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The Power of Being Different

Lesson 4: Formulating your personal mission/vision statement

Intro:

In his book "Crafting Effective Mission & Vision Statements," Emil Angelica defines a good mission statement as "a short, snappy statement of the purpose of the organization" that possesses four qualities: breadth, durability, challenge, and distinction."

Angelica defines a vision statement as follows: "A vision statement "sketches a picture of the organization's desired future in a few paragraphs," answering two questions: "What will be different in the world in three to five years because our organization exists? And, what role will our organization play in creating that difference?"

In fact you already have the basics here.

But let's go into a little more detail.

The Mission statement:

Tom Peters said: "A true mission is a clear and compelling goal that focuses people's efforts. It is tangible, specific, crisp, clear and engaging. It reaches out and grabs people in the gut." (http://www.tompeters.com/toms_world/t1993/050793-in.asp)

Sweeney (2002) explains in an article, titled "What's your mission?" published by Credit Union Management; that "a good mission statement [...] must explain [your] objectives, [and] purpose. Your mission should say who you are, what you do and for whom."

Short and to the point is the secret of a good mission statement. It may vary from one sentence to a paragraph. But don't make it too long. A mission statement needs to communicate the essence of you or your organization to your stakeholders and to the public.

What is important about your mission statement is that your main ideas are articulated, understood and supported by your stakeholders.

Why is a mission statement important?

 

For many reasons, among which the following:

§         Stakeholders can waste time "barking up the wrong tree"

§         You may not be able to think broadly enough about your possibilities if your mission statement is unclear or overly narrow

§         You may not realize when it is time to change your focus.

§         Most importantly, "If you don't know where you're going, it doesn't matter which way you go."

 


Suggestions for your Mission Statement.

Your mission statement could consist of these main points:

¯     A Purpose statement:

·         What you seek to accomplish.
An example of a purpose statement is "to motivate school-dropouts."

In defining purpose, it is essential to focus on outcomes and results rather than methods: How is the world going to be different? What is going to change? Thus, the purpose of a mental health counseling agency would never be simply "to provide counseling services," for that is describing a method rather than a result. Rather, the purpose might be "to improve the quality of life" for its clients.

¯     The Business Statement:

This statement outlines the activities you choose in order to pursue your purpose. Specifically, you must answer, "What activity am I going to do to accomplish our purpose?" For example, there are many ways to work on the motivation of school drop-outs:

·         to organize tutoring sessions

·         to educate the parents in motivation at home

·         to provide job training to school drop-outs.

Each of these are different activities, but they may be different means of achieving the same purpose.

¯     Values:

Values are beliefs, which you hold in common, and endeavor to put into practice. The values guide you in performing your work. Specifically, you should ask, "What are the basic beliefs that I have?"

Examples of values include: a commitment to excellent services, innovation, diversity, creativity, honesty, integrity, and so on.

¯     In addition to the three elements discussed above, you may want to address the following questions in developing your mission statement:

  • What is the problem or need you are trying to address?
  • What makes you unique?
  • Who are the beneficiaries of You inc.?

(More detail available at thesite from which this text was personalized: http://www.allianceonline.org/faqs.html)

Clearly, the answers to the these questions could be included in the mission statement or added as elaboration of the mission statement.

Pinskey (1997) writes, in 101 ways to promote yourself, "Whether you're a big business or a mom-end-pop-store, whether you're global or on a street corner in a town with a population of 700, a mission statement:

o        Presents a way to establish and understands goals

o        Regulates the means and the time frame by which these goals will be accomplished

o        Brings substance and meaning to why you are doing business. (p. 7)

Once you've written your Mission Statement, ask yourself these questions that Tom Peters formulated:

Do [I] have a real mission -- a Big Hairy Audacious Goal [BHAG]? Do [I] find it exciting? Does it get [my] juices going?" Does it get [me] out of bed in the morning? Can [I] say it a hundred different ways, yet the goal is still clear? And, finally, is it aligned with the underlying core values and purpose of [me, Inc.]? Keep in mind that a BHAG without the bedrock of deeper values and purpose lacks the spirit of great human achievement. (http://www.tompeters.com/toms_world/t1993/050793-in.asp)

 

The Vision Statement

A vision statement attempts to articulate the future. It must be consistent with [your] mission, [?] strategy and philosophy. (Sweeney, 2002, Credit Union Management, p. 9)

Emmerich (2001) states, in her article What's in a Vision? published by CMA Management, "A [...] vision statement needs to be decided by management, yet it needs to capture the hearts of those who work on the team? (p. 10). If that team entails only yourself, that's okay. Let it capture your heart, then.

Emmerich suggests further:

1. Make your vision statement compelling

Emotion, not logic, compels people to do great things. That's why those vision statements that stir emotion work, while those that rely on logic are rarely effective.

2. Eliminate the mumbo jumbo

Get to the heart of your message and to what really matters to your customers and employees. A clear vision needs to be short - preferably fewer than 10 words. If it cannot be repeated in a short sentence, it is not going to work. Every [stakeholder] needs to hear it, understand it, believe it, repeat it, and act on it incessantly for it to take hold.

3. Resist stating the obvious

An effective vision statement serves others and ties into people's motivations. [Your co-workers] want to feel that they are making a positive impact on people's lives, not merely a positive impact on the company's bottom line. They want to be able to follow a vision that helps them realize their personal passions and beliefs.

"Articulating your vision is the most powerful thing you can do; it's also one of the most difficult things to do. However, by speaking with your employees [if you are running a company] and learning what they're good at, what their goals are, and how they want the organization to grow, you can develop a vision that motivates and inspires your team to greatness." (Emmerich, 2001, p. 10)

Tom Peters identified a clear vision of the desired future state of the organization as an essential component of high performance. (http://www.allianceonline.org/faqs.html)



So, What Is a Vision and How Can You Get One?

According to Alliance Online's page, "a vision is a guiding image of success formed in terms of a contribution to society. If a strategic plan is the "blueprint" for an organization's work, then the vision is the "artist's rendering" of the achievement of that plan. It is a description in words that conjures up a similar picture for each member of the group of the destination of the group's work together."

"There is one universal rule of planning: You will never be greater than the vision that guides you. No Olympic athlete ever got to the Olympics by mistake; a compelling vision of his or her stellar performance inevitably guides all the sweat and tears for many years. The vision statement should require [you] to stretch [your] expectations, aspirations, and performance. Without that powerful, attractive, valuable vision, why bother?"( http://www.allianceonline.org/faqs.html)

"A vision statement should be realistic and credible, well articulated and easily understood, appropriate, ambitious, and responsive to change. It should orient [your] energies and serve as a guide to action. It should be consistent with [your] values. In short, a vision should challenge and inspire [you] to achieve [your] mission."

The Process for Creating a Vision
Like much of strategic planning, creating a vision begins with and relies heavily on intuition and dreaming.

As part of the process, you may brainstorm [...] what you would like to accomplish in the future. [...] Write down the values that you [have] in pursuing that vision.


Exercise in Creating a Vision (http://www.nsba.org/sbot/toolkit/cav.html)

Take the time to assimilate this information, use the following example to exercise your planning techniques:

It is five years from now and you have, marvelously enough, created your most desirable district. Now it is your job to describe it - as if you were able to see it, realistically around you.

Respond to the following questions:

  • How has the job market changed?
  • What have I done to prepare myself for success in this world?
  • What do I spend most of my time doing?
  • How do I structure my meetings?
  • What do I talk about?

To keep in mind:

Steven Covey captured the essence of a vision statement by explaining, "Psychologist Viktor Frankl found that having a transcendent vision made it possible for people to survive the Nazi concentration camps. And I suggest that having a transcendent, super ordinate vision is the best way to galvanize a team and find success in today's chaotic corporate world." (Covey, 2001, Mission Implausible, p. 42)


We're halfway! Move on to: Lesson 5