You can spend hours developing the perfect strategy for your business. But if the people doing the work don’t understand where you’re going or how they contribute, even the best plan can stall.
That’s why sharing your strategy isn’t enough. Your people need opportunities to engage with it, ask questions, share ideas, and see how their work moves the business forward.
When you involve your people in this way, you’re accomplishing more than strategy execution. You’re developing leaders and shaping your culture at the same time.
I’ve seen that connection firsthand through Midwest BankCentre’s annual Leadership Summit. Each year, we bring leaders from across the organization together to align on where we’re going as a company, discuss our strategy, and determine how they can help bring it to life within their teams.
But the Summit isn’t simply about communicating a strategic plan. Leaders have opportunities to present, collaborate, and participate in conversations beyond their everyday responsibilities. They build relationships with colleagues, celebrate accomplishments, and ultimately return to their teams better equipped to translate the strategy into action.
You don’t need a multi-day summit or a large budget to accomplish the same thing in your organization. You can start with a few intentional steps.
Define your strategy.
Your employees can’t help execute a plan they don’t understand. Be clear about what you’re trying to accomplish and why it matters. That could mean sharing a formal strategic plan or simply gathering your team and saying, “Here are the three things we need to accomplish this year, and here’s why.”
Invite people into the conversation.
Don’t make strategy something that’s created behind closed doors and handed down to employees. Ask the people doing the work what they’re seeing.
At Midwest BankCentre, employees are asked to contribute to our annual SWOT analysis before our strategic plan is updated. Your approach can be even simpler. Ask: What opportunities are we missing? What’s getting in our way? What are our customers telling us?
You’ll gain valuable information while sending an important message to your employees: Your voice matters here.
Connect their work to the strategy.
Communicating your goals is only the beginning. Help employees understand how their individual work contributes to achieving them.
Ask teams to discuss what the strategy means for their area and identify the actions they can take to support it. Invite employees to facilitate those conversations, present ideas, or lead projects tied to your goals. In the process, you’re helping people think beyond their daily tasks and giving emerging leaders opportunities to grow.
One of the most rewarding pieces of feedback I’ve heard from employees is, “I see how I fit into the strategy now. What I do is important.” When people make that connection, strategy stops being something that belongs to senior leadership and becomes something everyone can own.
Keep reinforcing it.
Strategy can’t be discussed once and then put on a shelf. Bring it into team meetings and one-on-one conversations. Ask: How did you impact the strategy this week?
Recognize people when you see them making a meaningful contribution. It might be an incentive program, bonus, or profit sharing, but it can also be a handwritten note, public recognition, or even doughnuts for the team. What matters is showing people that you see and value their contribution.
Taken together, these simple practices do more than activate your business strategy. They give people room to contribute, collaborate, and lead while building a culture where employees have a voice, understand why their work matters, and feel connected to something bigger.
That doesn’t require a large HR department or a significant investment. It requires time, intention, and a willingness to bring your people into the conversation. Do that well, and your strategy becomes more than a plan. It becomes part of how your people think, work, and lead.
Julie Tuggle-Nguyen is Chief Human Resources Officer at Midwest BankCentre.