The Value of Loyalty

By Deb Boelkes

I usually hear a resounding “YES!” whenever I ask a business leader or military officer whether loyalty is important in the workplace.

Yet, I find some leaders to be more focused on customer loyalty than employee loyalty. They rationalize that loyal customers spend more money over the long term and therefore offer greater long-term value. This may explain why some companies spend fortunes on customer loyalty programs—to incent customers to feel good about purchasing their brand.

But have you ever heard of companies spending fortunes on employee loyalty programs?

It has been my experience that the most impactful customer loyalty programs are organic. Organic customer loyalty costs little because it is the result of consistent interactions with enthusiastically loyal employees who love where they work. Happy, loyal employees naturally share their “lovin’ feelin’s” with customers who, in turn, become enthusiastically loyal to your brand.

Too often when I ask leaders, “What do you do to instill loyalty in your employees?” I get blank stares. They don’t know what to say. Instead, they express bewilderment that employees just aren’t loyal like they used to be. If this is indeed so, could it have something to do with their own lack of showing employees that they care about them? 

In the first book that Dr. Mark Goulston and I collaborated on, The WOW Factor Workplace: How to Create a Best Place to Work Culture we interviewed Paul Spielgelman, founder and former CEO of BerylHealth—a company which won nine “Best Place to Work” awards and was voted the #2 “Best Medium-Sized Company to Work for in America.” As a premium provider that charged 30% to 40% more than its next closest competitor, Paul understands the value of instilling loyalty in employees. “Our customers not only were willing to pay for that, but they valued the culture we created because it meant something to them. They knew we were going to be doing a better job for them.”

Paul continued, “What’s interesting, and I can’t get my arms around, is why leaders don’t see this connection. Why financials tend to drive decision-making versus putting people first, letting that drive customer loyalty, letting that drive profit. It’s something I called over the years, ‘the circle of growth.’ If we focus first and foremost on employees, that’s going to drive customer loyalty. It’s going to drive profit that we’ll invest back in our people, giving them better tools and resources to do their jobs.”

Paul went on to share how focusing on employees creates value: “If we gave them a great environment, if we let them have some fun, if we showed we cared about them when they had an event in their life that was important to them (a birth, a death), if we helped them and showed we were interested in them as a person, they would do anything for us. It created tremendous loyalty. They worked harder and did more for our business.”

I love to ask employees what their favorite leader did to earn their loyalty. Todd Wilcox, Chairman of Patriot Defense Group and decorated combat veteran shared this story in our second book, Heartfelt Leadership: How to Capture the Top Spot and Keep on Soaring: “There’s I.Q. and there’s emotional intelligence—EQ. It’s the ability to empathize with people. A battalion commander I had in Desert Storm was very instrumental in imprinting upon me some of that EQ, understanding how people think before you to try to lead them.”

Todd explained, “He was almost that grandfatherly type. At the time I was twenty, or in my twenties, and he was probably in his forties. But he had that kind of grandfatherly leadership style, which was harsh when he needed to be, soft when he needed to be. You didn’t want to disappoint him. I did better because I didn’t want to disappoint this individual.”

A friend of mine shared this story of how he came to have a life-long loyalty to a group of five men—all because they dared to do the right thing for him at a time when there was nothing in it for them, yet they did it anyway: “Early in my leadership experience, I learned that we have many opportunities in life to build stronger bonds and instill greater loyalty in an employee. Some situations may seem inconsequential; some may be average, everyday occurrences; and a few may turn out to make an extraordinary impact. This is one example that had a huge effect on me.”

He continued, “When my paperwork for promotion in the US Army Reserve was left languishing on someone’s desk for far too long, I casually mentioned the annoyance to three of the more experienced men I worked with in my civilian job. All were old enough to be my father. I knew they were in the Reserves and would likely understand my frustration.  

“What I didn’t know was their military rank.  All three of them were Colonels. On my behalf, they contacted two General officers in the regional Reserve Command, where our US Army Reserve Center was located. These two General officers, three Colonels, and one very scared junior officer (me) with an infant son in tow, drove to the nearby Army Fort. Together we walked right up to the very desk upon which my dust laden application for promotion was still laying, unreviewed. 

“From the time we walked in until the time we walked out—with approval attained—was nine minutes. The guy staffing that desk was just not pushing my application for promotion through, even though it detrimentally affected a real person, me. Shortly thereafter, that office changed leadership. The new command began tracking the amount of time each promotional file was in the office. I expect promotions were addressed more quickly after that.

“One of the Generals who served as my advocate that day had been a WWII war hero in Italy. He even had a state park named after him. I will never forget his act of kindness—his heartfelt leadership—nor will I forget the efforts of the other four senior officers.  And I will not forget the fact that our Commanding General even held my baby son while I went to the restroom. 

“From that point on, those five guys had my unrelenting loyalty, both at work in civilian life and in the US Army Reserves.  And all they did was the right thing. What an incredible lesson in heartfelt leadership that was for me—one I’ve strived to pay forward ever since.”

I’m guessing my friend would do anything for these men to this day. I’ll bet Todd Wilcox would do anything for his former Battalion Commander to this day. And I have no doubt that Paul Spiegelman’s former employees feel the same way about him.

Such dedication can last a lifetime. That is the value of loyalty.

If you have a story about loyalty in the workplace, I’d love to hear it. Connect with me here.