04/ 06/ 2007
by Marcia Passos Duffy
If you're an established business, you probably have a mission statement written somewhere in your business plan. You may even have your mission statement emblazoned on the front of every employee handbook or framed in the lobby of your office. But when is the last time your employees actually talked about your company's mission statement?
Mission statements are not meant to be arcane exercises that become dry words on a piece of paper. They are, in fact, meant to serve as a powerful inspirational tool for your employees to help drive a business where it needs to go. While mission statements are meant to be a verbal translation of a company's vision and values, oftentimes the words often just collect dust.
You may have spent a long time crafting your mission statement--why not put it to use and make it become meaningful and real for your employees? Why not make it become what it was meant to be--a driver for your business?
Here are some tips:
Dust it off. In order for a mission statement to do its work in influencing employees, it needs to be out there and communicated on a regular basis to all employees. If the mission statement is tucked away in your business plan or just in the employee handbook, make sure that you take it out of the closet and make it more visible. Put it on inter-office correspondence, on all employee materials, and make sure it becomes the cornerstone of any new employee orientation and training.
Talk about it. Bring up the mission statement during staff or team meetings. You may even want to hold an annual "mission statement" meeting with employees to ask them if they believe that senior management, managers and they, themselves, are living up to the mission statement.
Walk the walk. You will have to do more than just talk about the mission statement: As a business owner, you need to make sure that adherence to the mission statement is imbued in everything that the business does, from marketing to public relations to hiring new employees. The litmus test is always the mission statement. The question must always be for every step the business takes: "Does this fulfill our mission statement?"
Provide rewards. As the business owner, you need to be serious enough about your mission statement to back it up with incentives for employees who embrace it and promote it fully.
Be consistent and patient. If you have been neglecting your mission statement for years, don't expect your employees to integrate the company's mission statement into everything they do from one day to the next; it will take time for the culture to change. Remember, a mission statement is not like an Orwellian mantra to recite, but rather a guiding principle to help keep a business focused. If a mission statement becomes part of everyday life in a company, it will fulfill its own mission to become, in essence, the North Star to which you--and your employees--will successfully drive your business.
