Value and manage Your intrapreneurs

By William Seidman Intrapreneur: a person in an organization who uses entrepreneurial skills to develop new enterprises within the organization. Managing your organization’s highly creative people — your intrapreneurs —  is a delicate balancing act. Such people want autonomy, but the organization runs a risk of disruption to overall productivity if it gives too much, or the wrong types, of autonomy. Very few leaders really understand or develop the necessary foundation for granting intrapreneurs the autonomy they crave. Based on more than 15 years’ experience developing and implementing cultural change, leadership, and performance improvement programs, we have developed a program that gives organizations the structure to consistently grant these intrapreneurs the appropriate autonomy that helps them thrive. Our underlying premise is that autonomy is earned, not just given, and that the organization can help the development process as follows: Guide the team to collectively define a greater social good or purpose for their work. Intrapreneurs almost always want to do something greater than themselves and greater than the narrow, financial interpretation of success found in most organizations. Guide the team and each individual to find something important enough to be a profound motivating force for everyone to pull together. Guide the team to collectively define a path to mastery – the team’s plan for becoming great (not just good) together. When everyone in an organization is aligned on a compelling purpose and has agreed on a plan to achieve the purpose, get out of the way, which is also called, “give them autonomy.” This is a simple, effective way to get the most from your intrapreneurs with the least disruption. The executives manage the development process and guide others to intelligently manage the work.]]>