December 21, 2008

Competence or Loyalty?

Posted by Bizaholic | 10:15 PM | with 0 comments »

Whom would you prefer in your team - a competent person or a loyal person with limited competence? If you ask this question to different managers, chances are high that you would get a divided opinion. Old styled managers would prefer loyalty ahead of competence (they believe that loyal people irrespective of their level of competence can always be groomed for any role!) while new age professionals would put competence and ability to deliver in a role above everything else.

If objectively viewed, competence is a higher virtue than loyalty. The task of management is to deliver outstanding results. For delivering results, competence is a necessity. It's as simple as that. As far as loyalty is concerned, it is the responsibility of management to recruit competent people and make them loyal.

It becomes difficult to discuss competence vs loyalty because loyalty has emotional undercurrents while competence is solid logic. Emotions in business tend to blur logical decision making.

Loyal people with limited competence may give an air of familiarity and comfort, but may not deliver the results. Due to their limitation, it's almost impossible to train and develop their competencies beyond a point. By ruling in favour of them instead of competent people, it would turn out to be suicidal.

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