Your Own Company of One

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I want you to play a trick on yourself, a mind-game. It will make you a better employee, and it will make you a better boss. It will make you enjoy your present work situation more, and it will set you up well for your next gig, whether that's within your current company or outside it.
The game is simple: as an employee, act at all times as if you are an outside consultant brought in by your employer to work on a project. If you do well on this one, if you blow your client away with how useful you are, and with the phenomenal service you provide, you can expect them to ask you to help with another project, and another. There is no contract. They pay you, you do the work, they ask you do do more, pay you, you do that one. You get the picture.
You are a service provider. Your "employer" is really your "customer." Every employee at that customer's office is a customer - they're all on the inside, and you're a guest.
How will you behave in this situation? Remember, only Five-Star Customer Service will (more or less) guarantee they'll enjoy you enough to keep you. Only by doing what they need of you better than anyone can you make sure they don't hire your competition for the next project. Keep this in mind at all times:
Incredible Service + Superior Performance = "Job" Security.
I put the word Job in quotation marks because you don't have a job, remember? You have your own small business. Your own company of one.
Now let's tweak this mind-setting exercise for bosses. You are the "boss;" you're the customer. Your team is composed of specialists you have hired to complete a project. Yes, you should expect very high levels of professionalism from them, because they are each small business owners and they have a reputation to uphold and, they hope, enhance.
But here's the other side of that sword, taken from today's headlines: the economy is heating up again, and the best small business owners are once again able to pick and choose their clients. If you don't treat them right, they're out, and you'll have to find a replacement. Not only is that costly and time-consuming, but the folks you have right now are the best of the best (which is why you chose them, of course!), and you know that to lose one means settling for second-best, or maybe worse, to complete your projects.
You don't have "employees;" you have "vendors." And these vendors are expert at what they do. You pretty much can't survive without them.
I'm very comfortable with this mind-game because I owned my own small, highly specialized B2B business for a number of years, which had me wearing both hats at all times. As my company's representative when I worked with a client, I knew that every minute of every day I was basically on a job interview. And with my team, some of whom actually were small business owners and consultants themselves, I never forgot that they could leave and help my competitors at any time. So I demanded a very high level of performance, and I did my best to treat each like a rock star so they'd never dream of leaving.*
I hope you take two points away from this post. First, for everyone, employee and boss alike:
Act like you're on a job interview every day, all day long. (You are.)
And for bosses:
Treat your team like volunteers, not employees. Expect them to leave if you mistreat them. (They will).

*****Another time, we'll talk about organizing cats - I mean volunteers, an area I have some experience with (and plenty of scars to show for it!) As many experts will agree, no aspect of leadership is harder, and if you can master this art, the world of work - with its pay and benefits and careers... - will seem a breeze. I promise.


*With varying results, of course - this was the real world, not pie-in-the-sky theory.