Mission
Statements that Work: Your Roadmap to Winning
Takeaways
“Take the
time, spend the energy, and make your mission and values real.” Jack Welch
Defining Your Mission and Values
What it Means
Mission
and values are critical components of your business. They state how your
organization is going to win, and the behaviors and actions it’ll take to get
there. An effective mission statement answers one questions: “How do we intend
to win in this business?”
Why it Matters
·
A
company cannot reach its full potential without a concrete mission that defines
what it is, why it exists, and where it is going.
·
An
effective mission statement gives people a clear sense of the direction to
profitability and removes inefficiencies and lost opportunities caused by a
lack of focus.
·
A
great mission helps people to feel that they are a part of something big and
important.
·
The
values (or behaviors) that define a company’s culture can be more powerful than
any rules and policies in keeping business running the right way.
“Mission-setting
can be a defining moment for a company’s leadership. It’s the true test of its
stuff.” Jack Welch
Action Plan
Your Roadmap to Winning
Whether
you are the CEO of a major company, run a whole division, or lead a small team,
having a great mission statement and clear values to support it is critical to
your success. The following activities will help you:
·
Analyze
the efficacy of the current mission and values of your organization
·
Craft
a mission statement for your team that focuses their energy on goals that are both
aspirational and attainable
·
Establish
values that support the mission and set clear behavioral expectations for your
team
Action Plan
Your Starting Point
You may or
may not have any influence over this right now, but it is important that you
understand the starting point that senior management has established. You will
have the opportunity to think about how you can influence the mission and
values of your division or team in another activity.
1.
Does
my company have a mission? What is it?
2.
Is
it clear? Aspirational? Achievable?
3.
In
what ways does it answer the question, “How are we going to win?”
4.
How
do I currently implement my company’s overall mission into my own team’s
activity?
5.
What
specific values (behaviors) has my company identified that support the mission?
6.
Can
the values be translated into actions that can be observed, communicated, taught, measured, and rewarded? Describe at
least one behavior that would support each value.
Quick Wins with Mission and Values
The
following are three simple activities you can use to set the stage for a
Mission and Values discussion with your team.
·
Ask each team member to locate and
review your organization’s existing mission statement.
·
After reading the mission
statement, have each person complete a brief survey or, if you prefer, have a
group addressing:
On
a scale of 1-5, with 5 being “very” 1 being “not very”
·
How
clear, specific and descriptive is the mission statement?
·
How
actionable is it?
·
How
much does it excite you?
·
How
much does it motivate you to stretch yourself to achieve the mission?
·
How
well does it provide a clear sense of direction to profitability?
·
How
much does it make you feel like you are a part of something big and important?
·
Ask each team member to find and
share three examples of mission statements from other companies that they
really like. Have
them explain why they like the mission statements. (Another option for this
activity is to ask your team to also locate mission statements that they don’t like and explain why they don’t
like them—they might sound phony, dull, or just too vague).
Developing a Team Mission—First
Steps
Just
because your company already has an overarching mission, it doesn’t mean that
your team can’t develop a mission of its own (as long as the two support each
other and are not in conflict). In fact, building a team mission can have a
tremendously unifying and motivating impact on the energy and focus of the
team.
If you’re
going to create a team mission, set expectations first. Don’t just walk into
the next meeting and say, “Today, we’re going to create a team mission
statement.” You want your team to come to the meeting well-prepared to discuss
and debate questions like, “What is our true purpose as a team? What are we
about?” Have a few structured conversation-starters set ahead of time, such as:
·
Why do we exist?
·
What do we want our team to be?
What are our aspirational goals?
·
How can our team leverage its
strengths to help the company as a whole win?
These
questions, coupled with the “Quick Wins” ideas from the earlier activity, will
frame the discussion and help the team get some great ideas flowing.
Refining Your Team Mission
As you
work through the previous activity, don’t rush to get a finished mission
statement too quickly. It is natural to want to get the words just right, but
your mission doesn’t need to be pretty or eloquent or inspirational . . . just
yet. Focus first on getting the main idea right. Refinement will come quickly
enough once you’re on the right track and then you can work to make every word
count.
As the
mission evolves, you will naturally be drawn into discussions about:
·
Which projects are consistent with
the mission and which are not?
·
Where should resources be focused
and where should they be withdrawn?
·
Where must trade-offs be made to
achieve the mission?
All of
these are critical questions and, to be fair, some of them may be beyond your
team’s control. That’s fine. The point is to create a mission that clearly
points the way forward. Remember, you can’t be all things to all people and
it’s often just as important to define what you are not. A clear mission can
keep you on track and can keep you from being pulled away by distractions.
Your goal is to get to a mission
that, within just a couple of sentences, captures your true purpose and it at
once both deeply aspirational and reasonably attainable.
Setting the Values for the Team
Getting to
a great mission statement is critical, but it’s only the first step. To make
the mission fully actionable, you’ll also need a share set of values that will
help your people drive towards the mission day to day, in everything they do.
As you
describe your desired culture, think about what behaviors you want your people
to display. Specific values must be concrete an explicit. A great way to test whether
values are specific enough is to have your team members ask themselves the
following questions.
Well-defined
values can be . . .
·
Observed
If I walked in and saw
our values in practice, what would I see?
·
Communicated
As
I explain to team members what I expect of them or retell a story about what
one of our best team members did on a really great day, what action words would
I use?
·
Taught
If
a new member joined the team or I need to coach a current member on how to improve,
can the values be presented in explicit lessons that can be learned by others?
·
Measured
How do I know when our
values are happening and how do I know “mow much” they are happening?
·
Rewarded
As I think through how to reward my
team members for practicing our corporate values (and more will follow in
another module), how do I make sure I am reinforcing the right behaviors?
Values describe the
best behaviors of your best employees on their best days and in doing so,
answer the question, “How are we going to achieve the mission?”
Game Pages
Your Roadmap to
Winning
Your Starting Point
Strong Mission Statements
Statement: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Why it works: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Statement: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Why it works: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Statement: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Why it works: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Weak Mission
Statements
Statement:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Why it’s weak:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Statement:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Why it’s weak:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Statement:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Why it’s weak:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Mission Statement and
Vision
Our Mission:
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The values that will
get us there: ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
On a scale of 1-5,
with 5 being “very” and 1 being “not very,” describe your reactions to our
company mission statement.
·
How
clear, specific, and descriptive is the mission statement?
1 2 3 4 5
·
How
actionable is it?
1
2 3 4 5
·
How
much does it excite you?
1
2 3 4 5
·
How
much does it motivate you to stretch you to achieve the mission?
1
2 3 4 5
·
How
well does it provide a clear sense of direction to profitability?
1
2 3 4 5
·
How
well does it make you feel like you are a part of something big and important?
1
2 3 4 5
Connecting Values with Behaviors
I am demonstrating the value of
_____________________________________________________________________________________
when I
I am demonstrating the value of
_____________________________________________________________________________________
when I
I am demonstrating the value of
_____________________________________________________________________________________
when I