Ignite Coach Ron Mitchell JD, MBA is a familiar name within the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies. He is the lead coach, founder, and executive chair of BEM Enterprises LLC, dba Team Ignite. The global firm’s influence extends to non-profit businesses, the U.S. military, and the federal government.
His multi-faceted team provides innovative strategies and solutions to institutions of all sizes to fuel high performance. According to the Ignite coach, working with senior leaders in many of the largest organizations in the world, the same questions often arise on the topic of team building. Examples include how to create organizational improvements, win-win scenarios, leveraging the individual strengths of team members, and how to build a stronger team.
Mitchell’s vast experiences as an entrepreneur, attorney, academic scholar, veteran, philanthropist, author, artist, and former Booz Allen Hamilton management consultant give the assumption that the answers come from an external source. However, he explains this couldn’t be further from the truth referring to his coaching and training mission, “to ignite the fire within and drive the human spirit.”
Igniting the fire within his own team of leaders, the trusted advisor challenges them to become intrapreneurs, defined as personnel tasked with innovation development within an already established business. The former U.S. Army Reservist explains that this exercise entails taking risks by exploring the greatness within, adding that it helps recognize the commercial potential of internal attributes such as traits, abilities, and feelings.
“Implementing these attributes along with other personal factors help to build successful entrepreneurs and turn their visions into commercially viable innovations to better support the clients we serve,” he said. “When intrapreneurship is in action, we are all becoming better entrepreneurs and fueling high performance within each other and the global workforce.”
Ron Mitchell shares four ways intrapreneurship can “ignite the fire within” entrepreneurship and fuel high performance in the workforce.
Four Benefits of Intrapreneurship
1. Self-leadership
The Ignite coach stresses that this attribute is the most overlooked, underinvested in, and biggest gap in developing human capital in an organization. Self-leadership inspires employees to work towards the best client solutions.
“It’s about developing and managing your individual energy to initiate high performance and improving your ability to drive sustainable results and influence others outside or within an organization,” he said.
2. Leadership Language
A personal language fuels high performance and should be established to ignite creativity and energy throughout an organization. Speaking this specific language builds leadership skills and drives sustainable results. Successful companies use this language in addition to leadership competencies to achieve goals and acquire buy-in.
3. Personal values
Teams should set clear personal mission statements and values that will guide their day-to-day decisions and are aligned with their personal and the organization’s goals. He explains that the way you lead yourself and others is reflected in what you believe.
4. Mindset
Just like our daily lives, personal goals constantly evolve and plans change quite often without notice. It is important to be flexible and able to make the necessary mental and emotional adjustments required.
“As a daily exercise, take five minutes to engage your mindset and measure your energy level and emotional state,” he said. “This will help you determine where you are in pursuit of your goals and implement the changes needed to perform at a high level.”
Intrapreneurship Takes Time
Becoming a successful entrepreneur does not happen overnight and the same goes for becoming a successful intrapreneur. For this reason, Team Ignite consistently focuses on intrapreneurship to maintain an entrepreneurial spirit. Mitchell gives an example of constantly traveling to attend speaking engagements and meetings with clients. He says no matter what his schedule looks like, he remains in constant contact with his team to support their intrapreneurship.
What’s Holding Your Workforce Back?
The No Matter What You’ve Got to Live Your Dreams author believes that organizational transformation cannot happen without personal transformation. Working with thousands of individuals over the years, Mitchell routinely identifies four major struggles: change, self-hate, honesty, and communicating effectively.
“Most people struggle with change because it causes discomfort and fear,” he said. “Some battle with self-hate due to a toxic environment and/or upbringing where they were taught to not love themselves, to be dishonest, and to communicate ineffectively.”
Mitchell offers the following advice to get started addressing these issues:
- Write down what you want to change in your life.
- Identify what you hate about yourself and/or life.
- On a daily basis, practice being honest with yourself and others.
- Work hard to improve your ability to communicate with others.
“It is important to remember that everyone is different, and what works for one person may not work for another,” the business coach said, adding, “The most important thing is to find a plan that works for you and to be patient with yourself. Change takes time.”
As these steps help individuals to evolve on both personal and professional levels, self-clarity and honesty are also important. Additionally, empowering yourself to lead a successful life means being willing to accept self-challenges and identifying personal negativity.
Mitchell suggests seeking professional help to support and develop self-leadership and self-trust. Hiring a coach can be a catalyst for improving your communication skills because coaching is driven by communication between two individuals.
“Consider the help of an organization like Team Ignite that can provide products and services to guide you through the process, provide a roadmap, and customize a plan that fits the needs of your business,” he said.
By Gabrielle Kuholski