Today the word "loyalty" is used quite often. Moreover, it is used in various fields. What does loyal mean? each person understands in his own way. Let's try to understand its definition and main qualities.

The concept of loyalty

The English word "loyal" has two meanings:

1) loyalty of a citizen to his state, its laws and authorities;

2) benevolent, respectful attitude towards someone or something.

Loyalty is very similar to trustworthiness. However, it has one significant difference. Trustworthiness is understood as our attitude to a wide range of certain rules and norms accepted in society. And a loyal person is someone who has a good disposition towards something specific. It is possible according to a certain set of criteria that are presented to a person in relation to a particular object or subject.

How is loyalty acquired?

Loyalty comes into play from childhood. Relationships in the family and with friends imply certain norms and rules of behavior. For example, when playing in the yard, children

try to stick together and do not betray each other to adults if someone commits a misdemeanor. It means being loyal to your friends.

At school, they try to instill in us pride in their educational institution. By participating in competitions and olympiads, the student represents the school and fights for its good name. So he is loyal to her.

When applying for a job, we also meet with the requirement of loyalty. Management, concerned about the well-being of their company, is interested in loyal employees who can be completely trusted. Any serious organization pays great attention to employee loyalty.

What loyalty requirements do companies put forward?

Loyalty is the unconditional observance of the company's charter and code of conduct. There is no point in setting rules that no one will follow. For the best functioning of the firm, it is important that employees follow a certain charter. Each company may have its own list of rules, but there is a list that is the same for all enterprises. A loyal employee is one who observes the following norms:

These are the basic rules to follow Special attention. The head puts them forward solely in the interests of his company, therefore, non-compliance with the charter may threaten with punishment up to

Loyalty indicators

It is possible to understand whether a person is a loyal person or not by several criteria. Companies usually have special people who determine if the applicant is right for them. There are signs by which they conclude whether an employee will behave loyally. What are these indicators? They usually include:

• Interest of the applicant in a vacant position in the organization.
• Dedication to work and responsible approach to duties.
• Initiative and desire for the prosperity of the company.
• Striving for professionalism and self-improvement.
• Readiness for innovations proposed by the authorities.

How is employee loyalty determined?

It was said above that a loyal is one who respects certain norms of behavior and rules. a person is invited for an interview to find out if he is suitable for a vacancy. We can say that this is the first stage in determining the candidate's loyalty.

Of course, it is quite difficult to understand from a short interview whether the applicant will be able to fully justify the hopes placed on him. However, you can get a general impression of him, familiarize him with the company's charter and find out if the requirements of the employer suit him and whether he will obey them.

After an interview, a suitable applicant is invited to take a probationary
term. This is the second stage of determining loyalty. During the probationary period, the employee works in the company and receives a salary, and the authorities analyze his behavior and attitude towards work. This is an important stage, after which a person is either taken for permanent job or refuse their services. During the probationary period, the employee must show that he complies with the rules and regulations set by management.

From the foregoing, it follows that a loyal person is a person who has his own opinion regarding something or someone and follows his principles. Such people are treated with respect not only by colleagues, but also by people around them outside of work. That is why loyalty is so highly valued in society.

In short, loyalty is the positive attitude of the client towards the image of the brand, its activities, the promoted product, the company's personnel and many other factors. As a rule, customer loyalty is determined by the fact that a person uses the services of a company (or purchases its products) for a long time without going to competitors.

A similar term defines the attitude of staff to the employer. Moreover, employee loyalty should be the goal of any manager, because this factor can significantly increase labor productivity, improve the atmosphere in the team, and bring many other benefits.

Let's take a closer look at both of these phenomena in the framework of our today's article.

Customer loyalty

Speaking about what customer loyalty is, it is immediately worth noting the key importance of a positive user experience. If a person, together with the product, received positive impressions from working with you, then he is more likely to contact the company again.

A number of studies confirm that a person who is satisfied with a purchase is more likely to have a positive attitude towards other offers of the same brand. Moreover, including the audience in "privileged" loyalty programs, membership in which allows you to cooperate with you on exclusive terms, significantly strengthens the "loyalty" of the already most valuable users.

But you should not take the commodity-money aspect as the only way to leave good impression. Remember that there are many companies on the market that provide services similar to yours - often at more favorable prices. But this is not the only thing that matters to customers. If the brand image, the company's mission, its social activity or attitude to its business coincide with the user's worldview, if you managed to create an emotional attachment of the audience to the brand, then people will agree to pay a little more - just to support you, or feel involved.

Think of the huge queues in front of stores on the day the new Apple products went on sale. Do the people who freeze for hours in these lines crave profit? Not at all.

Further evidence of how important it is to stimulate and build loyalty will be the following arguments:

• 20% of your customer base generates 80% of your revenue - the Pareto principle applies here as well;
• a satisfied customer talks about his experience to an average of three people - a dissatisfied customer shares the negative with ten acquaintances;
• the funds spent on strengthening the loyalty of one client will pay off after a year of working with him.
• if you think it's expensive, then how do you like the next figure - the cost of attracting a new customer, as a rule, is five times higher than retention;
• among other things, a 5% increase in the number of satisfied customers can increase your income by 50%.

From all of the above, it follows that audience loyalty is one of the most important factors in the development of your business. Now, having analyzed what customer loyalty is, let's talk about another aspect - no less important. Next, we will talk about the loyalty of the staff.

Employee loyalty

According to a number of studies, the basis of the rapid and stable development of the organization is precisely the loyalty of the staff. After all, the people and the team are everything. But many people mistakenly consider ordinary loyalty to be loyalty - that is, formal adherence to internal charters (public and unspoken), as well as elementary politeness. Do not confuse these concepts. So, let's look at what employee loyalty is and how to achieve it.

Loyalty is not a formal quality, but deep trust and respect, pride in your company. In the ideal case, if the global goals of the company and its mission coincide with the employee's plans for the future, as well as with his worldview as a whole, then such loyalty is almost unbreakable. It is worth remembering that the basis of any relationship between people is trust. Not a stick and a carrot, not a good social package and a coffee machine in the office, but a simple human trust in one's neighbor.

Therefore, for example, if you do not believe that your employees are able to work effectively, having the opportunity to go to social networks, and therefore block them, then you need to change something. Either thinking, or employees, or the procedure for selecting personnel. Although, of course, all cases are individual - a lot depends on the business area and the specifics of the position.

But generally speaking, try the following. Your employees should perfectly understand the goals of the company, share them and welcome them. Therefore, special attention should be paid to addressing the brand strategy and its mission. It is worth mentioning these things quite often. Next - give employees the opportunity to express their opinions, influence what is happening within the company, and also really grow in career and salary. An organization where employees have no say and no perspective is like a swamp—the natural solution is to either run away or adapt to the environment. That is, to sit quietly in your place, creating only the appearance of work.

But what is loyalty to the company in fact - you will understand only after a long activity in this direction. Give people the opportunity to feel respect from managers and top managers, encourage employee initiatives, strengthen corporate culture over time - and then, of course, you will form a real team of loyal professionals.

06/04/2018 7 175 0 Igor

Psychology and society

Today, the term "loyalty" is quite common and widely used in the social, professional and scientific environment, despite its relatively recent appearance in the Russian dictionary. But not everyone knows what this concept means. in simple terms and how to increase loyalty.

Content:

Definition

Loyalty (from the French "loyal" - fidelity)- a devoted attitude to something (a source of value); following the law, which gives a person complete legal rights due to their legitimacy. This concept, in addition to the content component, has a quantitative indicator and emotional, rational and behavioral components. Loyalty shows the degree of probability of switching the subject to another source of value. This is a socio-psychological category that reflects a stable, long-term, acquired predisposition to a certain reaction to specific things or phenomena.

Synonyms of loyalty are: devotion, trustworthiness, benevolence, good intentions, loyalty. The first documentary mention of the term refers to the XV-XVI centuries. In Britain, for the first time, the concept of loyalty was used in the sense of "loyalty in service, in love or in an oath." In the context of various scientific areas, there are a number of private definitions: brand loyalty, customer loyalty, company loyalty.

Signs of loyalty

Many marketers interpret loyalty based on their own ideas about this concept, which are very often far not only from the definitions in science, but also from understanding the practical benefits. Highlight the main features consumer loyalty for products of a certain manufacturer:

1. Emotional consumer commitment to a brand of goods: from a positive attitude to a conscious involvement in the values ​​that the purchase of this product brings.
2. Awareness and understanding of functional (convenience) and non-functional (fashion, status) benefits from using the product.
3. Decreased susceptibility to pricing policy competitors/tolerance for manufacturer error.
4. Positive experience with the product.
5. The fact of making future purchases of goods of the same brand or a conscious desire to make them.

Types of employee loyalty

1. Behavioral - matures over a long time working in the same company. It manifests itself in the identification of the employee with the company.
2. Affective - occurs when work brings pleasure, when a person experiences positive emotions in the course of its implementation, on the basis of which a stable emotional connection is formed. Employees are loyal to their employer and do not leave the place of work for the reason that they are supporters of the goals and principles of the company.
3. Normative - based on a sense of duty to occupy a certain position as a result of pressure that comes from outside. Reasons: unwillingness to disappoint, not meet the expectations of the employer; fears of the employee associated with the formation of a negative opinion of colleagues about him.

Affective loyalty of employees for the head of the company is the most valuable. Only this type is manifested in the direct interest of the staff in the performance of their official functions.

What does employee loyalty mean?

• When an enterprise is in a crisis, overcomes temporary difficulties, they do not quit, but help to survive these difficulties and look for a way out of the crisis together with the employer;
• accept organizational change: in culture, structure or resource base;
• Hold on to your workplace and are afraid of losing him;
• Independently make decisions within their competence and bear responsibility for them;
• They try to contribute to the improvement of the company's work, offer a creative approach to solving the problems and tasks of the company;
• Ready to work and develop professionally for the benefit of the enterprise;
• Carry out their duties in accordance job description, personal goals coincide with the goals of the company;
• They strive to increase their efficiency, embody the company's potential.

Methods for increasing employee loyalty:

• Material and moral motivation and stimulation (increase wages, payment of bonuses, praise, introduction of benefits, honor roll, etc.);
• Involvement in joint decision-making;
• Organization of collective activities through incentives, trainings, seminars, intra-corporate conferences, reduction of hierarchies, etc.;
• Individual approach to each employee;
• Holding informal corporate events(general dinners, holidays, outdoor events);
• Employer's interest in continuous staff development and self-development by financing vocational training and retraining courses for employees of the enterprise;
• Identification of personnel as the main value of the company, cultivating in employees the feeling that they are part of a single team, that they are irreplaceable and very valuable;
• Maintain customer awareness corporate activities at a high level.

There are the following methods for assessing staff loyalty:

• Analysis statistical reporting staff turnover;
• Conducting interviews with employees;
• Monitoring the actions and behavior of employees;
• Periodic use of surveys.

The Thurstone scale questionnaire is one of the most effective questionnaires.

What does customer loyalty mean?

Understanding the nature of customer loyalty is at the heart of building long-term and mutually beneficial relationships with customers. The high quality of the products offered and the level of service are two important factors in the formation of customer loyalty, but they alone are not enough to cause a stable emotional predisposition. Others no less important factors that influence the perception of goods and services are:

• The degree of satisfaction of the need from the purchase of a particular product;
• Perceived advantages of the product of this enterprise in comparison with the products of competitors;
• Image, reputation and brand image of the company;
• The number of positive reviews and recommendations of relatives, friends and acquaintances.

The components of customer loyalty are rational and emotional loyalty.

Rational is based on an analytical understanding of the value of the product, what benefits it brings and to what extent it satisfies the need associated with its acquisition.

Emotional is a kind of positive energy that comes from the company, it is a stream of positive emotions and impressions. Examples successful companies who were able to form emotional loyalty customers for their products are: Apple, IKEA, LC Waikiki, etc. Not every company is able to create and maintain a wow effect around its brand, but everyone should strive for this.

To increase the number of loyal customers, each company must find answers to the following questions:

• How can we surprise our customers?
• What is the value of our products for consumers?
• How can we create a positive reaction among buyers when buying our brand products?
• How can we improve the customer's opinion about the products?

In simple words, customer loyalty is a positive attitude towards the company and the products it sells, manifested in the willingness to make regular purchases and recommend the products of this brand to relatives and friends.

General idea of ​​loyalty programs

Market research shows that it is much cheaper for a company to retain old customers than it is to attract new ones. So that everyone new client wants to buy the products of this company again and again and became a regular customer, firms have to apply different strategies: bonus programs, discount cards, sales, luring gifts and promotions, etc. A set of marketing tools and activities aimed at retaining existing customers and developing repeat sales to these customers in the future is called a loyalty program. For the first time, American Airlines used marketing loyalty tools in its activities in the early 80s of the last century, encouraging different ways those customers who often flew with this company.

The results of research by an American organization COLLOQUY showed that discounts and bonus cards alone are no longer enough to arouse interest in the products of a certain manufacturer. Loyalty programs have become so commonplace, ubiquitous and self-evident that customers have stopped responding to them.

Important! To keep the client, the reasonable price and high quality of the goods are very few. Companies need to constantly study their customers and their needs and, on this basis, improve the ways of implementing loyalty programs.

Before applying it, the company needs to find out if it is really necessary and what strategy should be based on.

Here are the companies in whose activities the use of loyalty programs will be quite effective:

• Mobile operators;
• Internet providers;
• Shopping and entertainment centers;
• Food outlets in residential areas of the city;
• Clothing and footwear brands;
• Retail;
• Car service;
• E-commerce, etc.

Companies that are more profitable to attract new customers:

• Construction companies;
• car dealers;
• Real estate sellers;
• Car showrooms, etc.

Consider the main types of loyalty programs.

Bonus programs

Bonus programs are the most beneficial for grocery stores.

The main disadvantage is the need for feedback with clients. This type allows you to form long-term relationships with customers. What is necessary:

• In order for interest in the company not to fade, you need to constantly encourage and stimulate customers;
• Knowing not only the frequency with which purchases are made, but also the average cost per check;
• The equivalence of accrued bonuses to the costs incurred.

Multi-level loyalty program

Effectively works in aviation companies, restaurant and hotel business, insurance, beauty salons. Its features are the use of progressive promotion of the company's customers.

Coincidence of company and customer values

It works most effectively at the points of sale of cosmetics, food products and household chemicals. Its features are the declaration by the company of such values ​​that would coincide with the personal views and principles of buyers. But not a simple declaration, but their implementation in life. Example: H&M brand boutique gives each customer a discount for every kilogram of unwanted items handed over in the store, the proceeds from the sale of which are sent to charitable foundations.

Partnership programs

They are used in large chain stores in different regions of the country. Their features are the opportunity for buyers to exchange their bonus points for a discount or gifts from partner organizations.

Advice! If you are benevolent towards the people around you, then most of them will become loyal to you. To “receive”, you need to “give” - this is the basis of strong human trusting relationships.

Quite popular and buzzword in modern business- loyalty, used by many, but unfortunately without much understanding of its meaning. We are speaking: "Loyal customer / employee", "Company loyalty", "Increase loyalty", "Loyalty program" etc., but what actually lies under these expressions, let's figure it out.

Translated from English the word "loyal" means - faithful, devoted, hence the actual understanding of this word, as: a loyal client, an employee devoted to the company, etc. creates that loyalty. Only after understanding this process, we will be able to influence, improve, develop it.

What is customer loyalty?

Many people think that the absence of complaints or dissatisfaction on the part of the client is his loyalty to the company, but everything is not so simple. First, the most important thing is to create in the client a voluntary desire to continue contact with your company. This desire can be motivated by regular satisfaction with your product and service, plus a small but obligatory WOW effect that the client does not expect. It is also called: cherry, bonus, bun, chip, etc., more on that.

If the client is satisfied, then he begins to perceive reality not quite objectively, or rather, he himself thinks out the pros, advantages, facts about the history of his purchase. This manifests itself when a person, communicating with his friends or acquaintances, begins to give recommendations about the product and the seller company. Many customers, softened by a successful purchase and service, are able to embellish the realities a little in order to once again emphasize their good choice, and of course, boasting.

Will the customer want to make a repeat purchase from this company? Of course! Would he recommend her to his friends? Undoubtedly! Will such a customer want to try to buy a similar product elsewhere? Unlikely. And how do you think all this will affect the attitude of the client to the employees of the company? Of course, but only positively!

The process of choosing a product and a company by a client is influenced by many factors, but if you tied the client with the quality of service, then he will stay with you for a long time, because he likes the feeling after the purchase. And now, the client can be safely called loyal.

Staff loyalty

It's different with employees. Earning the loyalty of an employee is not so easy, but it is simply necessary for. How a company treats its employees is how they treat customers - this is the main principle of true customer focus, which should begin with the company's employees.

The fact is that employees are part of the company, they see the pros and cons of their work, they understand how the employer treats them, what prospects they have, etc. Being inside the company, they become internal customers who also have the right to demand, be offended, scold or recommend the company.

If an employer thinks that an employee is just a person who acts according to instructions for a salary, then this is a deep delusion. Employees are the company in terms of all its facets: image, level of service, profit, development, business processes, etc. If the internal client of the company is dissatisfied, then the external ones will be dissatisfied. Without understanding this, the company will always have a problem with, regular customers and .

What to do? Make sure that your employees are satisfied with their work, no less than incoming customers. This is the only way to count on the loyalty of employees to the company and its customers, and nothing else!

There are old habitual, but unfortunately ineffective methods of increasing staff loyalty:

• Corporate events (company birthday, New Year's corporate parties, service parties, etc.)
• Team-building trainings (team building).
• Collaboration in a team.
• Informing staff about the state of affairs of the company and its goals.
• Organization of training and advanced training courses.

What then can effectively influence the growth of employee loyalty? Three simple things:

1. Respect for the employee.
2. Honesty (transparency and understanding of management decisions) and trust. Be sure to read about this.
3. Decent pay. about material and non-material motivation read and.

These are the main criteria for any employee, any company, and everything else exists only to mitigate the consequences of the non-existent three main criteria mentioned above. When they take place in a company, then there are no difficulties with other auxiliary tools (corporate parties, trainings, etc.)

When an employee is loyal to his company, he not only takes care of its customers, but also fully shares its interests, observes and respects its charter and perceives it as a personal value!

Increasing customer loyalty

We will talk about activities related to increasing customer loyalty. As you know, attracting a new client is much more expensive than retaining an existing one, so first of all you need to make sure that already established customers of the company do not forget about you and make repeat purchases (orders) again and again. How to do it?

To get started, find out what makes them happier, what makes them happy, and what disappoints them. This can be done through any feedback system or simply using a satisfaction questionnaire, example. When you have dealt with honey and tar, you can start developing a loyalty program.

Methods for increasing customer loyalty

A loyalty program is a series of activities aimed at increasing customer satisfaction through special conditions for the purchase and service in a particular company (network of companies). Similar programs appeared at the beginning of the 20th century as a way to highlight special customers.

In short, when developing a loyalty program for customers, you must attract their attention with some kind of benefit - a discount, a gift, a free service, etc. You can convey this not only at the time of making a purchase, but also by SMS, email, messenger, using .

Which of the methods to apply to you, no one can say for sure. Try and analyze your customers' reactions, changes in sales and satisfaction levels, so you will understand what works best and what is not worth spending your money on.

conclusions

As you have already understood, the concept of “Loyalty” has a little more meaning in customer service than just showing a person’s loyalty or devotion to something. The concept is so vast that one article simply cannot cover its meaning, but you probably understood the main essence. Form and increase the loyalty of your employees and customers, and your business will steadily develop and bring you more profit.

Do not forget to leave your comment, your expert opinion is important to us!

Loyalty as a quality of a person is a tendency to stay within the limits of legality, to treat with understanding, correctly and neutrally-benevolently in relation to someone or something.

Parable about the measure of loyalty. A certain Sufi teacher was surrounded by students day and night and his reputation was so high that odes were composed in his honor from Samarkand to Alexandria, and the nobles of the seven kingdoms considered him the Star of the Age and the teacher of teachers on Earth. Once, while talking with the ruler of Bukhara, he remarked: “People are not faithful, even when they think they are. Although one has to accept worship in order to maintain good social relations, in reality there is none. The ruler, however, thought that the Sufi wanted to flatter him by convincing him that these people were not really his followers, and he said: “Oh, Dervish! Vanity, duplicity and hypocrisy are an indispensable attribute of close associates and courtiers, those who surround temporary kings, such as myself. But the Majestic Kings of the Cosmos like you are surrounded by sincere followers, for they have no material benefits from following you. The dervish said: “In all this city, and among all the people who declared their adherence to me and through me to higher matters, there are, according to my data, one and a half people who will not be afraid if it comes to business.

To test this unusual theory, the king had the Sufi arrested for blasphemy and led through the streets of the city to a public execution as an example for the inhabitants of the city. When Sufi was arrested, none of his entourage uttered a word. Crowds gathered in the streets through which he was escorted, but people stood in silent expectation. An hour after they began to lead him through the streets, the man ran up to the guards and shouted: - He is innocent! Then, in the next block, a man blocked the path of the procession and said, "Arrest me." I am guilty of blasphemy, this man only quoted my words in order to refute them! When at the end of the day the Ruler and the Sufi met to discuss the events of the day, the Sufi said: “You see, everything is so. The person who screamed that I was innocent was the other half, and the one who traded his life for mine was the whole person I was talking about!

Loyalty, if you do not mix with it servility, servility and fawning, involves thinking in the mode “Your victory is my victory”, “You win, so I win.” Loyalty is the desire to first understand and only then be understood. It's a craving for synergy. The enemy of loyalty is thinking in the spirit: “I don’t know and don’t want to know what other people think and feel, how they perceive the world. I do not care. If someone bends in front of someone, demonstrates loyalty, calling it loyalty, I call it stupidity and mediocrity, because loyalty is a willingness to bend lower, to be in time a little earlier, to be dumber than a gray, mediocre leadership. No wonder Bernard Shaw said: “Loyalty is freedom from the need to think.”

In a word, the black-and-white thinking of disloyalty is based on separation, rivalry, confrontation, while the train of thought and the logic of loyalty calls for cooperation, unity, readiness to provide support, warn about something, help, sacrifice something for the sake of the object of loyalty. . Loyalty implies honesty and loyalty towards the object of loyalty, the same type of attitude towards values, a sense of pride in the object of loyalty and an open demonstration of such an attitude.

In general, a decent person should be strict with himself and loyal to others. In true loyalty, there is no desire to impose on someone their values, principles, their worldview. Loyalty recognizes the right of others to be different. She seeks in a person not what separates, but what unites. Genuine loyalty abhors sticking your nose into someone else's life, interfering and controlling every step of other people. This is also true of loyalty at the level of state thinking. Many countries loudly declare their loyalty, tolerance, democracy, and at the same time, for the sake of their interests and understanding of the world, they unceremoniously interfere in the lives of other peoples, causing them innumerable disasters and suffering.

True loyalty lives and thrives in an environment of selflessness and unconditionality. Where dirty traces of self-interest are visible, loyalty takes on distorted, ugly forms. Therefore, it is easy to confuse loyalty with its surrogates: opportunism, servility and conformism.

The nature of loyalty, its social coloration entirely depends on whom and who represents it. You can be loyal to fascism, nationalism, terrorism and religious fanaticism. A sadist is loyal to his own kind, thieves and bandits are loyal to criminals, pimps are loyal to prostitution.

Let's plunge into history and see what role the loyalty of other people to some quality of his personality can play in a person's life. The talented serf guy Taras Shevchenko was noticed by his countryman Ivan Soshenko. He liked the work of Shevchenko, which he did in summer garden, and he brought Taras to the workshop of Karl Bryullov. The great artist immediately saw the talent of the serf boy and said that the young artist should be sent to study at the Academy of Arts. But here's the problem! Serfs were not taken to the Academy. The landowner Pavel Engelhardt, who owned Shevchenko, was categorically opposed to letting go of the young talent, declaring that this was his property, and he did not intend to part with it. No matter how Karl Bryullov and the great artist Alexei Venetsianov asked for Shevchenko, the serf-owner was not inclined to this, as he put it, "philanthropy."

But loyalty to the talent of the young artist has already firmly taken possession of Bryullov's mind. Loyalty is friendly with compassion, she is always ready to support, assist, sacrifice something for the sake of the object of loyalty, and Bryullov hurries for help to his friend - the great poet, educator of the heir to the throne, the empress's favorite, with whom she sobbed together over Schiller's poems - Vasily Zhukovsky. Zhukovsky also became imbued with loyalty to the talent and fate of the young artist. He immediately told Empress Alexandra Feodorovna about everything, and she, in turn, informed her husband about the serf artist.

By order of the tsar, the minister of the imperial court, Pyotr Volkonsky, and the president of the Academy of Arts, Alexei Olenin, intervened in the "carousel" of the artist's release. But Engelhardt was stubborn and uncompromising. In the end, for the freedom of Taras, he asked for 2,500 rubles - a very significant amount for that time, many times higher than the price of ordinary serfs.

Bryullov and Zhukovsky, having estimated their financial capabilities, realized that they could not do without the assistance of the Empress. Alexandra Fedorovna agreed to pay, but on the condition that Bryullov paint for her the long-promised portrait of Zhukovsky. Karl Pavlovich set to work.

Meanwhile, Shevchenko, like many young artists, moonlighted as a portrait painter. Somehow a general ordered a portrait for him and promised a decent sum for it. But, when the portrait was ready, he began to find fault and, in the end, refused to take and pay for his own image.

Taras was offended and decided to take revenge. He smeared his uniform and epaulettes, painted a white shirt, a towel and shaving accessories in return, and sold the picture as a sign to the barber's where his offender used to go to shave ...

When the general saw himself as a barker at the barber, he almost gave his soul to God, immediately bought a sign, then went to Engelhardt and asked the landowner to sell him a daring serf. At the same time, he agreed to pay much more than 2,500 rubles. Greedy Engelhardt rubbed his hands with joy. One can imagine what would have happened to Shevchenko if he had been in the cruel clutches of the general. But, as we know, loyalty, if it decided to help, it will not give up its intention.

Taras, having learned about his alleged sale, realized the horror of his situation and rushed to Bryullov for help, he immediately told the news to Zhukovsky, and the latter to Alexandra Fedorovna. The highest displeasure was conveyed to Engelhardt from the palace, and the deal fell apart.

Bryullov soon painted the promised portrait of Zhukovsky, he was raffled off among members of the royal family. The proceeds from the lottery tickets were given to Engelhardt, and Shevchenko received his long-awaited freedom.

So the loyalty of a whole group of influential people to the talent of a young artist played a crucial role in his life. Documentary evidence has been preserved of how the artist himself recalled his deliverance from serfdom.

Questions of the investigator and answers of T.G. Shevchenko during interrogation in the III department. April 21, 1847, St. Petersburg

1. Describe your origin, the case by which you were released from serfdom, your upbringing at the Academy of Arts, your studies after graduating from the Academy, trips around Little Russia and the reasons that persuaded you to study more poetry than painting.

2. There is evidence against you that you participated in the plans of the Slavic Society of St. Cyril and Methodius. Explain in detail: when and by whom this society was founded, and if the assumption of its establishment has not yet been carried out, then by whom and when these assumptions were made.

1. I am the son of a serf; in childhood he lost his father and mother; in 1828 he was taken into the yard by a landowner; in 1838 he was released from serfdom by the august imperial family, through Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky, Count Mikhail Yuryevich Vielgorsky and Karl Pavlovich Bryullov. Bryullov painted a portrait of Zhukovsky for the imperial family, and with this money I was bought from the landowner. I studied drawing and painting at the Academy of Arts until 1844. Upon graduating from the Academy, he was appointed to the Kyiv Archaeographic Commission as an employee in terms of drawing and collecting folk legends, fairy tales and songs in the southern Russian provinces. I loved poetry since childhood and began to write in 1837. My first poem, entitled: "Katerina" is dedicated to Zhukovsky, which aroused enthusiasm in Little Russians, and I began to continue writing poetry without leaving painting.

2. The evidence that I participate in the plans of the Slavic society is not fair.

The litmus test of loyalty is the attitude towards absent people. If a person behind the back of another does not speak badly about him, he thereby shows loyalty to him and expresses his decency. Stephen Covey writes: “Suppose you and I are talking one on one - we are washing the bones of the boss, which we would never have allowed ourselves if he were in the same room. What happens if we fight? You will be sure that I will discuss your shortcomings with others. After all, we did it in relation to the boss! You know my nature. I say nice things to your face and slander you behind your back. This is the essence of duplicity. Can we say that it increases confidence? Now imagine that you began to criticize the absent boss, and I say that I agree with you on some points, and I suggest that we go to his office together and try to explain what we think he is doing wrong. How do you think I will behave in a situation where someone begins to slander him himself?

The reliability of an employee is measured by the level of his loyalty to the organization. There are several levels of loyalty and each subsequent one provides more a high degree company dedication. Loyalty can be at the level of attributes, at the level of behavior, at the level of abilities and at the level of beliefs.

It is clear that loyalty is more valuable at the level when the mission and principles of the organization coincide with the beliefs of the employee. The level of loyalty can also be expressed in the following anecdotal way: - Can I count on the loyalty of your bank to myself when receiving a loan? - Are you a VIP client of our bank? - No, but I did not return loans to several banks - your competitors.

Petr Kovalev