How to make professional relationships work without an employment contract

When I first started my research, I wanted to know what was needed to build and sustain long-term relationships between businesses and their C-suite professionals in the absence of an employment contact.?

Given that these relationships are not following the traditional employment model there must be something else holding them together for the long term.

A year of research and hundreds of interviews later, I discovered …

The presence of Psychological Ownership (PO) i.e. creating the feelings that these C-suite professionals belong to the organisations they work with, makes this possible.

But, how does this work on the micro and macro level?

I devised the Strategy and Leadership as Service Framework, also known as The Four Rs which shares what it takes to create PO plus the wider Relationships and Roadmap to develop the access economy industry for the C-suite.

If you are either a client, C-suite executive or C-suite firm engaging in this way, the framework can be used to enhance the effectiveness and longevity of the relationships within this model.

An overview of the framework

1. ROOTS: The roots are essentially the pre-requisites for PO – they are why PO exists in the first place. They include: efficacy, self-identity and having a place.
2. ROUTES: The routes lay out how to develop PO – This involves controlling the target, intimately knowing the target, investing self and cultivating psychological safety.
3. RELATIONSHIPS: Once the roots and routes are in place, PO can develop. But there are a few factors that determine if the relationship will last over the long-term and extend across the system. They are: fostering feelings of PO, understanding that there are many pathways to creating PO within the relationships and ensuring PO is balanced in the connections across the whole system.
4. ROADMAP: And lastly, how does this way of working develop at scale??This part of the framework shows how to design a roadmap for delivering professional C-suite services in the access economy at an individual and team level for SMEs and larger organisations.

What are the consequences?

Firstly, the knowledge and insight provided by PO means that the access economy model of sharing professional services can deliver solid and enduring relationships. But, of course, this requires that all parties possess the knowledge and skills to develop PO and their relationships.

On a macro-level, understanding how to cultivate and scale PO enables us to shift the way we engage in working relationships, making them more fit for purpose and effective in the new normal for organisations of any size.

Find out more about the Strategy and Leadership as Service Framework

Order my book:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Strategy-Leadership-Service-Economy-C-Suite/dp/1032436115/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Visit my website:

https://www.saradaw.com/strategy-and-leadership-as-service-framework

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