Qualifying Questions About the Decision Maker

Qualifying Questions About the Decision Maker

1. Who else is involved in this process?

2. At the end of the day, who will help you reaching a decision?

3. Is there anyone else I should be meeting with to get the full picture and what your needs are?

4. I’ve found that husbands/wives/family members, etc. almost always want a say in this decision.

5. Should we bring them into this conversation?

6. Who else will sign on the dotted line?

Motivating Your Team with Mission and Values

Motivating Your Team with Mission and Values

Takeaways

“One of the most important things any leader at any level in the organization can do is to be a personal role model. It doesn’t do any good if you have a set of values you want practiced but you, as a leader, are behaving differently. That’s the end of that game.“ Jack Welch

Living and Breathing Your Mission

What it Means

All too often, a mission statement is just a plaque on the wall. Your mission must come to life through your actions every day. Great leaders constantly inspire and guide their team’s behaviors. They understand that the mission defines how they will win in their business and that it is only valuable if it is understood and practiced by everyone.

Why it Matters

·         Your people won’t live and breathe your mission if you don’t.

·         It inspires better performance by rallying the team around a common vision of success.

·         It provides clear targets and vivid direction.

·         It allows a “behavior = reward” evaluation model that removes ambiguity about who is doing a good job and why.

·         It focuses activity and energy to make sure that everyone is working on the tasks that take the company forward.

·         “Busy work” gets quickly identified and removed in companies that align values and actions with the mission every day.

Action Plan

Living and Breathing Your Mission

As a leader, you have to do two things with the mission and values of your organization:

·         Live it yourself and set an example—every day

·         Reward team members who are living the values you set through their behaviors.

Ultimately, when you talk about every behavior you want practiced in your company, you are talking about its values.

Your Starting Point

One of your critical roles as a leader is to create and sustain the passion, energy, and reward structure for achieving the goals that your organization and your team have set. Ask yourself:

1.       How frequently do I communicate the mission to my team?

2.       When I speak about the mission, do I do so in ways that provide clear, vivid examples of how actions can support it and drive the organization forward?

3.       What can I do as a leader to make sure that living and breathing the mission is central to everything my team does every day?

4.       Do our values align with our mission? How do I assess my team’s values (or behaviors) in achieving our mission?

5.       When I see somebody on my team demonstrating the values of the organization, do I praise that person and make specific reference to the values they are demonstrating?

6.       Do the reward systems that I have put in place reinforce the behaviors I am trying to drive?

Quick Wins in Motivating Your Team with Mission and Values

Bringing the mission to life is one of the most challenging, but necessary keys to winning. If your team isn’t living the mission, then it becomes nothing more than nice words on a piece of paper.

If you aren’t leading by example, commit today to identify ways you can immediately demonstrate your organization’s values and make the vision come alive through your daily activities. The steps below cost nothing and require almost no planning, but they will send the message that you lead by example.

·         Make sure the mission provides clear targets and vivid direction

·         Identify examples in your own behavior every day that demonstrate the values you seek.

·         Talk about the mission and values. Yes, that’s right, just open your mouth and start talking about them all the time. Use them as part of your daily conversation. Use them throughout team meetings. Use them when your department is struggling with a decision on a product, process, or whether to go after a new market.

·         Acknowledge when you see others living the mission and demonstrating the values. And do so explicitly. Don’t just say, “Hey, you’re doing a great job.” Say, “I loved the way you reduced delivery time by 20%, because that helps us achieve our mission of . . . and demonstrates our value of finding new efficiencies.”

·         Cut through the jargon. Speak plainly, specifically and focus on behaviors.

Rewarding the Mission and Values

In any organization, as Jack Welch observes: “You get the behaviors you reward.” The main point is to make sure that your team understand that their evaluations will be directly linked to how well their behaviors demonstrate a commitment to the vision and values of the organization. Your team must know what you expect and how their success will be measured. Just like the clarity and specificity required in setting mission and vision, that same clarity must be in place for evaluating the execution of it.

“Show me a company’s various compensation plans, and I’ll show you how its people behave.” Chuck Ames, the former chairman and CEO of Reliance Electric

·         Make sure the vision provides clear targets and vivid direction.

·         Establish an evaluation plan that measures success in terms of achieving the mission and demonstrating the values.

·         Remove ambiguity—everyone must know what choices they need to make and what priorities they should set to advance the mission.

·         Reward those who live the values.

The Generosity Gene

Great leaders delight in rewarding their people and giving praise and credit where it’s due. Leaders who have the generosity gene live nothing more than promoting the top performers on their team sand being able to negotiate raises and bonuses for those who are living the values of the company and performing at the top of their game.

Game Pages

Motivating Your Team with Mission and Values

Bringing your mission to life doesn’t happen overnight. If it’s going to truly be a part of your company’s DNA, it must be:

·         Well defined and actionable

·         Reinforced by the words and actions of the team leader

·         Integrated into the evaluation and compensation systems

When it is, your team will know what choices they should make, what priorities they should set and what behaviors are expected (and rewarded).

Your Starting Point

Mission and Values

By

I helped our company achieve its mission of

When I

I demonstrated the value of

Today I identified _________________________ specific examples of situations where my team members were living the mission and I acknowledged these by

To show my team how serious I am about living the mission, I

When I saw you doing

I was impressed by how that will help us

Reward

Mission Statements that Work: Your Roadmap to Winning

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