I always repeat what I once read about the topic: “you must love them first and then they will follow you” as for example with Jesus Christ. That is very true, now it is very important to understand that during your leadership walk it is very easy to lose the love that you once gained, why and how? You would say!… The key word is loyalty, once you start to build a team you will develop love, therefore trust and finally loyalty, sometimes our leadership character is young, immature and selfish and we think we have earned it and is ours, that is a big mistake and sometimes irreparable. Leadership is not a doctrine none the less a one man operation, leadership would not exist with true followers, in reality if you want to be a successful leader the relationship with your followers must be mutual all the time so, they love you love, they trust you trust, they are loyal and so you are loyal! Your character is defined by your integrity so is you say something to someone you make sure you live by those standards everywhere otherwise you would lose the loyalty then the trust and at last the love in the same order you gained them and that my friend would be a tragedy.
I finish with this, in your path to success value loyalty the most even over production! True leaders built their empires around loyal people. Unfortunately loyalty is something very rare so do this: study your team and think about those people that will be with you in the good ones and in the bad ones and in the ugly ones, people that will stand behind you no matter what! If you really think you have one of those treasure that person as your on family and never, never undermine him/her under any circumstances respect him/her love him/her trust him/her and pay him/her back with your loyalty!
Regards,
Guillermo Zuluaga
(to see SPANISH version of this post click here)
