The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.
Theodore M. Hesburgh
If you lead or have led any kind of an organization you no doubt had a clear idea of where you wanted your organization to go – your vision. Perhaps you saw yourself as the leader in your field or recognized for outstanding customer service. Whatever your vision, it was yours and yours alone. But did you mistake your vision for the mission?
I saw a company once that listed its mission as producing a product with minimum impact on the environment. While certainly a noble idea, I would ask if they were willing to sacrifice the success of their business to reduce their impact on the environment. Really, their mission was to produce the product. Doing so in an environmentally sensitive way was certainly a key result they wanted. It should be a central theme in the plan and will definitely impact their efforts, but it wasn’t the mission.
In another example, a non-profit organization I worked with wanted to restart a thrift store. They said their mission was to provide a place where people could sell their used and unwanted items. I asked what the proceeds from those sales would be used for. The answer was the store’s profits supported several local charities. So, I asked if, considering overhead expenses and very generous consignment policies, they would be willing to forgo the charitable gifts as long as people had a place to bring their used and unwanted items. At that point the light went on and the organization developed a mission statement spelling out that the prime reason for being was to raise money for charities. The manager then called all the workers together and explained the true mission. There was a noticeable change in the store and the next two years were the most successful in recent history.
To be effective, a mission statement must be short and succinct. I was surprised to see a large corporation’s mission statement that was several pages long. How many employees actually read that mission statement? Many times, when I ask what their mission is, employees can’t answer. A few years ago, I was assigned to lead an organization with a mission statement that attempted to cover everything they did. No one knew what it was but it took up a lot of space on the website. I gathered my leadership team and we created a new one, clearly focusing us on what was important. Then we made sure everyone knew it. We even sent it to our customers and told them to tell us if we weren’t living up to our own mission statement. What had been a disjointed group became a focused team, able to complete several projects which had languished for quite some time.
We are capitalists who live in a free market society. Be proud of that. If your mission is to make money, say so. Unless you run a non-profit organization, you have to make money or you’re out of business. If you’re publicly held, your stockholders certainly expect you to make money.
Your mission statement should reflect what you do and why you do it. It is a rallying point for your team so make sure it’s truly reflective of what your team’s mission really is.
Bob Mason is dedicated to leadership development. He works with companies to solve problems by helping supervisors and managers become more effective leaders leading more productive teams. He is a professional speaker and author of Don’t Worry, You Can Do This: What New Supervisors and Managers Need to Know About Leadership; The Art of Not Motivating: How Leaders Can Succeed by Understanding the True Nature of Motivation; Balancing the Generations: A Leader’s Guide to the Complex, Multi-Generational, 21st Century Workplace; and Planning to Excel: Strategic Planning That Works.
A 30-year career in the U.S. Air Force exposed him to great leaders and leadership opportunities such as command of four squadrons, including the Air Force’s largest munitions squadron. He has studied leadership extensively, but more importantly has been there, working with real people, making hard decisions, and experiencing the results.
Contact Bob at Bob@BobMasonSpeaker.com or 505-453-5266
