Intrapreneurhip Skills Coaching

Objective Of The  Course: It is targeted to help trainees  know why they  should acquire  skills and how they  can acquire it.

Tips About Intrapreneurs:

In=inside/inner         Preneur=creator/creative

So when you read the term intrapreneur, you may think it’s a misspelling for entrepreneur. But it’s no typo. It’s exactly the type of person all organization wants to hire. Intrapreneurs are individuals that use entrepreneurial thinking to create change or launch new ventures within existing organizations.Intrapreneurs  simply are insider of a firm thinking outside of the box to rebrand the firm he or she is working for. Let’s quickly look at why should we be an intrapreneur and why companies are really craving to have intrapreneurs as workers and partners.

 

Skills Of The 21st Century Intrapreneur

•  They do things differently, challenge the status quo and most people are challenged with change. We are creatures of habit, we are most comfortable with what we know. If we are asked to change, we are going into unfamiliar territory and afraid to fail or of rejection.
• . They have a natural ability to spot trends and see things before they happen. Whether this involves social, economic or cultural trends, they are constantly researching, observing, listening and reading. This insight enables them to tackle business problems from relevant information.
• They cultivate ideas. They are not just ‘ideas people’ – they can create a full drawn-out plan based on a seed of the idea. Intrapreneurs know that people may have objections to the idea or plan and have proactively accounted for this and have created ways to address any potential gaps.
•  Skilled on how to pivot. They can essentially change directions and do so without fear based on confidence and strong intuition. They remain focused on the end goal.
• They’re driven by passion and by what they really believe in, so they’re naturally producing their best possible work.
•  They are the trailblazers within your organization that become the very change they wish to see. They don’t just drive change; they pave the way so others can change as well.
• They Foster Innovation.
• Breeding Talent :A company with an intrapreneurial approach is better off because Intrapreneurs are not only talented, but their work and dedication also bring the best in colleagues.In other words, they make other people talented because of their commitment to a project,  product or service. Consider the immense impact that Paul Buchheit, Gmail’s creator, had on his team at Google, and how he was able to  form a cohesive team to develop and deploy the email service in 2004, after working on it the previous three years.
• Saving on R&D Money; With intrapreneurship, a business saves money on traditional research and development. Gone are the days when the company would need to follow the typical review and approval process, as well as spend millions of dollars on hiring, training and developing R&D staff.Now, with the savvy and insight of one or two employees eager to work extra hours, the organization can still beef up its product pipeline.
• Competitive Intelligence:Insiders who have an entrepreneurial approach put their insight to the benefit of the sponsoring organization. Normally, companies spend tons of cash to spy on each other, often through third parties in a process called ‘competitive intelligence.’Through intrapreneurship, organizations gain valuable intelligence at no cost, especially if the employee is a high-level professional who was just hired from a rival.Granted, many companies hedge their operational risks by making top-rate staff sign confidentiality and non-compete agreements. But the bottom line is that some shred of operational information still gets leaked when employees jump ship onto a competitor’s platform.

Can we now see that intrapreneurs are the new geniuses in the work environment.  So let us quickly look at how we can get these set skills and what really are the attributes of an intrapreneur we should portray.

• Actively spot ways to improve a service:There is always a way to provide better service. Can you think of one? Is it cheaper than the current service? If yes, will the company be able to increase its revenue with your suggestion? If you are not sure – check.
• Investigate how to save time, money, or make life easier in your department: To be able to investigate how to save time – you need to learn time management. To be able to investigate how to save money – you need to learn how to read financial reports, and to be able to investigate how to make life easier – you need to learn operational management. Not easy but not impossible. You don’t need to be a CPA or an expert – just make sure you are familiar with the basics and get advice when needed.
• Visualize variations of current products or services your department is offering.I just love this one. How many of us are taking the time to visualize anything. Not many if any. But this is a cool exercise. You will amaze yourself with having ideas you never thought you might have. Just take 10 minutes, close your eyes and imagine new / improved products or features. Then write it down. Do 10 ideas at least.
• Look for ways to enhance quality: Customers value quality. And if you manage to enhance quality with no additional or low costs, customers will favor you over your competitors. There is always a way to improve quality. It’s just a matter of costs.
• When you ‘ve got an idea, test it casually with friends.Practice on your ability to casually test your ideas with others who can point out basic flaws and ask challenging questions. It’s not an easy thing to do, because you need to master the accidently-what-do-you-think-about-this method without making others feel odd.
• Keep ideas from natural enemies as long as possible.Everybody that tries to “rock the boat” will have enemies. You’ll be naive to think otherwise. Novel ideas aimed to improve and increase effectiveness will always make someone else shine less. And the problem is that you’re not always aware of it, when you are exited with your new “baby” idea. So, to avoid opposition my advice would be to keep your ideas to yourself as long as possible.
• Promote ideas modestly and constructively: Promoting an idea is an art. It’s more than just presenting it. It’s more than just meetings with potential stakeholders and talking about it. It’s about prospecting, investigating, planning, learning, testing and executing on your idea. To be honest, this is what differentiate the boys from the men. I struggled for years before I mastered this.
• Test casually on potential customers.Everybody has a customer he/she likes more than the rest. It’s natural. People like to do business with people they like. Use this. Leverage on this. Have a few customers that you can test with them to check the idea is doable and profitable. You don’t need contracts department to draft POCs. Just make sure you are in a safe working environment and in agreement with these customers. The benefit of learning what your customers need is key.
• Accept suggestions gratefully.As much as you think you are open to different points of view – you’re not. Trust me. Especially when you have a new “baby” idea. You will find yourself protecting it and pushing back on any offer without noticing. To overcome this you can ask a team member to point out to you when you are not open in real-time. It takes time to get used to this. But It works
• Always look to network the idea so it can be thought about from many aspects.Your network is powerful even if you don’t see it now. Social networks are about spreading ideas and getting feedback. So use your network and look for all kinds of feedback: positive, negative or indifferent. And try to learn what does this mean for you? And how can you implement on it? Easier said than done.
• Don’t give up at the first sign of disappointment:Not at the second, nor at the third time. Keep going at it. An entrepreneur will succeed once for every 4 trials. Why should you be any different?!
• Come to work each day willing to give up your job for the innovation:Wait. Don’t act on this before you fully understand the meaning. You and your idea are the main focus here. Not the company’s. You will not carry out your idea being gentile and asking for permissions. So, get ready to be intimidated and even threatened to be fired. Get it?
• Circumvent any bureaucratic orders aimed at stopping your innovation
• Build a spirited innovation team: There in no NBA player that can win a game by himself. He needs the team. On the other hand, if there are no stars in the team – the team will lose. So, it takes a team of stars to win. Get close to stars in the company. Socialize with them. Get their interest in working with you. And most important – don’t try to rush and overload your friendship with them before you earned their trust.
• Keep your innovation “underground” until it is prepared for demonstration to the corporate management.This is a tricky one. One one side you need to use your network to get information, check feasibility and to decide if to go ahead. And on the other hand, you need to keep your idea close so it will not get “shot” before you present it. There is no metogology other than to choose your unofficial team members well.
• Find a key upper level manager who believes in you: You need to find a person that also believes in your ideas and will serve as a sponsor to your innovation. It’s not easy to find one without being considered a bootlicker. This means that you need to find what is it that senior manager needs and be the one that provides it. Exchanging value with support.
• Always be realistic about the ways to achieve the innovation goals:I believe that everything is doable. It’s only a question of how much and how long. So, be realistic and even skeptical about how to achieve your goals. Maybe there are other ways you overlooked. If you are offering a new way to provide a service – You have a list of actions to carry out to change the service. Examine your actions well.
• Share the glory of the accomplishments with everyone on the team:Success has many fathers while failure is an orphan. Don’t forget to share the success with your team. You wouldn’t have done it without them. Trust me.
• Convey the innovation’s vision through a strong venture plan:Plan your work and work your plan. If you don’t have a plan, you will not know what is the next step or to monitor your progress. Learning to plan is key to succeed as an intrapreneur. You don’t need to be a professional planner – just put into writing your steps and keep track on it.

 

 

Let’s have a quick exercise before we wrap it all up.

Imagine you’re working for Mind the Gap and they sent you for this training on being an intrapreneur, few days after the training being equipped with skills to be an intrapreneur you discovered a way to help your firm Mind the Gap hit their Google target of trainees one month earlier before the set deadline given to them by Google but it will cost them just a few hundreds of thousands more than their estimated budget. How will you go about it from start till finish practically?

We can see that the why and how are interchangeable because intrapreneurs are basically needed because of the things they can get done even at the risk of their own job. They own the business and do I like they’ll do theirs. They are visionaries, dreamers, innovative and creative people altogether.

For more content, you can watch this video:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxjPDxrl8HwDTzNfNG44VVhDXzg/view?usp=sharing

Have an awesome day.