Editorial
What difference do you want to make in the world? Why does your company exist? What value do you bring to your customers?
The answers to those questions create a meaningful corporate purpose, which is at the heart of any company. Your organization’s mission defines what you stand for — your purpose and the reason you exist. Yet according to Gallup research, only about four in 10 employees know what their company stands for and what makes their brand different from its competitors’.
Many executives don't realize that mission and vision are underused assets in improving organizational performance and profitability, and they neglect their ultimate responsibility of aligning their brand and culture with their highest purpose.
The Yin and Yang of Your Mission and Vision
Mission and vision are like the yin and yang of an organization — opposite but complementary and interconnected forces. While mission and vision both describe your organization’s purpose and goals, your mission statement defines what your organization is — what you are currently doing, how you will do it, and who you will serve. A vision statement, on the other hand, describes what your organization aspires to be — where you want to go in the future, why you exist, and what you hope to achieve.
They’re closely related but serve slightly different purposes. In general, your mission statement describes the “what” and “how” of your company in the present, while your vision statement focuses on the “why” of your actions to reach your goal in the future. In short, your mission statement is your roadmap to get toward your ultimate destination: your vision statement.
As an example, let’s look at the difference between Starbucks’s mission and vision statements:
- Mission: Starbucks’s mission statement is “to inspire and nurture the human spirit — one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.”
- Vision: Starbucks’ vision statement is “to establish Starbucks as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising principles while we grow.”
Starbucks’s vision statement highlights their unique identity and product. It’s short, ambitious and memorable. Their mission statement, on the other hand, suggests their business model (selling to individual consumers), their audience (local communities) and their core values (“to inspire and nurture the human spirit”). Note their vision of being the premier purveyor of coffee doesn’t conflict with other ways they might inspire and nurture their customers, whether that’s by offering hot breakfast items or Frappuccinos.
Related Article: Here’s Why Your Corporate Values Have Value
Why Mission Statements Fail
No matter our role in the organization, we can all agree that we’d prefer to work somewhere that has a clear purpose that makes a difference in the lives of customers. Yet many mission statements read something like “The company’s primary objective is to maximize long-term shareholder value while adhering to the laws of the jurisdictions in which it operates and at all times observing the highest ethical standard.”
(And yes, that’s a real mission statement of a Fortune 500 company. Thanks to David Burkus for sharing that compelling vision with the world.)
This company’s bold, audacious mission is essentially “make a lot of money, don’t get in trouble with regulators, and don’t generate bad press.” Which, to be fair, are all solid goals that no shareholder will argue with, but don’t tell you anything about what this company does for customers or why it even exists. You may argue about how good Starbucks’s coffee really is, but at least the concept of coffee is in both their mission and vision statements!
Your mission statement declares the difference your company seeks to make in the world. David Burkus says that a great mission statement should unify, direct, and inspire — and most importantly, should answer the question, “What are we fighting for?”
Mission and vision statements should inspire, but frequently they end up like corporate mad libs, focus-grouped at corporate retreats and debated word-by-word until they are so watered down, they are meaningless. They aren’t offensive to anyone, but they certainly aren’t inspirational. And they certainly don’t say anything bold about the difference your company strives to make in the lives of customers.
Maximizing Mission-Driven Leadership
Most executives understand that a clear mission and vision help their companies navigate volatile and unpredictable environments, as well as deliver better performance. More than eight in 10 executives believe that a strong sense of shared purpose drives employee satisfaction, helps guide transformative change, and spurs customer loyalty. But how do you align the organization around your mission and vision?
If your company's mission includes a promise to provide world-class customer experience, for example, then you should define and measure what "world-class" means, invest in technology to make customer data accessible, and hire employees who can deliver on that promise. But if you don’t consider how to improve the customer experience, don’t prioritize customer visits to hear their concerns, and never introduce organization-wide conversations about why customer-centricity is valuable, is world-class customer experience really at the heart of your organization?
Your mission can help your leadership team establish and balance priorities, set performance goals, and align rewards and compensation at all levels. As you strive to maximize mission-driven leadership, consider the following strategies:
- Ask your leadership team what they get paid to do. Are your leaders reflecting your mission in their answers?
- Ask customers if they are aware of your company’s purpose. Their responses will help you see where you are succeeding – or failing – in sharing your vision.
- Evaluate strategic objectives. Why is each a focus? How do they serve your mission, or support your customers?
Leaders have a lot on their plates, and it can be easy to lose sight of your vision and mission. Yet your company’s central purpose should be your guiding light — and keeping it front and center for managers, employees and customers is ultimately good for business.
When Employees Don’t understand Your Vision
Coming together to fight the same fight is inspiring. Striving toward the same thing is rewarding. When you can answer why you exist, what you’re fighting for, what your purpose is, you’ve declared that mission and put a stake in the ground for employees to rally around.
Leadership teams often spend countless hours and countless dollars wordsmithing their business’ vision, mission, and strategy, only to hear employees complain they don’t understand. Executives then immediately spend more time and money trying to craft the perfect statement, rather than focusing on the reasons employees don’t understand the vision. These can include:
- Lack of communication: It’s easy to think that one mention at an all-hands meeting or a few words painted on a wall is all you need to do to communicate your vision. But front-line employees need to hear it over and over to sink in. Make sure you’re sharing your mission and vision in onboarding, regularly at all hands meetings, through marketing, and through performance management.
- Lack of commitment: Make it clear to employees that your purpose isn’t going to change after the next leadership offsite. Connect your vision and mission to the company’s history — and be sure to show how your vision has come to life for both employees and customers.
- Manager Involvement: Messaging your mission and vision isn’t solely the job of your executive team. Your middle managers need to do their part in connecting individual employees’ work with day-to-day work. If one of your goals is to treat each customer like a top-tier account, make sure your managers are calling out employees who go above and beyond to solve problems with even smaller customers. This helps tie individual employees’ work to the big picture.
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Your mission can’t be something you write once, memorialize on your website and promptly forget. Yet if you aren’t in touch with what’s missing from your vision, you can spend time wordsmithing rather than working on transformative change.
You send messages all day to your employees, who in turn echo those to your customers — and that’s why having a clear mission and vision are critical to delivering results that matter.
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