Organisational development | Entrepreneur in the company

Promote entrepreneurship

from Sabine Walter,, Head of netzwerk managementberatung | coaching

Entrepreneurial thinking and behaviour is a skill that is becoming increasingly important for the competitiveness of companies. However, it is not enough for this competence to be developed only at board or managing director level. Rather, it is a question of anchoring entrepreneurial thinking and behaviour in as many employees as possible through appropriate leadership and personal development. In this article, we explain how this can be achieved.

In order to anchor entrepreneurship in organisations, various factors and a top-down process are relevant. What are the essential steps to be taken?

Setting an example of entrepreneurship

Be a role model and exemplify entrepreneurship

If you want to promote entrepreneurship in your organisation, you are only credible if you exemplify it. This also includes that your leadership style is characterised by, among other things, high trust in others, i.e. relational trust. It requires that you live a high tolerance for mistakes, that you yourself are also willing to take and let go of risks within a defined framework, and that you stay out of the operational business as much as possible.

But with many managers and entrepreneurs I experience that the desire for an entrepreneurial organisation often fails due to a lack of letting go. Therefore: If you want to promote entrepreneurship in your organisation, this also implies a personal development for you - away from the best employee to the real entrepreneur.

Promote entrepreneurship

Define and operationalise as corporate value

As an organisation, to attract and retain the people who want to be entrepreneurial, we recommend, Entrepreneurship as a value of the organisation to define it. However, it is not enough to write down this value or to integrate it into the company's mission statement. Rather, the key lies in the Operationalisation of this valueto define visible results. "How can we / our customers / our business partners tell that we think and act entrepreneurially?"

Once this question has been answered, the next step is to establish or strengthen the framework conditions needed to achieve the defined results.

Promote entrepreneurship

Define competence and anchor it with behavioural characteristics

One way to do this is to define a competence map for entrepreneurship. This competence map includes all the relevant Individual competencies together with meaningful behavioural characteristics. The competency map we have developed for entrepreneurship lists eight individual competencies, including Visionary and Strategic Thinking, Lateral Thinking and Innovation, Decision-Making Skills and the Ability, take risks within a defined framework.

Promote entrepreneurship

Provide space for entrepreneurial competence to develop

Entrepreneurial competence can develop when everyone in the company can be effective and shape things themselves. This self-efficacy develops more quickly in organisations in which a fault tolerance culture prevails.

Develop and live a culture of fault tolerance

A culture of fault tolerance requires the attitude that mistakes are part of learning and development processes (Error acceptance). This attitude is most visible through a freedom from sanctions and the attitude "If a mistake happens, it's not about finding the culprit and punishing them, it's about getting the cow off the ice again and learning from the mistake so that it doesn't happen again". In companies where there is a culture of fault tolerance, employees are much more willing to think outside the box, experiment or even make decisions on their own, even if they are not one hundred percent sure that it is the right decision.

This decision-making competence stands for the will and the ability to take responsibility for one's own actions and responsibility for the development of the company - the first step towards entrepreneurship in action.

Strengthening the decision-making competence of teams

Changing the decision-making culture in companies is a lengthy development process. It is not just about employees being prepared to take on more responsibility. Above all, it is also about decision-makers being prepared to relinquish responsibility and let go. This is all the more likely to succeed if the framework conditions are clearly defined and accepted by everyone:

• There is clarity of purpose
• Decision-making processes and scope for decision-making are defined (e.g. in a delegation matrix)
• Information transparency exists
• there is a culture of trust

Cf. Decision-making in agile organisations

Living a feedback culture

Another central element for the development of entrepreneurship is the Feedback culture. If entrepreneurial competences are defined in the competence profiles of the respective roles, it is elementary to enter into a feedback dialogue on a regular basis, at least quarterly. 

• How well does each individual fill the respective competences?
• What is already anchored as a strength?
• What can be improved? And how?

Recognition is an important part of feedback. It has an encouraging effect. What small and larger successes have already been achieved, what progress is visible, what development is perceptible? Ask the employees for their assessment and reflect what you perceive.

Carry out vision and strategy processes with everyone

While in many companies only a selected part of the management is involved in the development of the vision and the strategy process, we recommend organisations that want to anchor entrepreneurship to carry out both processes with as many employees and managers as possible. For example, start an application process to assemble the project team that will drive the development of the corporate vision or purpose, and also put the derivation of the strategy in these hands. The more people involved in the visioning and strategy process, the broader their acceptance and the greater their willingness to take on corporate responsibility.

Conclusion

Embedding entrepreneurship in organisations is a transformation process

Anchoring entrepreneurship successfully and permanently in organisations is a transformation process. A transformation needs time, commitment and consistency at the leadership level. Only then can the credibility that is needed to convince people of something new be maintained throughout the entire process. For some, taking on entrepreneurial responsibility comes naturally. Others, on the other hand, have doubts about whether they can fulfil the expectations associated with it. Pressuring these people to do so will not work. Rather, it will be a matter of taking the process steps outlined in the article even more consciously.

If you want to develop your organisation towards more entrepreneurial action, with us you get an experienced sparring partner who not only helps you find the right entry point into the process, but also supports you along the entire transformation at the different levels - cultural development, competence development and your personal development.

Get it done!