Coaching Tip: The Loyalty Trap
Category: Coaching Secrets (CS193)Originally Submitted on 11/26/99.
Introduction
One area where CEOs and executives with
hire-and-fire capabilities may have a blind spot is when
it comes to personal loyalty to employees with whom
they have a long history. This is an area where a
coach can be of great help, but s/he also needs to use
diplomacy.
The Coaching Tip
Loyalty is a wonderful quality. However, unqualified
loyalty to an individual who is not beneficial to the
organization can be a major weakness in that it is
harmful to all concerned, and extremely damaging to
corporate morale.Certainly compassion demands that employees be
given the opportunity to correct problems, or time to
work through personal issues. However, if, over time,
there is no improvement, then the chief must also be
persuaded to consider loyalty to those other employees
who suffer because of the incompetence, or perhaps
lack of integrity, of their colleague.To tolerate someone being a bottleneck or roadblock in
corporate progress is to allow them to become more
important than whatever is the mission of the
organization.Perhaps the CEO/client can come to see that people
who are a weak link in the chain of an organization do
not benefit from this loyalty. They usually know that
they are not performing their duties competently, and
they often spend their days endeavoring not to disturbed
the person on whose loyalty their position depends.
Better that they be turned loose to find a position where
they can feel competent, and where they will feel free to
grow, rather than spend the rest of their career walking
on egg-shells so as to preserve a position for which
they are not truly appropriate.
About the Submitter
This piece was originally submitted by Diana Robinson, PhD, Personal Development Coach, who can be reached at Diana@ChoiceCoach.com, or visited on the web. Diana Robinson wants you to know: My coaching focuses on personal growth, which inevitably results in greater happiness and fulfillment, however YOU choose to define these words. To learn more, and/or to subscribe to either/both of my two e-mail free newsletters, please visit my web site. I also offer you the gift of a half-hour of free coaching by phone, with no obligation.
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