The Top 10 Steps to Develop Intrapreneurial Staff
There are two phases in developing the intrapreneurial workplace. Phase I creates the environment necessary to support and encourage it. Phase II is building your staff's intrapreneurial skills. This Top 10 addresses the latter and may be read in conjunction with The Top 10 Steps in Creating an Intrapreneurial Workplace.
1. Share with staff your definition of intrapreneurialism and intention of fostering it throughout the corporation well before the plan is complete and the details fixed. Poll staff's fears, seek their input and suggestions: create an atmosphere of excitement and support.
2. Revisit with staff your corporate mission, vision and values. If these do not permeate the organization like the rings of a tree, take the steps necessary to make that happen.
3. Have staff developed their own personal missions, visions and values? If not, help staffers create them. Should the two be mutually exclusive, then it is in everybody's best interests to help those concerned find another corporation in which there will be no conflict.
4. Have your people developed strong Personal Foundations and do they live according to the Irresistible Attraction model? As part of your professional/personal development program offer the associated courses to your staff. Help them to be their best in every area of their lives, including the promotion of your corporation.
5. Have client sectors with whom the corporation will not work been identified and discussed with staff? On the one hand we clearly want to avoid bringing in work which is simply going to create friction, but on the other, your people may have another perspective which eliminates the problem.
6. Give your people the language to express the business of your
corporation
in simple terms as well as the appropriately technical.
Do this not just for their own area but for every production
department
of the operation. The more they share your business and
its achievements
with all around them, the more people in their lives
will understand the
work of your company and the more leads will come from
completely unexpected
sources.
7. Help staffers effortlessly introduce themselves. Help your people to effortlessly introduce themselves to individuals and groups not in terms of what they do, but the benefits they bring to the corporation's clients.
8. Help staffers effortlessly introduce your company. Help your people find the language uniquely right for them to introduce your corporation to individuals and groups in terms of the benefits of its range of services.
9. Present or arrange a networking workshop for staff. Have them learn networking skills, teach them about relationship marketing, have them practice asking the open-ended questions. Follow up with group coaching sessions to help staff find the right language for each situation, to disengage from fruitless conversations and to reprise any interactions which didn't go as well as anticipated.
10. Where do staff go, to whom do they speak, what do they read? Intrapreneurialism is not for inside the head only. Your people may already be surrounded by untapped business opportunities. Their lives outside of work may not change at all but they will be more alert to opportunities as they arise and the way in which they present themselves will attract more business enquiries. Help them develop their strategies for capitalizing on all the opportunities, existing and as yet unrecognized.
About the submitter:
This piece was written by Martin Sawdon who can be reached at martin@coachingworks.ca or
visited on the web at CoachingWorks.ca.
Martin has a special interest in people in the workplace and the creation of
Sustainable Workplaces, corporations which are extraordinarily profitable,
extraordinarily effective if public sector but get there by growing people
rather than consuming them like a fossil fuel. He coaches clients with integrity
and great senses of humor, who are determined to realize achievements beyond
their wildest dreams.
Coaching-Works! has been featured on radio and television.
