Entrepreneurs & Intrapreneurs Share Several Key Work Habits

I love working with startup companies and organizations run by the dynamic entrepreneur, the builder and driver of a new business. She or he has taken a concept and made it a reality. And often, these companies are populated by people who have many of the same traits as the founder…hand-picked, special people with similar ideas about how to get things done.

As a supplier, for me this means that firm decisions are being made—nothing tentative or requiring layers of approvals from “on high.” That’s my favorite environment because I can then commit 150% to my efforts, as we share a common vision as to goals and objectives. It’s not like a bureaucratic organization where everything seems to revolve around layers of checks and balances. Sure, it can be risky, and careers on the startup company circuit don’t have the security of working for a Fortune 100 company. That’s why many “closet” entrepreneurs work in larger entities. They can still be a fun place to work if your team and closest associates are pulling together. This type of employee is sometimes referred to as an “intrapreneur.”

As I think about the best placements I’ve made over the years, some of them have pulled together teams inside the larger employers that resemble the atmosphere of the startup. It’s interesting how they’ve gotten special projects accomplished. By reviewing my notes over three decades of headhunting and thinking about my favorite assignments, I’ve come up with a few key work habits and philosophies required to put yourself into this level of work engagement.

A Killer Instinct

Years ago, a senior executive gave me some advice about killer instincts, and I’ve learned to his words seriously. We had been discussing the personal characteristics found in his most successful employees and he had evidently saved this one for last.

“Our best people foster a killer instinct,” he said.

At first, I thought about some of the negative people I have met in my career who were expert at company politics—backstabbers par excellence. But after a time, he came back and clarified what he meant. I then agreed with him that, yes—this is a trait of the internal project champion.

“Any manner of things can be accomplished by a person who has a killer instinct. Perhaps what I am talking about might be more politely labeled raw energy or drive, but I wouldn’t want to have an important staff member without it. I think that the phrase I use has a certain edge which describes how committed the individual feels about getting things done,” he told me.

It’s always this “getting things done” element of work that seems to separate those who repeatedly come up in conversation when the discussion turns to examples of successful people who I have placed.

Remove Roadblocks

Even in the best companies there will be people who delight in putting barriers in the path of any team that is apparently going for the gold. Sad, but true. And if anyone were to ask me what the number one ingredient of getting things done would be in such a situation (part of that killer instinct mentioned above), I’d say it would be a fair degree of perseverance. It’s this persistence and the ability to go back at it time and again, despite the roadblocks, that builds the chances for success.

I placed Kumar into a project management position two decades ago. Kumar had an idea that could solve a major issue with the manufacturing line for one of his company’s compounds. Every time he spoke about it, his boss would find something else for him to do. And yet, Kumar knew that if the company could get over the technical hurdles they were encountering, the result would be a tremendous timesaver for everyone. Unfortunately, both the quality department and the manufacturing team had decided that his idea was unworkable.

The last time he presented it, his QA/QC department head had publicly referred to the idea as a “time sink.” It was at that moment that Kumar decided to go underground with his idea. Instead of moving it along in project meetings, he developed a few strategic alliances and worked with these scientists on the major technical glitch. As things sometimes happen when creative people are involved in an “unofficial” project, they had a lucky break within just a couple of weeks. Their fix was working in manufacturing just a short while later. It was a set of skills learned about project management and perseverance that will last throughout Kumar’s career, I’m sure.

Empathy Matters

Michelle is a project manager for early-stage products at a major firm in the regulated products industry. She had been told by an outside safety testing laboratory that the key results they were seeking would be delayed by several weeks. It was very frustrating because Michelle knew her employer had developed similar tests for other purposes in another department. If it were possible to have these adapted to her needs, it would be a great time and money saver. But, to have her needs pushed ahead of that department manager’s own goals would seem to be impossible.

Later, after Michelle won a company award and bonus, she told me about how she negotiated with the other department supervisor. Her needs would be above and beyond the call of duty and would require some sort of “currency” in the form of a payback.

She knew that she couldn’t ask that fellow to simply trust her to make it up to him. It couldn’t be that vague…she would have to have a clear vision of what he would achieve by rearranging his priorities. She began to think it through from his viewpoint and in doing so found a “win-win” situation for them both. It ended up simply a matter of sharing the glory!

Apply Great Effort

My friend Vic long ago suggested that his company move product assembly to a robotics system. When we placed Vic in that role, they had been doing assembly the same way for 15 years. His boss, the director of operations, had given him a budget for the changeover to a robotics line. But Vic felt it was 40% less than what was necessary to do the job right. Yet, he was committed to make it work. He found equipment available that could be modified to do the job but might require a lot of effort both from his company and the vendor. This particular vendor wasn’t as prepared as Vic had hoped, and he found himself with little information about other successful installations. Still, Vic remained confident and willing to go to whatever lengths necessary to get it up and running. He recruited a mechanical engineer from the facilities team and together they would meet three days a week at 7:00AM over coffee, bagels and a drafting table. It was on a Saturday morning when the two of them finally put the jigsaw pieces together and saw that the robotics system would work. A short time later, the equipment was installed and debugged by the vendor. When it worked flawlessly—as expected—Vic told me that he and his partner gave a sigh of relief. It had come in on budget and on time.

The Ties That Bind

By themselves, these traits are not enough to guarantee your success. Each is a valuable interpersonal skill area which many successful people have fostered. However, there is another critical component to these success factors—one which binds them and gives them synergy. That important ingredient is a sense of urgency. If you manage to integrate the work traits mentioned in this article along with a sense of urgency, there will be no stopping your career.

Let me know how you are doing along the way.

Related Content:

Lessons from a 98-year-old Female Entrepreneur

Caress Stages 2023 Dreams Fund To Support Women of Color Entrepreneurs

Indie Inc.

---

David G. Jensen
Founder and Managing Director of CTI Executive Search
davejensen70@gmail.com
928-274-2266
www.careertrax.com
 
David Jensen is the founder and managing director of CTI Executive Search, a unit of CareerTrax Inc, a leading search firm working in the life sciences. Previously, he had been a managing director at Kincannon & Reed, a 30-year retained executive search firm where his company, CareerTrax, had been a contractor. In 1985, Jensen founded and was CEO at Search Masters International (SMI), a top executive search practice working with biotechnology companies, which was sold in 2001 to a $4.4B human resources service firm. Prior to 1985, Jensen had established a life sciences practice for Govig and Associates (Phoenix, AZ).