The Dreaded Mission Statement

Here is where it often goes awry. With all good intentions, management teams who want to create meaning to motivate people to engage decide to put effort into creating a “mission statement.” You are probably already rolling your eyes somewhat if you have PTSD from a past mission statement effort.

The creation of a mission statement can become one of the most draining, irritating time wasters in which you can engage a management team. It often results in a statement that reads something like:

To be the leading provider of the most innovative and high-quality products in our space, with outstanding customer service, and the most efficient operations, therefore maximizing shareholder value.

Okay employees…now, hop to it! (Yeah, right.)

The Trick Is That You Actually Have to Care

If you want a mission that employees care about, it starts with you actually caring about something.

The employees will never care if the leaders don't. When I work with management teams on this, we start with the questions, “What do you personally care about? Why are you here? What do you admire most about your favorite companies? Why? What things do some businesses do that make you angry? How is it important to treat customers? Employees? Why?” We focus on what the leaders genuinely think and care about first.

This exercise is important because if the leaders don't align on something they authentically care about, it will be impossible to define a mission that the employees can care about on a personal level. If you want your team to be motivated, it starts with you as a leader showing your own excitement and commitment. Your employees will always care more about rising to a higher level of excellence if you show them what you truly care about and why it's personally important to you to operate at this level of excellence.

I have found over and over again, in good times and bad, that sharing with employees how I feel personally about the mission at hand gives them permission to feel things too: excited, worried, tired, insecure, confident…real feelings. Only when employees are allowed to feel real feelings can they engage personally.

You don't need to specifically call something a mission statement (and you might be better off if you don't!), but you do need to stand for something and care about something for real if you want people to truly engage, to be motivated to spring into action, to run forward and solve problems for you when you release the brake.

What If You Don't Care?

What if you don't really care about your work or your company? What if you are only there because you need the paycheck? Remember, while they are paying you, it is your job to lead, so it is your job to find something you can care about.

If you don't like the product, then care about the way the company treats people. If you don't care about the company, care about the customers.

I've been there. Believe me. It's better to find something to care about than it is to check out. You are way more likely to get yourself into a better job (and maintain your sanity) if you keep caring about something along the way.

Make Every Job Matter

Because meaning is the strongest motivator to drive personal engagement, I always make time in my schedule to talk to individuals and mid-level managers to understand how they feel about their jobs. I learn what parts of the business and external world they can (and can't) see from where they sit. Then, I connect the rest of the dots for them.

I do this in one-on-ones, talking with people in the cafeteria, in breakfast meetings, riding in the car for sales calls, brown-bagging it, attending staff meetings of the managers who work in my organization, and taking any other opportunity that comes up.

If you make an effort to share with people how their work fits into the bigger picture, their work will take on a bigger meaning and they will be more motivated and more effective.

There is no better way to have employees understand why their jobs matter than for you to connect the dots for them, and give them a clear line of sight both to the top of the organization and to the outside customer. If you can't explain why each job in your organization matters, you need to question whether or not you need that job in the first place.

Employees who know why their work matters do a better job.

Once people truly understand how their job contributes to the business, they are more likely and able to step up, solve more problems, and add more value.

Taking time to share with every group how the company makes money, where the revenue comes from, and where the profit comes from motivates people to step up and do more for the business.

Helping them understand how the P&L works, and if their jobs are part of the P or the L, and how their jobs impact revenue and profit, makes a big difference not only to morale, but to cost reduction, creative thinking, and innovation.

As a manager, taking the time to think through every role on your team and to create a story and map for how each job impacts the bottom line of the business is an excellent exercise for both you and your team.

Here are a few examples:

1. Product development. I would explain to my product development organization how we made money and where the revenue came from and where the profit came from. I would explain how getting new products out sooner would benefit not only our competitiveness, but also cost less—and how making it cost less benefited our competitiveness even more. I'd help them understand how their salaries fit into the P&L, and give them ideas of the kinds of things they could do to impact profits by helping sales (make it easier to demo) or reducing expenses (make it easier to test, make it easier to support).
2. Tech writers. I would give tech writers a chance to interact with customers and share the business model of our customer support function with them. I'd have them talk with customer support people. They would realize that if they could improve the product documentation, it would result in both a better customer experience and a lower support cost. And increased competitiveness.
3. IT department. I would explain the business model to the IT department and how much each sales rep needed to sell, and what all the steps are in the sales process. I'd tell them about the length of sales cycles and how special deals were often given in the last 24 hours of the month. That would help them to understand why the IT systems had to carry a heavier load (and needed to stay available and working!) at those times. They'd realize that they could change the way they planned and managed IT services to support the sales team, to make closing business and handling special pricing easier.

When people feel like their job matters, and they understand the big picture and how the P&L works, they have the motivation, the context, and the insight to truly engage and to come up with innovative ideas that benefit the bottom line.