Loyal & Faithful vs Competent

Recently there was a question on LinkedIn that asked if the choice had to be made whether a manager should retain a loyal and faithful employee with limited competence or a competent employee with limited loyalty.

My answer was:

A competent employee is always the best choice. His loyalty is your responsibility. If you are a good leader and keep them interested in their work, give them stretch targets and opportunities for growth along with a compensation package that reflect their performance then they will be loyal. Choosing someone who is loyal & faithful, but limited competence is a sign of weak management.

What has surprised me is the number of people who have gone for the loyal and faithful employee with limited competence and excused themselves by talking about training and development for the incompetent employee. I guess training and development might help, but its just as likely to be throwing good money after bad. I'd rather use that money to retain and incentivise the competent employee encouraging loyalty.

To be blunt, maybe this is why so many companies out there are in trouble right now, the need for leaders to cover up their own lack of leadership skill by retaining loyal and faithful employees who aren't very good at what they do will eventually drag a company down. Trouble is, if a leader is allowed to get away with doing this, then the attitude goes right the way to the top - keeping a loyal and faithful leader on board who lacks competence as a leader is downright dangerous.