What Your Vision and Mission Statement Say About Your Leadership
A vision and mission statement go together in the realizing of organizational goals and objectives. When you talk about the vision and mission statement of your company, you are talking about the laid out procedure for the ideal future of your company. Whether you are the chief executive officer or an ordinary employee, the vision and mission statement of your company should guide you in all your daily operations.
The absence of, or a poorly written Vision and Mission statement, is a lost opportunity for:
- Attracting/engaging/retaining talent
- Building organizational culture
- Increasing productivity while leveraging all resources to successfully implement a strategic plan.
A study by Bain and Company indicated that organizations that have a clearly defined Vision and Mission statement aligned with a strategic plan, outperform those who do not.
Watch at minute 2:20 when Simon talks about this example. What’s your purpose – what’s your cause – what’s your belief. Why do you get out of bed in the morning? The inspired leaders, regardless of their size or industry all think, act and communicate from the inside out.
As it turns out, all the great and inspiring leaders and organizations in the world — think and act in the same way – there is a pattern there. It’s probably the world’s simplest idea: the Golden Circle of “Why, How and What?” as told by Simon Sinek in his Ted Talk – discussing the principal behind every successful person and business.
Examples of effective Vision Statements include:
Alzheimer’s Association: “Our Vision is a world without Alzheimer’s disease.”
Toyota USA: “To be the most successful and respected car company in America.”
Microsoft: “Empower people through great software anytime, anyplace, and on any device.”
In drafting vision statement, the company has to be client focused, for example, an internet vendor company can draft a vision statement that looks like this: “to maximize the power of the internet to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of our client’s marketing efforts and sales.” A statement like this would spur its affiliate marketers into action.
In the vision statement, workers and management will discover the values and the purpose of the organization. Without a clearly defined vision, workers would lose sight and focus of where the company is heading. A vision statement is sacred in any organization because it contains the dreams of that organization. Management must learn how to write a vision statement to capture the future of their organization.
The major purpose of creating a vision statement is to provide an opportunity to draw all the workers and management together. It gives them the direction and the focus to act as a team. With a combination of brilliance and energy from both management and workers, the ideal future of the business would be realized.
When the vision statement is well communicated internally, it helps everyone connected to the company. It will also help you to connect with your customers.
Vision statement helps the organization to achieve its mission statement. This is because it would offer unanimity of purpose for both the workers and managers. It is the embodiment of the identity of the organization. It is necessary it be well defined so that everybody would be identified with it.
The vision statement of any organization sets out the context, which such organization is expected to operate. It provides everybody with the tone and the template to adhere to. It sets out the reasons for the existence of the company.
It serves as the focal point, which everybody connected to the organization must stick to and identify with. The success and failure of individuals connected to the company may be judged according to these vision statements.
Above all, the vision statement of any organization translates the objectives and goals of an organization into the work structure of such an organization. With it, different tasks and responsibilities are assigned to actualize the vision. The philosophy every worker shares about the company must be derived from the vision statements. Vision statement sets the actionable parameter as well as the base performance for management and staff of the organization.
A Mission Statement:
- Defines the present state or purpose of an organization;
- Answers three questions about why an organization exists –
- WHAT it does
- WHO it does it for
- HOW it does what it does
- Is written succinctly in the form of a sentence or two, but for a shorter time frame (one to three years) than a Vision statement; and,
- Is something that all employees should be able to articulate
Examples of effective Mission Statements include:
Target: “Our mission is to make Target the preferred shopping destination for our guests by delivering outstanding value, continuous innovation and an exceptional guest experience by consistently fulfilling our Expect More. Pay Less.® brand promise.”
Toyota USA: “To attract and attain customers with high-valued products and services and the most satisfying ownership experience in America.”
Zappos: “To provide the best customer service possible. Internally, we call this our wow philosophy.
Apple: “To produce high-quality, low cost, easy to use products that incorporate high technology for the individual. We are proving that high technology does not have to be intimidating for non-computer experts.
Lisa Caprelli is a business growth expert, speaker and author of Color Your Message.