- You've done the hard part,
you've stepped back and you've defined what matters,
you've written your one-page strategy.
Now it's time to make it real
'cause the strategy that sits in a file
or only lives in your head doesn't change anything.
This lesson is about embedding that strategy
into how your team operates,
how your stakeholders make decisions,
and how your peers experience working with you.
Here are the three fastest ways to get a strategy to fail,
it isn't shared,
nobody knows what or how it helps them,
or it isn't reinforced.
People forget because it never is repeated.
If it isn't connected,
it's not tied to how people work day to day.
So let's fix all three step by step.
Step one, communicate it clearly and consistently.
You'll need a marketing team to make your strategy land,
you just need clarity and consistency.
Pick two to three key messages from your strategy page
and repeat them everywhere.
In your team meetings, your Slack posts,
your QBRs, check-ins with your boss.
Think about it like this.
Instead of saying,
"We're executing phase two
of the cloud risk reduction project,"
say, "We're making it safer and faster
to build in the cloud.
That's our strategy in action."
Instead of, "We're tightening IAM controls
per our audit roadmap,"
say, "We're making it easier to get access
and harder to misuse it.
That's what we're driving."
The more they hear it, the more it sticks.
The more it sticks, the more your influence grows.
The next step is to build the rituals that reinforce it.
One of the most powerful tools a leader has
is repetition through rituals.
These are the weekly, monthly, or quarterly rhythms
that make your strategy visible.
Couple examples, a monthly team huddle
where you highlight progress against your strategy.
A stakeholder email that says,
"Here's what we're focused on and why."
A quarterly internal metric review
to track progress and recalibrate.
Rituals don't have to be heavy,
they just have to be repeated.
Repetition builds muscle and muscle builds culture.
Lastly, you want to connect the strategy
to the work that people are doing.
Help learners embed their strategy
into their team daily decision-making,
cross-functional conversations,
and planning cycles so it's not just owned by you,
the leader, but adopted by the culture.
Here's where the strategy
goes from your page to your people,
because the ultimate test of any strategy is this,
can someone on your team, at any level,
explain how their work connects to the bigger picture?
If they can't, it's not their fault,
it means your strategy hasn't made it to the ground floor,
and that's on you as a leader.
Let's fix that.
Make it visible during planning.
Start with your team's planning cycle,
before the year or quarter starts,
gather your leads and say something similar to this.
"Let's map our plan work to the strategy page.
What strategy priority does each project serve?"
If you have projects with no connection, reframe them,
pause them, or kill them,
because if your world map
is full of work that doesn't serve a strategy,
you don't have a strategy, you have a backlog.
Another way to bring it to your people
is to use it in your one-on-ones
and your standup meetings.
In your one-on-ones or your team meetings,
bring the strategy into everyday language.
Try, "Which strategic pillar does this work support?"
"Are we moving a metric that matters
or just closing tickets?"
"If we had to cut 20% of our work, what would we protect
because it's strategic?"
This builds decision-making muscle.
Now people aren't just doing work,
they're making strategic calls with you.
Additionally, and maybe more importantly,
you need to take the strategy outside of your team.
You can use your one-page strategy
to align with the business using phrases like this
with different parts of the business.
With engineering, you may say,
"This aligns to our cloud-enabling goal."
Or with HR, you may declare,
"This supports our insider risk reduction priority."
When talking to compliance,
you can make this statement,
"Here's where this auto request
lands in our bigger picture."
And here's a line that always works for me.
"Let me show you where this work
connects to our top five priorities."
That way, we're not just compliant, we're secure.
Suddenly, you're not just pushing policy,
you're building credibility and context.
Your strategy page
should become a filter that your team uses
when they're buried in requests or incidents,
or "can you just do this" type of distractions?
Coach them to ask,
"Does this ladder up to our strategic priorities?"
"Will this move the needle or just burn cycles?"
"Are we solving something that matters
or maintaining something that we should be phasing out?"
If the answer is no,
they have permission to pause and reframe.
This is not a one-time meeting, it's a culture shift.
Every time you bring the team back to the strategy
in a standup, a retro, or a demo, or even a risk review,
you're training them to think at the next level,
prioritize with purpose, speak the language of outcomes,
and that's how you turn your roadmap
into real leadership growth for you and your people.
Before we wrap this section,
here's what I want you to lock in.
A strategy that isn't shared, reinforced,
or connected will die quietly.
Great leadership keeps the mission in the spotlight
Your language shapes your leadership.
Talk in outcomes,
repeat the vision,
and own the strategy out loud.
Consistency wins, one page.
Many conversations.
That's how you turn direction into movement.
You came into this section with activities,
and you're leaving it with the strategy.
That means you've defined what matters,
you've aligned it to business outcomes,
and you've written it down,
and now you're embedding it into how your organization runs.
This is how real leaders lead in cybersecurity,
not by controlling everything,
but by guiding the business towards clarity,
confidence, and trust.
Let's keep building.