filled with strides greater than your steps! Now to today’s discourse.
Imagine that you were an employer and needed to hire a top-notch person to oversee sales in your organization. The CV of a First Class graduate of Harvard University who has achieved a string of career “successes” catches your fancy in a pile of applications. The snag? He has worked in five companies in three years and the longest he stayed in any was eight months. Would you go ahead and hire him?
I used to think that everyone who flew Business or First Class must have a lot of money, judging from the wide gap between fares in the Economy Class and the Business and First Classes. But more importantly, I wondered why anyone would want to spend so much on air travel. This category of people has a dedicated line for them at the checking-in counter, clear Immigration formalities ahead of everyone else, and proceed to nestle in a special lounge away from the generality of other passengers. But when I started qualifying for seat upgrades on my favourite airlines (depending on the route I am flying), I knew that all it takes for an average person who cannot afford to fly in one of those higher classes is to fly regularly for long enough with a particular airline to earn qualifying miles for an upgrade and to enjoy many of the highlighted privileges. In some cases, one could even opt to use his qualifying miles to buy a full Economy ticket and only pay the necessary taxes. However, all these privileges can only be possible if you are registered in an airline’s frequent flyer loyalty program! You do not enjoy the same privileges on a different airline that you have not significantly patronized or whose loyalty program you are not registered in. It is the reward you get for choosing a particular airline consistently over a protracted period on the routes covered by their operations.
Several chain stores have loyalty programs designed to confer certain benefits on their regular customers. Sometimes such benefits come in the form of a discount on all purchases or an accumulated point system that gives the customer the privilege of some free items along with their purchases. This is a way of rewarding consistency of patronage.
Corporate organizations reward loyal employees who have stayed longer with the establishment than their peers even when they could have left.
Loyalty is a virtue that we all desire in relationship with others. Husbands desire it from wives and vice versa. Employers require it from their employees. Nobody wants to keep company with those known to betray trust. Trust and loyalty go hand in hand. An ally or associate that cannot be trusted can hardly be expected to be loyal in the same way that a disloyal associate cannot be trusted.
Loyalty implies trustworthiness, faithfulness, devotion, fidelity, or allegiance to a cause, person, product or organization.
Loyalty is first a choice before it is a decision. It is impossible to talk of loyalty where there are no options. We choose to be loyal to a person, cause or product when our experience with them stands out in comparison with other alternatives of similar genre. When such a commitment is made, it is easy to turn one’s back on other options no matter how attractive.
No leader can succeed without loyal followers. However, loyalty is best commanded rather than demanded. When a leader insists on undeserved loyalty, his followers simply resort to eye service, which stretched further graduates into sycophancy. When that happens, such a leader is practically walking on banana peels.
Loyalty is usually borne out of a sense of obligation especially when the beneficiary of such loyalty has done a good deed that benefitted the loyalist. This is in the spirit of one good turn deserving another.
Loyalty could also be borne out of a sense of duty or assignment. An example would be a security detail who decides to take the bullet for his boss. Furthermore, it could sometimes be the result of an extended period of working in a particular organization. As indicated earlier, very often, loyalty is built around trust. When people have confidence in a product, they want to repeat a relationship experience with the brand.
Unfortunately, many leaders fail to realize that loyalty is a two-sided affair. The people we expect loyalty from also expect loyalty from us. There is more than ample evidence of leaders who use and dump followers. Such leaders set themselves up for big time trouble. When your followers or employees know that you have a reputation for not getting the backs of your followers in time of crisis, they will also have no qualms whatsoever in stabbing you in the back when the occasion arises. It is not proper to expect loyalty from people you have no intention of being loyal to. Customers who are loyal to a brand expect reciprocation from the producers of the brand. Unfortunately, that is not always what happens. Picture this. A bank customer who has operated accounts with a particular bank for an extended period of time and has always had a healthy balance suddenly finds himself in a situation where he needs a short-term overdraft facility pending an anticipated lodgment into his account. For no justifiable reason, the bank turns him down or requests collateral that is far in excess of the required credit. That is disloyalty on the part of the bank to that customer. When an establishment makes promises to its customers and does not deliver, that is disloyalty. When was the last time you called a customer or follower to felicitate with him on a birthday or special event in his life?
More often than not, leaders can hardly tell the difference between loyalty and sycophancy. Behind every sycophant is a hidden pecuniary agenda. That your followers always say what they know you like to hear is not a sign that they are loyal to you. Your real loyalists are the ones who can sit you down, look you in the face and tell you some home truths about yourself that sycophants would never dare to mention. Unlike sycophants, true loyalists come into a relationship with you, your cause or product not because they have any ulterior motives but because they chose you or your organization even when they could have gone elsewhere. So they always confront issues with genuine intentions and always with the best interests of the one they are loyal to at heart.
Before you demand loyalty from the people around you, ask yourself how loyal you are to anyone!
Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!
and then