Want Gen Y employees to be loyal?
How about Gen X employees?
Or for that matter, your executive staff—would you like to have their loyalty?
I know: what about your customers? Is their loyalty important to you?
Yes?
Then drop the customer satisfaction/employee engagement survey crap and do the one thing that everyone around you wants you, the leader, to do: show some backbone. Have the courage to face the real issues, stop letting yourself being bullied into taking the expedient way out, stop refusing to admit your mistakes, and stop blaming others when you decide to cop out from making the tough call.
Got sued by someone looking for a payday? Find a lawyer who’s not terrified of going to court, stop with the back and forth motions and financial analyses that are designed to scare you into paying more fees to wuss attorneys so they can file even more papers and avoid admitting that they cannot, in fact, try a case, and BRING ON THE TRIAL! (Need help finding a corporate lawyer who can try a case? Get a criminal lawyer. Business is easy to learn. Arguing a case is not.)
Got a manager with a personality problem? Acknowledge it, as well as the fact that the manager is so good at what he does that you’re willing to tolerate the problems as a cost of getting the goods. Acknowledge it to the individual, and then to the rest of your staff. OPENLY.
You make money by being a “fast follower” in the industry? STOP TELLING PEOPLE YOUR ORGANIZATION PRIZES INNOVATION.
Got a high potential program? TELL PEOPLE ABOUT IT… RUN A COMPANY, NOT A SECRET SOCIETY.
Got disloyal people? LOOK IN THE MIRROR AND ASK, “WHAT AM I DOING THAT IS MAKING PEOPLE LEAVE?” Because sure as God put little green apples on this earth, that turnover is FEEDBACK ABOUT YOUR PERFORMANCE.
A little bit of courage goes a long way to build loyalty. You know why? Because courage is so rare that when people come across it in a leader, they stick with that leader. Forever.
