In our last post, we discussed the importance of a unique, clear, and compelling value proposition for both your existing customers and to attract your future customers efficiently.
I’ve focused this post on the critical nature of having a clear, realistic Mission & Values statement to ensure your team is aligned — because without team alignment, you won’t be able to drive growth.
Involve the whole team
I often conduct these workshops for my clients and they yield some important benefits to the entire team.
The most simplistic mission question is, “What is the Purpose of our Company?” Or, said another way, “Why do we get up every morning and come to work?” Once created and established, this statement can become a compelling guidepost for strategy development, as well as for the development of measurable goals and objectives to assess the success of the company’s growth strategy.
Additionally, a bottoms-up values statement can share with all company stakeholders the specifics of “How we do our work together” and “What behaviors do we want from each other.” Developed in a workshop environment, as a team, values can be written that reflect the current or desired culture of the group — not just the person, or the people, at the very top. Once determined, holding each member of the team to these values can significantly add to cohesion and effectiveness.
Make it easy to share and remember
Whatever is finalized needs to be concise and easy for any stakeholder in the company to remember. Complex Mission and Values statements don’t get used as much as easy to remember and share words. Think of yourselves as marketing to the entire company’s stakeholders – are your Mission and Values EASY to say and share?
Following the workshop, share your draft Mission & Values statements throughout the entire company to encourage feedback and comments from all employees. Then, as a final step, share them in a convenient and memorable format, such as a wallet-sized piece or an edited version as a component of email signatures. These statements are essential to both the existence and the success of your organization: do everything you can to make sure they are bought-into and lived.