"I prefer a loyal staff officer to a brilliant one." -- General George S. Patton

I think that is a pretty amazing statement. He’d rather have a loyal staff officer than a brilliant one. What is it about loyalty that is so valued? Knowing that you can count on someone to do what they say? That they won’t leave you behind on the battlefield?  Knowing that you don’t have to worry about someone planning against you? Knowing that they always have your back? Those sure are comforting thoughts and allow you to focus on the immediate problems instead of worrying about internal politics.

Do you think the same is true in business? Well, I can tell you that it is true for Donald Trump. When asked what characteristic he looks for the most in an employee, he answers “Loyalty” every time. And it shows in his organization. There are people (a lot) that have been working with him for 20-plus years. That a sign of a great leader. The best leaders always inspire devout loyalty. Think about the great leaders you’ve seen. They always bring a great team with them wherever they go. In business that is especially true. When you see a company bring on a new CEO, you see that he or she quickly fills the most important staff positions with people they trust and that they know are loyal.

I like to talk about loyalty in the business world as being “up, down and across an organization.” All of us have experienced an organization asking us to be loyal to it.  They ask you to work overtime for a really big account. They ask you to give up uour vacation because the product has a looming deadline. But is the converse true?! Is your organization loyal to you? Do they protect your weekends? Do they protect your family time? When you get sick do they help you and your family? If you’re building an organization or looking for one to join, make sure it is one that creates an environment of loyalty up, down and across your people.

While interviewing Roger Staubach for my book, TAKE COMMAND, he told me a story about loyalty in the Navy. Roger said, “The Navy never leaves anybody behind. I recently spoke with an admiral who was the father of a Navy SEAL, one of 16 who got killed when they went after four of their men who had gotten trapped. Those 16 guys jumped on a Chinook and took off on an extremely dangerous mission, landing a big helicopter like that. Because those 16 guys knew they had to get out there and find their fellow SEALs. They lost their own lives trying. That’s the level of camaraderie and loyalty I found in the Navy.” He went on to say, “At the end of the day there’s such a strong understanding that your people will be there for you. I think that’s the one thing I’ve tried to bring into my business today: I want our customers to understand that we’re always going to be there for them.”

Wow. Think about that. If you could create the environment where all of your stakeholders – employees, customers, shareholders, local community – believed that you and your company were going to be that loyal to them, then I don’t think we’d have the problems we do with the Worldcoms and Enrons of the world.

When I think of loyalty on “The Apprentice,” (stop laughing, it did exist!) I think of Kevin Allen. Kevin and I developed a mutual respect for each other almost from the first task. Even when we changed to different teams, we held a high regard for one another. Maybe it was our common background of competing in team sports, maybe it was our southern roots, or maybe it was just based on how we were raised. Whatever it was, we quickly realized that we could rely on the other person to do what they said they would do. And that it was clear we shared a mutual respect. It developed into an unspoken loyalty that withstood some significant pressure.

Both Kevin and I made it to the final four and we were grilled during the “interviews” with some renown business icons – Dawn Hudson, President of Pepsi North America; Alan Jope, COO of Unilever; Ace Greenberg, Chairman of Bear Stearns; and Robert Kraft, Owner of The New England Patriots. After our interviews and in the board room, the four of us were pushed and prodded by Donald, George and Carolyn. Kevin and I were both asked point blank why one of us should be chosen over the other one. They specifically went after Kevin for what they perceived as a lack of direction on his part because he was pursuing his second graduate degree. They were concerned that he didn’t really know what he wanted to do. But there I was, right there, with both a JD and an MBA. Kevin could easily have deflected their attention to me by bringing up my degrees. But he didn’t. He remained loyal to our friendship and mutual respect. Throughout the season, Kevin and I never went after each other based on that loyalty.

How loyal are you? How loyal is the organization your building? Can you trust your employees? Your peers? Your boss? I hope so. If not, what are you doing?

Loyalty is critical to success in today’s business world.

TAKE COMMAND!