Do you feel like your business is lacking direction? Are you finding it challenging to inspire loyalty and commitment from your employees? Does your team understand what your company does and what it stands for? Do you?
A mission statement provides the guidance and direction necessary to achieve ultimate success while instilling a sense of meaning and purpose throughout your organization – aligning the everyday work with the bigger picture. To put it another way, if your strategic plan is the roadmap to success, then your mission statement is the compass rose that provides the necessary orientation. It is your North Star.
Your Mission Statement – Your Declaration of Purpose
Mission (n): an important goal or purpose that is accompanied by strong conviction.
Statement (n): a single sentence or assertion.
Many mistakenly think of their mission statement as a block of copy that helps to fill the ‘About Us’ page of a website. The reality is that it’s the expression of your company’s aspirations – the reason your company exists, what it strives to accomplish and how it will define success.
How to Craft an Impactful Mission Statement
Your mission statement exists at the crossroads of your vision and your values. It takes those core concepts and puts them into tangible terms. Here are some valuable tips for crafting your organization’s mission statement.
1. Define Your Values
Who are you as an organization, what do you stand for and what is most important to you? According to Brian Tracy, the most commonly held values in business are: integrity, quality, excellence, customer service, caring about people, profitability, innovation and high self-esteem. List three to five values that exist at your company’s core.
2. Create Value Statements
What do each of your values look like when put into action? Now that you’ve identified your values, define each in terms of actions and behaviours. For example, if “excellence” is a core value, then your value statement may sound like: We go above and beyond with every task, decision and interaction – never settling for ‘good enough’ and always striving to improve every aspect of production and delivery.
3. Gather Your Team
Which team members embody your values? Who do you need to ‘buy into’ the mission statement? The more you involve others in the creation of and revisions to your mission statement, the greater commitment you’ll experience by those who have to live by it each and every day.
4. Craft Your Mission Statement
What do you want to become and accomplish? How will you behave to fulfill those goals? How will you measure success? A mission statement is an action-oriented declaration of how your company’s goals align with your core philosophies. It’s written in present tense and contains a measure of some sort. For example, Patagonia, the outdoor clothing company, is often cited for their impactful mission statement: to build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to protect nature, while not being bound by convention.
5. Implement Your Mission Statement
What good is a mission statement if it isn’t put into action every day? Your mission statement (and value statements) should guide your company’s decisions, policies and behaviours. In partnership with ongoing coaching conversations and employee reviews, it helps to align team members’ daily tasks with the greater purpose of the company.
Your mission statement should be a source of pride. Publish it on your website and promotional materials, so people – both inside and outside of the company – understand who you are and what you stand for.
Need Guidance Creating a Mission Statement and Strategic Plan? We Can Help!
At FocalPoint Canada, we guide our clients in overcoming challenges and leveraging opportunities with proven processes and methodologies that have been used by thousands of successful businesses over the past two decades. Our FocalPoint business coaches use their expertise to teach our time-tested methods through individual coaching, group sessions, or trainings and workshops.
It all starts with a conversation. Call us at 866-761-1616 or email infocanada@focalpointcoaching.com
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