Defining the Client Relationship
Most portable executives emerging from long term employment relationships vividly recall the time in their lives when, if asked who they were, they responded with the name of the company they worked for and either what they did or what title they held. Today, the cachet of deriving one's identity from a large corporation with mega name recognition is fast disappearing. The "corporation man" of the past is of the present and future, whose core attitude of self direction defines who he or she is, and whose relationship with clients is one of trust and mutual benefit in a peer peer exchange.
In the realm of portability, the client is an organization, person, or community to which one promises to render personal services in one's area of expertise and to complete specific projects or tasks. This definition implies certain essential characteristics that distinguish it from the now archaic lifetime employment relationship, distinctions in which the critical shift from the boss worker relationship to a peer peer exchange becomes clear.
"As a Full Time Employee, I Had No Control over My Own Agenda"
Relationship with a client is always a negotiated relationship, a mutually agreed upon agenda. To begin with, portable executives recognize the value of their core skills and sell themselves to the client based on that value. For this reason, has a vested interest in ensuring that his core skills are employed at an optimal level that will guarantee not only the most appropriate use of those skills, but also the best possible overall performance. Since is, in a very real sense, only as good as the results achieved in the last assignment, he must build a reputation and attract new clients based on being able to apply his top notch skills. He cannot allow the client to entirely dictate the terms of the assignment as the organization once did. Thus, the portable executive and the client should mutually agree on the terms of an assignment in order to guard against the inappropriate use of his core skills.
At the core of this type of negotiated relationship is a mutual appreciation between the two parties that assumes the client's high regard for's expertise and for his professional assessment and understanding of the client's needs.
Since is strongly motivated by the challenge of the work the client has to offer, the executive who is still working within a large organization would most likely negotiate a move within the corporation to achieve a better match of his or her core skills.
Unlike the old organizational model where executives' employment status lay solely in the hands of the organization, the portable executives recognize that they are not dependent on any one organization for their career development, success, or failure. Recognizing the flexible nature of work, is prepared to end the client relationship when a given project or assignment has been completed and to move on to the next assignment. The relationship between a portable executive and the client can be long term, but both parties need to review it periodically to assess whether the needs of each are being met. These periodic reviews give both and the client the opportunity to assess the benefits each is receiving, and to either revise the terms of their relationship or agree to end it. Bud Titsworth, a portable advertising executive, comments on the fact that in today's relationships it is not only the client who determines whether an arrangement is working.
In the old boss worker relationship, power emanated from the organization, and the employee derived his identity from the organization's power. In the relationship between the portable executive and her clients, the executive possesses a very clear under standing of power residing within her. She is an independent contributor of value from outside of the organization-as is an individual who still works within a large organization-but has a portable mind set: neither will cede their identity to the corporation, nor do they perceive the corporation as giving them value.
The client views as a person who is making an objective contribution to the organization in the context of a clearly defined project or assignment. Sometimes this blocks the effectiveness of when he or she is viewed as not being part of the organization, but other times it allows the executive to operate in a position of relative freedom from organizational politics.
In the organization, many factors contributed to the level of employees' compensation-factors that had little to do with individual accomplishments. Factors such as longevity, status, and personality matches and clashes all influenced the reward sys tem. However, defining not only the terms of what will be achieved in any given assignment, but also the precise terms of rewards or bonuses is part and parcel of the original assignment definition. Thus, and the client arrive at an understanding of compensation that is based on the actual results to be achieved and not on arbitrary factors within the organization.
One of the main factors motivating to perform so well is his dedication to delivering the highest quality service. Since long term job security is a thing of the past, the content and quality of work has emerged as the new basis of loyalty, which is derived from mutual support and respect between and his clients.
