While entrepreneurs often receive well-deserved recognition and praise at work, intrapreneurs, who possess many of the same talents, are often overlooked and unrewarded. Yet, the current rapid pace of change means that curious, deep-thinking, agile, and solutions-oriented intrapreneurs are needed more than ever.
Ten years ago, Forbes revealed that the most valuable employees are social intrapreneurs who address global challenges like poverty, education, hunger, and climate change. But there remains a mismatch in the value placed on these characteristics by the C-suite and workers. For example, in one piece of research, 83% of executives said curiosity is encouraged a great deal at their company, but only 52% of employees agree.
Intrapreneurs like to operate in a more relaxed space and have an element of play and curiosity.
What makes an intrapreneur so valuable in the workplace?
When supported and thriving, intrapreneurs are good for profit, performance, the brand, work culture, internal and external stakeholders, partnerships, staff morale, and future-proofing an organisation.
Intrapreneurs adopt the opposite mindset of passive employees, they develop initiatives, explore solutions, look at problems with a different perspective and have ideas that innovate an organisation.
They increase employee engagement, retention and productivity, drive motivation and develop competitive advantage. They can deal with rapidly changing marketplaces and develop cutting-edge solutions. Intrapreneurs enjoy empowering others and making them feel valued too. They are key players and game-changers.
The intrapreneurial mindset and psychology
We used to believe that individuals were born with enterprising, risk-taking skills, but we now know that these skills can be learned. The brains of intrapreneurs are unlikely to be structurally different, but their psychology is likely to be. Their parasympathetic nervous system is often activated, meaning they are calm and alert, and alpha brain waves are being produced. Their ‘feel-good’ neurotransmitters may be a bit more active as they look for opportunities and solutions using their growth mindset.
Intrapreneurs like to operate in a more relaxed space and have an element of play and curiosity. They enjoy freedom and autonomy. If they are staring out of the windows, let them. They need a chance to play around with ideas. Their mindset, beliefs, attitudes, and thinking processes can help determine outcomes.
Intrapreneurs may be more cautious about financial risk than entrepreneurs, so having the boundaries and safety of an organisation gives them the freedom to fly, be innovative, see the bigger picture, adapt quickly and unlock their hidden potential.
How can you identify an intrapreneur at work?
They are often the ones who come up with ideas. Intrapreneurs come into their own when issues crop up in the organisation; you can almost see them rolling up their sleeves. They are rarely reactive or magnify the negatives, instead they look for solutions independently.
Sometimes they are lone wolves, but more often than not, they just need some space to develop their ideas. They like to be part of a team. They want to experiment while knowing and accepting that some ideas might fail. They can sometimes be a little quieter as individuals, but that is because they are deep-thinking and churning over ideas. They think differently and don’t see parameters as much as others.
They are less worried about their ego yet have passion, vision, ambition, and clarity of their role and value mission and purpose. They tend to be mindful of others and how their ideas might impact them. They want to make a difference for good and want to belong. They have high levels of emotional intelligence and are self-motivated. They have a good attitude to work although they may be prone to working too hard.
Leaders need to bestow decision-making powers and trust intrpreneurs, not micromanage them.
Ways to support intrapreneurialism
It takes specific management skills to handle an intrapreneur, and the organisation’s leadership and culture have to be good. Intrapreneurs want to bring up ideas without fear of judgment and need to feel safe enough to fail at times and supported to be creative.
Here are some suggestions for how to support your organisation’s intrapreneurs…
Nurture a fail-safe culture
An organisation’s culture must be good enough to allow failure to be part of innovating and to stop jealousy in the ranks from the rest of the team. Intrapreneurs need freedom, not a requirement to clock in and out. Stifling them means they will leave.
Instead, give them the opportunity to present their ideas and bid for investment. Give them the resources they need to progress their ideas.
Provide flexibility with reasonable parameters
Leaders need to bestow decision-making powers and trust intrpreneurs, not micromanage them. While creating a supportive and flexible environment, set goals and provide guidelines, feedback sessions and KPIs, but then let them get on with it
Personalise your reward mechanism
Rewards are important but different rewards are important for different people. Some intrapreneurs may wish for project ownership, or to craft their unique job role, while others may want more standard recognition or benefits. Consider your audience.
The 20% rule
As employees increasingly ask themselves, ‘Do I matter?’, take the time to notice the innovators in your organisation. Perhaps follow Google’s lead with its 20% rule – employees spend 20% of their working hours on projects they think will benefit Google the most (there has been a rollback on this approach at Google, but it is a good approach to consider nonetheless). Those who could have an incredibly positive impact on the business are probably already working for you.
