Intrapreneurship: The seventh principle

Picture this: You’ve earned a degree, perhaps a series of certificates, gained valuable field experience, studied from books, and have an immense set of skills. However, you are simply expected to comply with what your employer desires. There is no room to contribute to innovation, no expectations for you to influence positive change, just following the same procedures that have always been done.

This corporate mentality destroys more creative minds than you think.

I have seen firsthand the issues that arise from highly talented individuals being restricted from utilizing their gifts for the company's greater good. When they are not allowed creative freedom, their sense of self-worth begins to deplete.

One of my favorite aspects of my job is the freedom that I have to implement change and alter our go-to-market strategy as needed. As someone who thoroughly enjoys business, this gives me a sense of purpose during my 8-5.

If this were taken away from me, I would lose my commitment and instead feel compliant.

Unfortunately, more and more companies are stripping away the ability to rapidly innovate due to the contribution of internal teams.

Taking this away deters intrapreneurship within the workplace.

What is Intrapreneurship?

This principle is not to be confused with entrepreneurship. Rather, intrapreneurship is the ability of employees to ACT as entrepreneurs within the walls of the organization. This includes coming up with new strategies, processes, procedures, and tactics.

It is foolish to think that all entrepreneurial spirits have decided to leave their stable income for their next venture. Perhaps they may be doing something on the side, but you can expect that the vast majority of these individuals are contributing to their current employer. Many of the most driven and brilliant people that I know do not own their businesses.

That being said, these high performers ought to have the flexibility and autonomy to influence the growth of the company.

Allowing room for intrapreneurship allows for rapid innovation and a truer sense of adoption by all parties involved.

Allowing employees to bring ideas to executives will ensure that the employee believes in the concept. With this belief, they will execute the project with far more tenacity and care than a project that is forced upon them. Ownership of the project changes the entire dynamic.

At the very least, allow your employees to contribute to your ideas to better generate buy-in.

Remember, if they don’t weigh-in they won’t buy-in.

How can fostering Intrapreneurship help a company?

According to a Gallup poll, companies that encourage intrapreneurship are more likely to outperform their competitors in profitability and be more resilient during times of disruption. Additional research suggests that this can be effective at any company, regardless of size.

In addition, Gallup supports that companies that foster intrapreneurship achieve 64% more engagement by employees.

Employees want the freedom to express their talents. According to Deloitte, 93% of professionals believe in the importance of enhancing their own intrapreneurial skills for the benefit of their employer and their personal career.

Actively fostering intrapreneurship has a myriad of direct benefits to the company. These benefits may include:

→ Increase in creativity

→ Rapid solutions to critical problems

→ Higher adaptability and risk mitigation

→ Employee engagement

→ Intense market share growth

Each company and team has something different to gain from putting forth more effort to hone the talents of their employees.

Where do we start?

As you can imagine, there is no perfect recipe for sparking rapid and successful intrapreneurship in your organization. However, finding ways to start is better than doing nothing at all.

Just like anything else, it may take time to find what works best for all parties involved.

In any case, here are a few ideas to consider:

→ Cultivate a culture of innovation: Establish a culture that values creativity, curiosity, and continuous improvement. Encourage employees to challenge the status quo and think outside the box.

→ Provide autonomy and freedom: Give employees the autonomy to explore and pursue their ideas. Allow them the freedom to experiment, make decisions, and take calculated risks without micromanagement. Although direction is welcome, allow ample space for creativity to flow.

→ Support and resources: Allocate resources such as time, budget, and access to tools or expertise needed to develop and test new ideas. Provide mentorship and guidance where necessary. If these mechanisms aren’t provided, little results will follow.

→ Recognition and rewards: Recognize and reward intrapreneurial efforts and successes. This can be through incentives, promotions, public acknowledgment, or opportunities for career advancement. Make it known that the company encourages this form of input and contribution.

→ Clear goals and objectives: Ensure that intrapreneurial initiatives align with the company's overall goals and objectives. Define clear metrics for success and provide feedback to foster accountability and progress. If the team doesn’t know what to accomplish, they won’t know how to contribute on a higher level.

→ Cross-functional collaboration: Encourage collaboration across different teams and departments. Create opportunities for employees with diverse skills and perspectives to work together on innovative projects. Not only will this improve innovation, but it will also tear down and silos.

→ Risk tolerance and failure acceptance: Foster a culture where taking risks and experiencing failures are seen as learning opportunities rather than setbacks. Encourage a mindset of experimentation and resilience. Trying and failing is far better than doing nothing at all.

→ Leadership Support: Ensure that senior leadership actively supports and champions intrapreneurship initiatives. Leaders should lead by example and demonstrate their commitment to innovation. The more people involved the better. This will create an overall culture of intrapreneurship.

Measures taken toward this will increase the overall company culture and ultimately improve the bottom line.

Be the first to instill Intrapreneurship!

Your organization may be more receptive to certain avenues than others. However, it is important to remember that any step is a step forward. Test the waters. By figuring out what works best for your company or team, you too will be utilizing intrapreneurship.

Here’s my last challenge → be willing to accept the ideas of others above your own. Even if you do not feel that someone else’s idea is the best, it is still likely that they will execute it better than the idea that you give them. I am not asking that you allow the worst ideas to be attempted, but rather explore outside perspectives.

Who knows, it could lead to the best outcome in the end.

If you have any other avenues that have worked for your teams, send me an email or message on LinkedIn. I am anxious to learn from you!