The Intrapreneur Mindset

Key points

• Intrapreneurs are the most valuable employees working inside an organization, as they develop initiatives and teams.

• The intrapreneur needs to develop a mindset as well as skills and competencies that are very similar to those of an entrepreneur.

• The intrapreneur mindset comprises inner state, beliefs, attitude, and thinking processes, and it defines outcomes.

• Teaching employees to become mindful intrapreneurs is the way to future-proof an organization.

Intrapreneurial Mindset is Priceless

Source: Unsplash

The term "intrapreneur" is a blend of the two words "internal" and "entrepreneur." In 1986 Steve Jobs was quoted in Newsweek saying that the Macintosh team exhibited the qualities of intrapreneurship. In 2014 Forbes declared that the most valuable employees are the intrapreneurs.

The term“intrapreneur” has since evolved into the idea of an employee or leader who has the truly entrepreneurial attitude, a mindset with the highest level of accountability and inner drive.

The concept gained further traction with the Covid-19 pandemic, when employees needed to become independent intrapreneurs overnight. Many of them still work from home or are in a hybrid arrangement, under less direct, in-person supervision than ever. Working under such conditions involves the need to be especially self-motivated and disciplined while having more freedom and empowerment than ever before. It requires a new mindset for both the employees and those who lead them.

One of my clients has built a very successful company from scratch. Seven years ago, he and his partner worked from home. Today they have several hundred employees and one of the leading brands in their sector, with revenues of hundreds of millions of dollars. The company seems unstoppable, and yet, my client’s biggest worry remains the mindset of his employees. He complains that most of the people on his team are reactive, magnify the negatives, and don’t look for solutions independently.

According to our research with Robert B. Dilts, mindset—which is made up of our inner state, beliefs, attitude, and thinking processes—is the primary engine behind the actions we take.

We have found that there are three distinctly different levels of what we refer to as mindset:

1. The meta mindset is our big-picture clarity about life. It encompasses our fundamental inner attitude toward our world, the work we do, and the way we see our roles and goals.

2. The macro mindset relates to the inner attitude necessary to put mental disciplines and practices in place. This brings focus to the big picture and an ecological way of putting our personal and business vision into action.

3. The micro mindset level is a set of beliefs and inner attitudes. It produces the specific actions necessary to build a sustainable path for our venture, project, or team.

Our discovery has led us to create an online tool called Success MindsetMaps Inventory to visualize them and help leaders to work with these mindset patterns.

Returning to the intrapreneur mindset, we know that there is a difference between an entrepreneur and intrapreneur. An entrepreneur starts a venture as a means of providing a good or service. An intrapreneur works inside an organization with multiple internal and external stakeholders, develops services or solutions, explores policies, technologies, builds teams, and forms partnerships that will help improve the performance of an existing company or organization. As such, the intrapreneur needs to develop skills and competencies very similar to those of an entrepreneur. No doubt, all employers would love to see their employees acting like an owner of their business as opposed to a passive follower or a paid contributor.

With that in mind, here is what we learned about the entrepreneurial mindset. The interviews and observations of successful entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial leaders have led to the formulation of the SFM Circle of Success.

We discovered that the founders of successful start-up ventures divide their focus of attention evenly between five fundamental perspectives: 1) themselves and their passion for what they are doing, 2) their vision for their customers and their products and/or services, 3) their ambition and the key stakeholders influencing the its realization, 4) clarity of their role and the complementary strategic partners and alliances and 5) their mission and purpose and the team members that are necessary to realize it.

The Circle of Success™ of the Intrapreneur Leader.

Source: MindsetMaps International LLC

Leaders can be likened to captains of a ship. They too need to find the right crew and convince them to board the ship with a powerful narrative. This takes passion, purpose, and clarity of vision. The captain needs to share his vision and purpose and convince all crew members on board to bring their best to accomplish the common mission. This includes selecting and then developing the team members and giving them a sense of progress and purpose.

A leader also needs to have clarity on what ambition and success look like for them personally, as well as for the team. They also need to know the specific goals that they want to achieve within a set time frame. They need to formulate a plan detailing how they will influence all the stakeholders involved, and who can support or block their success. The journey is tough, so mental discipline is crucial on the way. Finally, the leader needs to balance many different types of people and roles on the team as well as in their own mind.

There will be moments and contexts when the leader needs to wear the hat of the “MarketMaker,” the “Competence Builder,” the “FinanSourcerer,” and the “MatchMaker,” to mention four of the nine hats, or micro mindsets. All the “outer game,” or the business context in entrepreneurship, may be very different than the everyday realities of an organization; what we found the “inner game,” or the mindset needed to succeed, is surprisingly similar. The core components of the meta, macro, and micro mindset of the intrapreneur leader are those of a successful entrepreneur.

The different "hats" of micro mindset.

Source: MindsetMaps International

Teaching employees to become mindful intrapreneurs is the future-proof way. Self-motivation, sustainability and entrepreneurial qualities come from the core elements that constitute our inner attitude, our mindset. We need conscious leaders in our business who have systemic intelligence, emotional intelligence beyond I.Q. We need to reconnect leaders to a compelling vision and purpose, not an egotistical ambition, if we are to succeed in building a more livable and sustainable world where people want to belong.

References

*** Robert B. Dilts, Next Generation Entrepreneurs: Live Your Dreams and Create a Better World Through Your Business (Success Factor Modeling Book 1)