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The article, The Leader Distinction, prompted such a response that the next few articles will deal with some of the most difficult tasks facing new or would-be company leaders. These challenges include executing a mission, altering organizational culture, hiring and deploying talented managers, promoting manager proficiency, improving mediocre performance, and removing poor performers. This communication deals with the first: missions. In an earlier article, Essential Functions of Executives, I suggested that one of the two major tasks of all executives is taking an idea and making it exist--essentially executing a mission. In honing executive leadership skills, your company or division mission statement is a good place to start. In the eighties, corporate mission statements became all the rage. Many companies engaged in some very useful work that aligned their staffs, identified their niche and actually increased productivity. Unfortunately, having a mission statement became way cool and many executive boards with more money than commitment turned the task over to consultants or, worse, their marketing departments. The tortured trip around Madison Avenue marketeering with detours through legal wash-downs spelled the end for viable mission statements. Now most of these company declarations are as frothy as your iced cappuccino and as soulless as those 'newspapers' at the grocery checkout. Although many of the statements have been prostituted to blatant PR, the concept of mission can still galvanize a staff into meaningful long-term work, creativity and commitment. Crafting an honest written call to action could be a useful edge. But first things first. If your company or department already has a mission statement, scrutinize it like a contract for your soul. Most of these statements violate the first rule--audience. Mission statements should be written for your staff and stakeholders, not for your market. And never for the general public. It's all right that they are published, but if penned for anyone other that your workers they become advertisement, not missions. If you find yourself already hobbled with one of these innocuous marketing platitudes, do not try to correct it. If possible, quietly put it to death. Otherwise ignore it. You give power to anything you pay too much attention to. Efforts to edit or eradicate muffed mission statements only waste energy. Better to simply rename this new task as crafting an Optimum Performance Benchmarking or OPB. While a mouthful, OPS does indicate what the phraseology in your mission should do. A good mission statement tells a company's workforce what and how they should be performing at their optimum level of commitment. It should succinctly answer three questions. What we do. How we do it. And why. For example, the following is the sales purpose of one of the largest retail banks in the world. It was crafted to transform "sit back and react" branch staffs into aggressive business development teams. It's a bit long, but note, it is an almost perfect mantra for managing all the essential tasks of a sales force dedicated to establishing long-term customer relationships. "To acquire, develop and maintain profitable banking relationships with our customers; by assisting them in the discovery, selection, purchase and use of financial instruments appropriate to their wants and needs; thereby empowering them to effectively manage their money anytime, anywhere, any way they want." So there is a sample. Now, to the task. Here are a few guidelines and cautions. First, crafting a Mission or Optimum Performance Statement is group-input activity. Do not foist this task onto a single person or outside consultant. I'd also steer clear of using your HR department exclusively. (It holds a quirky enough relationship to the business of business.) Limit the roster to stakeholders, that is people with accountability roles who appear to be in it for the long haul. In any event, you cannot outsource the writing of your mission. Also, this is an activity that does not lend itself to supervisor surveys or once-a-week meetings. I suggest you seek a representative group of managers from all levels in the company or division. Give them a full day, paid time away from distractions and a deadline. Sometimes an outside facilitator may assist. But it must be clear that staff managers generate and write the statement. Oh, your full commitment as a participant (not leader) in this meeting is critical. There, the whole time, in person, no kidding. While you may ask for step-forwards, avoid loading the group with only the volunteers. Also, do not burden the group with poets or perfectionists. Sometimes, a well-chosen adroit contrarian and a few 'assigned' workers will keep the task on track and moving forward. There is any number of ways to execute this task. I like to start with questions. Here is a list to choose from: What is our product? What do we want it to do for our customers, for our industry, for the world? What difference do we want to make to our customers, our industry, the world? What place do we want to hold in our industry? In the world? What do we want people to say about how we deliver our product to our customers? Within the context of work, if a genie granted our wish to have our days be anyway we wanted them, what would our workdays be like? What would we be doing? With whom? How would we be working? Choose three or four
questions that have the most impact on you and your staff.
Then get yourselves writing, best in subgroups of two or
three. This is not a discuss-first exercise. Rather write
first and talk later, preferably after you have plastered
the walls with words and phrases. Look for wording that
appears in a number of contributions. Make sure the
language, while G rated, is the common vernacular of your
corporate culture in its every day interactions. Craft the
statement on the basis of As you select and edit phrases, avoid declarations you cannot possibly realize, such as "market leader in the PC O/S software", or the "largest international airline ever". And if you claim proficiencies like "impeccable service" make sure your organizational culture and management commitment is towards achieving that goal. Also, avoid mediocrities such as "reasonable value" or "quality product". Mission statements require more provocative terms. While I cautioned you about poets, one aspect of poetry should apply to your work here. Every single word counts. Each noun, each verb, each modifier must carry a message and instruction to your staff. Each phrase resonates: "This is what we are about all of the time." So certain words in your statement need to be defined specifically. If your language includes, "our customers", make sure in footnote, you carefully delineate exactly who your customers are. Don't kid yourself with universals. Not everybody, at all times in all places. As all corporate deities learn sooner or later, they are not the alpha and the omega (Microsoft, case in point). Mission or optimum performance statements are the marching orders, the corporate commitment boot-up code. As such, every employee should see his or her contribution somewhere inside the statement. These words balance the mundane and the magnificent. I believe all people want their work to be an accomplishment not merely a result. Workers want to make a difference in their labor. Therefore, the mission statement must contain an element of greatness. A something worth doing. It should hint at a vow or promise to be kept in perpetuity. It should elicit a practicable destiny. A willingness to bet your livelihood, not symbolically, not figuratively, not virtually, but really. If you are an executive, executing a viable mission is your work and you work for a living. A lot of people work for you. It is their livelihood, too. Make you mission statement a good one, and then make it happen in the here and now. Execute. It is your responsibility, and perhaps, your executive edge. (NOTE: Allies Consulting offers a menu of programs that can help you become masterful at your performance skills, or your staff to do so. They will meet or exceed your expectations: they are designed to deliver real results. They also leverage our other programs, magnifying your ROI!)
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