Don’t Just Lead the Strategy – Share It: Why Great Leaders Create Intrapreneurs

Most leaders say they want proactive, innovative teams.

But in practice?

Many teams are still trained to wait.
Wait for direction.
Wait for approval.
Wait for the leader to solve the problem.

That’s not a people problem. It’s a leadership design problem.

If you want a team that thinks strategically, solves problems without being asked, and takes ownership beyond their job description, there’s one shift that changes everything:

You stop holding the strategy alone and start sharing it.

That’s where intrapreneurship comes in.

What Is an Intrapreneur?

An intrapreneur is an employee who thinks and acts like an entrepreneur inside the organization.

They don’t just execute tasks.
They:

• Spot opportunities

• Question inefficient systems

• Take ownership of outcomes

• Think beyond “their role”

Intrapreneurs care about the business like it’s theirs because in many ways, you’ve invited them to.

This doesn’t mean chaos or everyone doing their own thing.
It means creating the conditions where people feel trusted enough to think, not just comply.

Why Intrapreneurship Changes Everything

When you empower your team to think like intrapreneurs, three things happen almost immediately:

1. Ownership Increases

When people understand why the work matters and how it connects to the bigger picture, they stop asking, “Is this done yet?” and start asking, “Is this working?”

That’s the difference between responsibility and ownership.

2. Innovation Becomes Organic

You don’t need innovation workshops when your team feels safe to suggest better ways of doing things.

Intrapreneurship creates space for ideas to surface early before problems become crises.

3. Problem-Solving Scales Beyond You

When all strategic thinking lives in the leader’s head, the business bottlenecks at the leader.

When strategy is shared, problem-solving multiplies.

That’s how leaders move from firefighter to architect.

Practical Ways to Foster Intrapreneurship on Your Team

This isn’t about motivational speeches. It’s about structural choices.

Here’s where to start:

1. Delegate Strategic Projects, Not Just Tasks

Tasks keep people busy.
Projects make people think.

Instead of saying:

“Can you handle this report?”

Try:

“Can you own improving how we report this and bring me your recommendation?”

Give context.
Share constraints.
Then step back.

The goal isn’t perfection. It’s perspective.

2. Encourage Calculated Risks and Celebrate the Learning

If people are punished for trying something new, they’ll stop trying.

Intrapreneurship thrives when leaders say:

• “What did we learn?” instead of “Who messed up?”

• “Test it” instead of “Prove it first.”

Celebrate smart attempts, even when the outcome isn’t what you hoped.

That’s how confidence and creativity are built.

3. Involve the Team in Strategic Conversations

You don’t need to share everything.
But you do need to share enough.

Invite your team into:

• Quarterly goal-setting discussions

• Conversations about business bottlenecks

• Problem-solving sessions around what’s not working

Ask questions like:

• “If this were your business, what would you fix first?”

• “What are we overcomplicating?”

• “Where do you see friction that I might be missing?”

You might be surprised by what surfaces.

The Leadership Shift This Requires

Creating intrapreneurs means releasing the need to be the smartest person in the room.

It means trusting that:

• Your team can handle more than execution

• Strategy improves when it’s shared

• Leadership isn’t diluted by collaboration, it’s strengthened

This is how leaders scale without burning out.

A Question Worth Asking

What does intrapreneurship look like on your team today?

Can you think of a moment when a team member took ownership and surprised you with a strategic solution you didn’t see coming?

If not, that’s not a failure.
It’s an invitation.

An invitation to design a team that doesn’t just follow strategy but helps create it.