Entrepreneurs often get well-deserved recognition and attention. But what of those with many of the same skills as entrepreneurs but who work within an organisation, the somewhat overlooked intrapreneur?

In 2014 Forbes asserted that the most valuable employees are social intrapreneurs as workers of the future who tackle global challenges such as poverty, hunger, education and environmental issues. During the Covid-19 pandemic, many employees had to develop their intrapreneurial skills overnight when working from home. The current rapid pace of change means that agile, solutions-oriented intrapreneurs are now finally gaining some of the recognition they deserve and are becoming highly valued within organisations. There is a problem though. 83% of executives say curiosity is encouraged a great deal at their company, but only 52% of employees agree.

Intrapreneurs are key players who when thriving, are good for profit, performance, the brand, work culture, internal and external stakeholders, partnerships, staff morale, and future-proofing an organisation. They develop initiatives, explore solutions, look at problems with a different perspective and adopt the opposite mindset of passive employees. Intrapreneurs have ideas that innovate an organisation. They increase employee engagement, retention and productivity, and drive motivation and develop competitive advantage.  They can deal with rapidly changing marketplaces and develop cutting-edge solutions. They enjoy empowering others and making them feel valued too.

We used to believe that individuals were born with enterprising, risk-taking skills, but we now know that these skills can be learnt.  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 to 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, attitude, 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.

If you are chatting to one, they are often the ones who come up with ideas. They 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 whilst 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 may be prone to working too hard.

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. The culture of the organisation 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. They need freedom, not a requirement to clock in and out. Stifling them means they will leave. Instead, they need the ability to present their ideas to get investment and funding and to bring people on board. Give them the resources they need to progress their ideas.

Leaders need to bestow decision-making powers and trust them, not micromanage them. Whilst creating a supportive and flexible environment, leaders need to set some goals and have guidelines, feedback sessions and KPIs but then let them get on with it. Rewards are important but different rewards are important for different people. Some may wish for ownership of projects, or to help them job-craft the role they want, some may want recognition or benefits.

As employees are increasingly asking themselves ‘Do I matter?’, take the time to notice the innovators in your organisation. Perhaps follow Google’s lead with the 20% rule that employees spend 20 per cent of their working hours on projects that they think will benefit Google the most.  Those who could have an incredibly positive impact on the business are probably already working for you.