BenAnyan.com

Look, let’s be honest. The company you work for is in it for the money. It may feel like a family with a rich culture but when push comes to shove the company will ultimately look out for its interest. The company will do whatever it must to stay profitable. It may take very hard decisions to safeguard its interest. It’s not personal it is the way it is.

One of the most important lessons I have learnt in the corporate world is; nothing is personal. You are as influential as you are valuable to the business interest. The sooner you get this, the earlier you stop letting emotions cloud your judgment. When you throw emotions out, it goes with that sense of entitlement that contaminates your work ethic when you don’t get something you expect.

Loyalty is a good thing. It gives the assurance that you are reliable, that you will be there through thick and thin, that you can see the bigger picture beyond current misgivings. Unfortunately loyalty is very easy to exploit. You must make sure that an emotionally intelligent employer isn’t cunningly using your loyalty against you. Employers are very good at this, but that’s to be expected because it’s in their business’ interest. It doesn’t make them bad. In fact it makes them good at their job description. Remember, it’s not personal. They are not running a charity. It is in their interest to make sure that ultimately XYZ Ltd. Wins.

You Are A Business

What you need to do is to consider yourself as a business entity. You are the CEO of ABC Inc. You are the best person to look out for your interest. Don’t be foolish about this because your employers wont. A deal is great to the extent that it delivers on the mutual interests of both parties. To what extent is your loyalty serving you? Not just today, but in the long term?

In fact, it is critical to have a long-term perspective when navigating the loyalty curve. Thinking long term will allow some things that would have otherwise been unwise to make sense in the short term. If you know what you’re ultimately gunning for, it’s okay to play the fool for now. It’s okay to give your all for less than your worth. You know that value shouldn’t always be calculated on monetary terms, so even though you don’t feel well paid, consider the extra value working in your current company gives you now and later.

It is critical to have a long-term perspective when navigating the loyalty curve.

Things like the opportunity to understudy a talented boss, interact with clients, witness the business ramifications of daily decisions, learning to work with others, learning from others, negotiation skills, being part of strategic business planning, being part of a good cause, lessons from mistakes, corporate politics, grape vine mechanics, rudiments of office romance, etc. are all valuable courses in the MBA of life and must be considered in drawing your personal P&L. These considerations may make you stay somewhere everyone is leaving, but you know your end game, you know what you’re after and so long as you’re getting value, be loyal.

Killed By Loyalty

Don’t be hasty, don’t be impulsive, be very cool-headed and calculated in all this and be sure to enjoy the ride with all its ups and downs.

What you shouldn’t do is let blind loyalty lead you to ‘net-shortchange’ yourself. For example, you’re working for company A who is rivals with company B. Your company ‘loathes’ Company B. They steal your clients and bite at your market share. They are the jerks that keep screwing your company over. After a while, they approach you with an amazing offer by all standards (over and beyond money) and you spit in their faces because they are ‘your enemy.’

Be the biggest winner of your loyalty!!

My brother, YOU don’t have an enemy; your employer has a competitor. Don’t make the mistake of passing on an opportunity because you were fighting your employers’ fight for them. If in considering all the factors it makes more sense to stay in company A, then they are incidental winners of your loyalty. If your decision to be loyal to company A will ultimately serve your interest –even in the next 5 years- more than moving to Company B, then heck yeah, be loyal! But by all means whether now or in the future, be the biggest winner of your loyalty!!

Be thorough in your analysis, but don’t confuse the company’s business Commencement Certificate for your birth certificate; you are two separate entities and it is not personal! I have seen too many people living a less quality of life than they could because of unprofitable loyalty to a profitable company.

Don’t let that be your story. Be the winner. Win in such a way that the companies you work for will benefit immensely from your value. Be indispensable wherever you work. Be loyal too, but above all to the you of 10 years to come. It is called mutually beneficial loyalty.

PS: Originally written in Feb 2019 @ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-loyal-should-you-your-employer-benjamin-anyan/

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