The Loyalty Mask
He had been with us for seven years. In a high-churn industry, seven years feels like a lifetime. My dad treated him like family. We gave him autonomy. We let him manage the client relationship entirely.
I thought I was building loyalty. I was actually building a blind spot.
Looking back, I can see that his exit was engineered with surgical precision. First, he created a paper trail of “service failures”—minor issues exaggerated in emails, while telling me verbally that “everything is handled.” Then, he quit. “Personal reasons,” he said. Clean break.
A week later, the client terminated our contract citing the very issues that he confirmed were resolved. Two months later, I found out he had started his own agency with another ex-staff, who had quit 2 weeks earlier. His first client? The one he had just “lost” for me.
Enemies vs. Friends
The betrayal stung because I had lowered my guard. I realized then that friends wear masks. Friends smile while they calculate their leverage.
Contrast this with my competitors. When a competitor undercuts my price, I know exactly where I stand. They are a declared opponent. They force me to be sharper, faster, cheaper.
Robert Greene writes in his book “The 48 Laws of Power: “You are far better off with a declared opponent than not knowing where your real enemies lie.”
My “loyal” employee was a hidden enemy. My competitors are honest threats. I prefer the honesty.
Systems Over Paranoia
I didn’t let this turn me into a paranoid micromanager. Paranoia never scales. Instead, I replaced Trust with Verification.
Now, I operate on three rules:
- The Rule of Two: No single person controls a client relationship. There is always a secondary contact.
- Written Reality: Verbal updates mean nothing. If a client issue isn’t marked as resolved in Email, the issue is not marked as resolved
- Behavior Over Tenure: Length of service does not equal depth of loyalty. Often, it just means they’ve had more time to learn your vulnerabilities.
The Monday Morning Raid
Look at your team. Who is the “indispensable” lieutenant? The one person who, if they walked out today, would cripple you?
That is not an asset. That is a Key Man Risk.
Run the “Bus Test” today: If your top operator got hit by a bus (or poached by a rival) tomorrow, do you have:
- Access to the client?
- A record of all promises made?
- A redundant contact?
If the answer is No, you aren’t building a team. You are building a hostage situation. Break the monopoly on information this week.