Step aside employment contract, how's your psychological ownership contract looking?
When it comes to engagement, connection, and commitment with our teams we are kidding ourselves if we think it is the employment contract or the concept of employment that ensures we have their hearts and minds. It just takes one look at the Gallup engagement polls to see that!
So, how do we foster the level of engagement business leaders dream of?
We need to get back to basics, put the contract aside and examine the relationships we have at work.
In Sally Percy’s article for Forbes on ‘How to be a Talent Magnet’, I share how leaders can attract, energise, and retain the best talent by embedding #PsychologicalOwnership into our work cultures and environments.
What is psychological ownership?
Psychological ownership is the state in which individuals feel as though a target of ownership is ’theirs’ (i.e. It is MINE!). This could be as simple as the feelings of ownership we have over our house, our car, our pets, our music; or in a business setting, how we refer to our people or employees “they are part of our team, our organisation, they belong to us.”
Why does it matter?
My research into the C-suite Access Economy has revealed that Psychological Ownership is the Killer App when it comes to highly skilled C-suite professionals building long-term relationships with their portfolio clients in the absence of employment relationships. These individuals don’t accept the illusion of job security that we mistakenly believe comes from employment. Instead, they go back to basics and develop income security through having authentic and deep, enduring relationships with their portfolio clients - without an employment contract in sight.
Deeply committed and engaged professionals, without an employment contract?! What’s going on here?
It’s because the individuals have freedom of choice, they have chosen to work together.
They want to be there; they don’t have to be there.
They have proactively selected who they work with, when, and how much.
They have wrestled back agency, control, and flexibility over their lives by moving out of corporate employment, and instead work with a variety of clients which suit their identity, purpose, and skillset all on a self-employed basis.
In fact, the relationships which are designed to be ‘easy-in’ and ‘easy-out’ turn out to be the very opposite. They outperform and outlast employment relationships and top the charts in terms of commitment and engagement. Gallup would be out of a job if they measured these relationships for engagement!
However, this way of living and working doesn’t guarantee success for everyone – these portfolio professionals must have the skills and emotional intelligence to develop psychological ownership with the businesses they work with. This is what really holds the relationships together.
Strategy and Leadership As Service
ROOTS: Prerequisites for psychological ownership
According to my research and building on that of Pierce et al. (2001), there are three roots required for psychological ownership.
1. Efficacy
Clients and C-suite executives have to understand each other’s needs, feel knowledgeable about the range of services offered and be confident that the service and relationship are working to meet desired shared goals.
2. Self-identity
The C-suite executives and clients work together with shared identities and use them to establish and contribute to their own identities.
3. Belonging
Feelings of belonging are created by working with like-minded people.
ROUTES: Deepening psychological ownership
According to my research and building on that of Pierce et al. (2001), four routes guide how to deepen feelings of psychological ownership. At The CFO Centre UK , we support C-suite professionals in this process with their clients.
1. Control
Developing feelings of control through parties being available, accessible, and approachable for each other.
2. Psychological safety
Feeling psychologically safe and being able to speak up in group settings without fear of negative repercussions.
3. Intimately knowing the target
Having intimate relationships built through a level of sharing over and above formal work interactions.
4. Investing-self into the target
Investment can take many forms – time, skills, ideas, physical and psychological and intellectual energies. The more the investment, the more the individual feels connected to the target - co-creation of outputs in partnership.
What does this mean for traditional employment?
Whether engaging with a professional on an employment or fractional basis, psychological ownership is key. It creates a sense of ownership over our work, which helps build engagement and improve relationships between leaders and new talent.
It’s not the employment contract that matters but the psychological ownership contract.
Some food for thought…
If you are a professional – how much psychological ownership do you have with your employer/clients?
If you are a business leader – how much psychological ownership do you think you have with your team?