The issue of loyalty has been trending on social media recently with many using it as an opportunity to cast aspersions on leaders. Others may be wondering whether the concept of loyalty is good or bad.
Being loyal is more than a virtue. It is about being faithful, unwavering, dependable and remaining constant in our beliefs. Being a Dean and a lecturer in the university, I want to throw more light on the Loyalty concept and its importance for organisational growth.
One important way of accessing the importance of Loyalty is that it is very easy to recognize the absence of it – CHAOS. When there is no loyalty in an organisation, what you have is confusion and anarchy.
Oxford Learners Dictionary defines loyalty as the quality of being constant, or faithful in your support of somebody or something. It is therefore, a cardinal attribute that enables a leader to entrust others with authority or responsibility and be able to predict the outcome.
The Bible describes God as FAITHFUL, which clearly shows that God Himself is Loyal and expects believers to be loyal. 1 Corinthians 4:2 “Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful”. Faithfulness or loyalty is thus, the principal qualification that is expected of leaders and servants of God. God is constant – the same yesterday, today and forever.
Nature also teaches us about the essence of loyalty or faithfulness. For instance, the sun constantly rises from the east and sets in the west. Life, death and air are also constant. Thus, there is nothing wrong with loyalty or faithfulness.
During a recent personal branding workshop, we were required to complete a simple exercise by requesting our network of friends and colleagues to provide three keywords to describe us whenever our names came to mind. I wasn’t surprised when a few sent words includimg loyalty, faithfulness, dependable, etc.
In the corporate environment, Loyalty has been proven to be an important trait or attribute. Indeed, a friend responsible for executive recruitment recently stated that, in a search for Board of Directors and CEOs, the cardinal consideration is loyalty to (faith or belief in) vision, mission, core values or strategic ambition of the organization. This is very rational since leaders usually expect their team to stand with them both in good and bad times – Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint, Proverbs 25:19 KJV.
Which president of a country knowingly, will appoint disloyal ministers to his cabinet?
Who will marry or go into partnership with a disloyal or unfaithful person?
Which business can be successful without faithful and loyal leaders to promote the vision of the company?. Building a global brand is therefore not an easy or a perfect journey. No wonder the first sentence of our national pledge admonishes Ghanaians to be faithful and loyal.
The leadership of Bishop Dag Heward Mills has for some time now come under public ‘attack’ trending on social media. My understanding of loyalty is far from what I’ve been hearing around. Someone has gotten something wrong somewhere. Hence, let us focus on the main things and leave Bishop Dag Heward-Mills alone to focus on the vision of taking the Gospel to the nations.
There are souls perishing!
Dr. Joseph K. Adjei, PhD, University Lecturer
