Project Person // Primer #9

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I’m not sure where I first heard the term “intrapreneur”, but I can tell you I immediately thought of people who fit that bill.

These are the folks who may not have started the company but who have an ownership mentality and can run with new ideas. They are builders.

They can be in any position in a company, and they may even jump around from position to position. Marketing? Operations? They can do it all (and they likely want to try it all).

They could be high-level President/COOs or entry-level Specialists. 

Honestly, they may not even know they are an intrapreneur. It’s not like it’s a title or badge or accomplishment; it’s really just a way someone thinks and operates. 

April (Project Person #9) is such a good example of intrapreneurship done well. I also immediately thought of my husband David (currently in operations but often called “the swiss army knife” of the company in which he works). And then there’s my girl Johna Castro, who worked with me at The Big Fake Wedding in a handful of different roles and is now the Director of Communications and Design at Campus Multimedia.

I thought through what makes them great, I asked for their advice, and I’ve compiled it all below.

🪩 If you are out there working for The Man but have always felt this entrepreneurial spirit, I hope this list will feel validating and encouraging, potentially even giving you a vision for how you can use this gifting right where you’re at (or elsewhere, if you’re too stifled where you are). 

🪩 If you are an entrepreneur, I hope this list will help you identify these qualities in some of your team members. Call this entrepreneurial spirit out in them! Celebrate it, hone it, and see what they need. It’s a gift; don’t be scared of it. 

~ How to Thrive as an Intrapreneur ~

→ Ensure that your vision matches their vision. A friend of mine works for a founder that could not be more different than him, yet my friend is the president of the company, often steering the proverbial ship. I asked him once how they ever get anything done with such different personalities and tactics, and he said, “We may always get there a different way, but we are always going to the same place.”

Start with really understanding the visions—both yours and theirs. If you find that your vision is different from that of the founder or company, you will likely always be in a state of tension and frustration. 

→ Build trust. The simplest and most effective way to do this is to do what you say you are going to do. Follow-through. If there is a reason that you somehow won’t do the thing by the time you said you would, then communicate openly and proactively about why, sharing the plan moving forward. 

→ Show your work. This is another way to build trust! At Same Page HR, our People Partners send their clients a recap of their work (highlights, roadblocks, and next week’s plan) each Friday afternoon. We use the recap emails as a sort of to-do list and accountability tool, double-checking that we did what we said we were going to do the week before. 

The sense of comfort these emails give clients (and the satisfaction they give our team!) lead to more and more trust—and trust leads to autonomy.

Another show-your-work tool I love is StandUpBot for Slack. Our “corporate” team at Same Page (all four of us ;), who all work remotely, answer three quick questions each morning prompted by this StandUpBot: 

• What did you accomplish yesterday?

• What are you working on today?

• Is anything standing in your way?

→ Take initiative. Don’t just wait to be told what to do. Intrapreneurs find problems, but they also find solutions.

(I once told a mentor that a team member of mine was very good at finding problems. “That doesn’t sound like a skill,” she told me. “That just sounds like drama.” 🫠)

If you have an idea for something, think through a way to show this a few steps further… 

• If you want to hire a new role, go ahead and draft a job description. 

• If you want to host an event, go ahead and draft the invite messaging for Eventbrite or an email. 

• If you want to sign up for a new digital tool, go ahead and book a demo. Write out the exact cost and where you think you can fit it into the budget. 

In short, come to your boss/decision-maker with both a problem and a plan. 

→ Know which projects to pursue. From Johna: “A tool that I highly encourage teams to utilize is Working Genius. It’s an online assessment that identifies an employee’s Geniuses and Frustrations. If you are leading a team, you can maybe more quickly identify the people on the bus who are intrapreneurs by seeing those that test highly in the Wonder and Invention buckets. 

I’ve always somehow found myself in the ‘birthing’ or creation stage of many sister companies or projects throughout my career. And something that I believe has served me really well and pairs well with Invention is the gift of Discernment.  Entrepreneurs can often be dreamers and visionaries, but intrapreneurs have the ability to discern: is this new idea worth pursuing? where are the blind spots? is this scaleable? what is it going to take to build this?” 

→ Ensure your project or goal aligns with other internal goals, especially if you’re struggling to get your project/goal moved along in the organization.

A friend who works in operations recently said he’s been trying to get HR to improve the onboarding flow for years now—but that’s just not one of HR’s current points of focus. Retention was a big focus, however, so he crafted a pitch to improve onboarding because of how it ultimately affects retention.

You will be infinitely more successful if you are helping someone achieve their goal vs. just trying to get your own goal across the line. 

→ And finally, the hardest: Leave your pride at the door. Johna says, “Being an intrapreneur may come with not receiving the same level of credit and notoriety as a founder would. You’ve got to have the willingness to drive the invention and execution of the project/company and be okay without necessarily getting the renown.”

What else would you add from your own experience? Reply and let me know!

This is my 20th email! Next week, I’ll share an update about this email project (how many subscribers, the open rate, what I’ve learned, what I plan to do moving forward, etc). Stay tuned!