Yes, you have read it correctly, “Loyalty is an over-rated virtue”. Here I am talking of loyalty to individuals and not of loyalty in terms of steadfastness to certain agreeable values and principles. I attach my loyalty to a person only if I consider his or her sets of values and principles desirable. So long as there is no change in them I continue to be loyal, but if there is a change to their detriment and this change is not a passing phase I will be forced to reconsider and even withdraw my loyalty to that person. And that is why I read with approval about a chief executive officer’s assurance to her staffers that if they ever got into trouble doing the right thing she would be loyal to them and come back for them. Unsaid but clearly understood sub-text is that if on the other hand they got into trouble not doing the right thing, they would have to be on their own because she would not be loyal to them any more.
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