Is Loyalty Dead?

When I saw recently where Tiger Woods had fired his caddie of twelve years, I started thinking about the concept of loyalty. Is it disappearing from business and personal relationships? There are those who argue that indeed it’s long gone, as anachronistic and outdated as a music store.

Several years ago, I had an opportunity to visit a Midwest-based company who had been awarded a prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Over an hour’s presentation, the company’s manufacturing representative made a point of mentioning (and then twice repeating) the fact that “loyalty in business is dead.” I wondered why he embraced such a notion, so I raised my hand.

Me: “Are you married?”
Him: “Yes.”
Me: “Have you ever played on a sports team?”
Him: “Yes.”
Me: “Were you ever in the armed forces?”
Him (proudly): “Yes, Army airborne.”
Me: “Do you force your employees to wear those blue t-shirts, the ones with the company logo?”
Him: “No, of course not.”
Me: “Doesn’t it demonstrate some degree of loyalty that they wear those shirts?”
Him: “Not really.”
Me: “If they wore your chief competitor’s t-shirt, would you consider that disloyal?”
Him (smiling): “They can wear whatever they want.”
Me: “Isn’t the business world really just a cluster of personal relationships, not unlike relationships in marriage or sports teams or military units?”
Him: “I suppose so, yeah.”
Me: “Then do you really buy that drivel about loyalty being dead in business?”
Him (pausing): “Yep, it just doesn’t exist anymore.”

Okay, so we disagree. And I understand that companies can’t promise lifetime or unconditional employment anymore, given the cutthroat, global competition that predominates today. I also understand that companies will sometimes discard loyal and often older, better compensated employees without a moment’s hesitation when the “downsizing” occurs. The most successful companies, however, who care deeply about their brand and their growth and their ability to attract, develop, and then retain good people, also care deeply about those people. Is that an aspect of loyalty? I think so, yeah.

Cantor Fitzgerald lost 658 of its employees, or two-thirds of its workforce, in the September 11, 2001 attack upon the World Trade Center. On September 12, the company committed itself to somehow rebuilding its business, almost from scratch. The firm made a pledge to distribute 25 percent of the firm's profits for the next five years, along with paying for ten years of health care, for the benefit of those 658 families. Is that an aspect of loyalty? Sure looks that way to me.

Lots of marriages still stay together; Marines and soldiers still selflessly throw themselves on grenades to save their buddies; companies spend large sums developing their employees and making contributions to their respective communities; not all golfers fire their longtime caddies.

Is loyalty dead? No, of course not. It’s MIA sometimes, but it’s certainly not dead. After all, who would want to live in a world where there’s no loyalty, or no blue t-shirts with the company logo?

The State of American Politics

It’s hard to think of a more corrupting occupation than American politics. While it’s by no means an illegal activity, as opposed to, say, operating a meth lab or running guns to Mexico, it nevertheless seems to systematically corrupt otherwise good men and women of stature and accomplishment.

Our system has, in the past 235 years, produced political leaders who have provided able national leadership during times of war, of economic strife, of civil unrest, and of growth and regeneration. But something’s not right in our body politic. Its ability to produce leaders of quality has been severely diminished. Ironically, the world-class quality of our made-in-America products and services has risen steadily and inexorably over the last quarter century; ironically, too, the quality of our elected leaders has deteriorated steadily and inexorably over the same period. Or so it seems to me. We have philanderers and exhibitionists, bribe seekers and bribe takers, money launderers and sexual predators. We have a political class who has to beg for money virtually every day to keep their jobs. We have behavior from high elected officials that is routinely unethical, often immoral, and sometimes outright illegal. And then they have the nerve to complain about the political scruples of the Iraqi and Afghan pols.

We’ve always had our share of rascals in political life. I get that. And I realize our real-time, right-now, 24/7 news cycle exposes more of the underside of American life than ever before, to include political shenanigans. But heretofore we’ve always been able to produce political leaders to meet the challenges of the times. Someone has traditionally always stepped forward and led. Washington, Lincoln, TR, FDR, Truman, JFK, Reagan.

So where are they now? I can’t find any already in national office, and I’m looking hard, believe me. Oh, maybe there’s a leader in the military or private enterprise or state government who could provide quality leadership at the national level, but how long before they would be corrupted by special interests or re-election demands or the hyper partisanship or simply the arrogance that comes with raw power? And why would anyone in their right mind want to enter such a profession nowadays, what with the all-intrusive scrutiny and the pettiness and the begging and butt-kissing that go with it?

Bit of a conundrum, huh? Many good and talented Americans just stay away. And who can blame them? Those who do seek office seem to have to sell their souls to gain the office, only to be corrupted once there, choked, swallowed, and digested by a relentless, boa-like system. Not always, but seemingly often enough. And that is, if they weren’t corrupt to begin with. Those moths have always been attracted to the bright lights.

So where’s the leadership? Where’s the competence? Where’s the integrity?

Beats me. I wish I had a solution. But I don’t. Just like you, I’ll keep watching. And listening. And waiting.

And hoping.