Are mission and vision statements really necessary?
Miranda had been struggling with her team. Somehow they just weren’t operating as a cohesive unit. They weren’t on the same page, and nothing seemed to work to get them to cooperate more with each other.
His team was disengaged, some were less engaged than others, and there was a real focus challenge. She knew he had to do something, but the question was what?
With all of this, there was a lack of direction in what they were doing, and now it was starting to affect their business results: the numbers were down.
Miranda knew there was something missing that would unite them and make them function as one, but for the life of her she didn’t know what it was or where to find it.
He decided to find out how some of his successful friends were running their businesses because they seemed to be having fewer problems with their teams and seemed to be thriving.
Miranda discovered that what they all had in common were the mission and vision statements that anchored their teams in a focused way.
He did some research and came back to the team with a plan of action.
Miranda absolutely included everyone on the team in the meetings to create her mission and vision statements. She shared with them the general vision that she had for the company for the next five years. She now had everyone participate in filling in the gaps so that, as a team, they could generate some simple and concise statements to express the mission and vision of the company.
Are mission and vision statements really necessary?
It was like magic!
Miranda watched as each of her team members came to life as they went about creating their mission and vision statements. Even those who had been the least proactive and seemingly the least engaged jumped right in to be a part of it. Once everyone saw that they had a voice, they began to contribute and a whole new team was born.
Through the process of creating the mission and vision statements, Miranda saw very clearly that she brought her team together, unified them, and gave them something to align with.
Here’s how to use mission and vision statements to make them powerful and effective:
Get your entire team together for a brainstorming meeting.
Share your vision with the team.
Have each team member contribute ideas, words, and phrases.
Together they create concise statements that express the company’s mission and vision.
As they perfected all the ideas, phrases, and words that everyone had contributed, he saw very clearly that these statements showed who they were, what they stood for, and what they were doing in the world.
Miranda realized how powerful the creation process had been, as well as how effective living it would be.
As they began to implement their mission and vision statements, he saw how grounded his team had become and how incredibly committed everyone was.
These two simple yet powerful statements gave meaning and direction to everything they were doing. Together they were really a path to his clear success!
