In an earlier blog, I discussed the value of intrapreneurs – clones of entrepreneurs, without the killer instinct – who push organizations to the next level from their second-lead positions. Intrapreneurs are people who fully invest themselves in the vision and mission, and go the extra mile with new ideas, impeccable follow-through and superb team leadership, without ever having to take on the risk of actually owning a company.
But an entrepreneur with a team of intrapreneurs is not enough to build a company. You need employees.
The role of employees is very different from that of intrapreneurs, though they’re all on the payroll. Employees form the bulk of the organization, and it is their day-to-day contribution that keeps the organization moving forward.
Employees perform specified tasks, and their only concern is how well those tasks are performed. Employees are not expected to strategize, innovate or worry about the big decisions. They stay within the box of their job description – and good employees aim to do the job exceptionally well. Always be on time, respect company rules and work diligently until the end of their shift.
The advantages of being good employees are many. For one, when they go home at the end of their shift, they can put work away and live their personal lives to the fullest. They don’t bring piles of paperwork or work concerns home, so they can stay relatively stress-free and have a lifestyle that is optimally balanced between work and fun.
Second, good employees can easily be the most content people in the organization because they have the satisfaction of doing their job well and earning a steady paycheck without risking the future of the company with their day-to-day decisions. Responsibility rests with the manager above them, and as long as they’re doing what they are told – and doing it as well as they can – they will get pay raises, bonuses, recognition etc. and feel completely satisfied with the direction of their lives. They can plan for the future because they are reasonably confident of their secure finance flow.
As a serial entrepreneur, I value employees as much as intrapreneurs on my team because my businesses will not succeed without either. Without intrapreneurs, businesses won’t grow. Without employees, businesses won’t function.
How the chips fall and who becomes an intrapreneur or an employee depends not just on education and experience, but human mentality as well. Intrapreneurs are wired to have visions and ambitions that are not dictated by their pay grade. Their eyes are constantly on the big picture and they willingly take on the weight of a company on their shoulders with all its attending stresses and worries. Employees are not looking to do any of that. They don’t have to. Their scope is limited to clearly demarcated tasks and they are glad to hang up their aprons and go live their lives when the clock strikes 5 pm.
My worry for the future is not the new intrapreneurs but new employees who will be joining the workforce some day. Our young people are so deeply influenced by the illusion of a virtual existence, they’re forgetting how to read the pulse of reality and know what places they will eventually take in the adult, professional world one day.
Everybody in this millennial generation is being fed on the idea that they too can be a superstar on Instagram and change the world with their phones. Social media is full to overflowing with internet gurus who are propagating the idea that anybody can be a self-made entrepreneur and earn millions by signing up for some trumped-up, get-rich-quick formula that has worked for them. And they all have bedazzled homes, fancy cars and a rags-to-riches story to convince this dreaming generation that they can also do it. “You deserve it!” is a common end-piece for these hyped-up social influencers who’re enjoying a mass following of believers who now feel entitled to this entrepreneurial lifestyle.
So why work for anybody else?
The consequences of this mass hypnosis will be felt in the very near future when nobody will be willing to be good, contented employees. Without knowing their true merit or their real skills and life values, they will hold out for an entrepreneurial career that will mostly not come to pass. Parents will have their basements full of grown-up children who cannot move out because the success they are entitled to is just around the corner.
Contentment will be a lost value and organizations will be crippled by the lack of good, solid, dependable employees.
So what is the solution? Frankly, I don’t know. But I am certain of one thing. Unless the young generation is stripped of their entitlement mindset and taught the value of finding contentment in what they are really good at, the portents for America’s future are not good.
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