Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to create a winning and successful organization. In this organization your employees will have clear and understandable objectives which, when accomplished in accordance with the corporate mission, will result in the realization of the corporate vision and the achievement of the corporate goals.
Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to create a winning and successful organization. In this organization your employees will have clear and understandable objectives which, when accomplished in accordance with the corporate mission, will result in the realization of the corporate vision and the achievement of the corporate goals.
This assignment may be the most enjoyable and rewarding experience of your professional career. The catch is that if you do not embark on this mission, it may be detrimental to the long-term survival of your company.
The result of accepting this mission is to create an organization with highly motivated team members throughout. These team members will be dedicated to the long-term success of your business. Motivated and caring team members will step up and take additional responsibility and truly care about their company. Personal agendas and company politics will be replaced with teamwork and passion. Your high-performance organization will attract and keep top talent in a tight labor market.
Caution: Accepting this assignment will fundamentally change your organization. Your employees will be motivated and excited, yet at the same time they will challenge you to stay on task and maintain focus on the end result. Passionate and caring team members will require extra attention because they want to be involved in the decision making and will surely have opinions on the company operations.
The most lethal weapon at your disposal is the ability and involvement of your production staff. It is ironic that the individuals with the most information on how to improve productivity and service are rarely involved in major decisions in most companies. Involving all of your team members in developing corporate vision and goals will assure successful implementation and a passionate desire for achievement of goals and the company vision. Identify the core values you would like your company to espouse, then combine them with the values of your entire staff. In the same manner, have each employee define what is important to them personally, and work to incorporate this into your company culture where there are synergies. This will allow you to create a company of purpose.
The first tool available in accomplishing your mission is to develop a mission statement. In today’s business environment, change is occurring at an unprecedented rate. The only thing that can and should stay constant is the values that underlay the company’s purpose and past success. The company mission statement is not about the future; it is about the past. It should embody the purpose of the owners and management group.
What are your core values and, no matter what happens, what will your company stand for? As your company grows, each new individual needs to understand and internalize the core values your company was founded on. Core ideology is not created. Looking into the heart of the organization will allow you to discover this ideology. In accomplishing your objective, it is essential that you identify your organization’s core values. This will serve as the building block for the rest of your Mission Possible.
Creating a compelling corporate vision is a tool that you can use to create a long-term plan for your organization, and is a key component to completing your assignment. It will attract quality personnel that want to be part of a winning team and will focus the attention of your existing personnel. In the book,Built to Last,authors Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras define vision as clock building as opposed to time telling. “Having a great idea or being a charismatic visionary leader is ‘time telling’; building a company that can prosper far beyond the presence of any single leader and throughout multiple product life cycles is ‘clock building.” Completing your assignment cannot be accomplished without clock building.
Vision drives a company. It is also the essence of your company, outliving any of the individuals within it. It is directly tied to the company goals and mission. The goals describe the quantifiable and measurable outcomes the company is trying to achieve. The mission describes the principles on which the company is founded. The vision is the big picture overview of your company at some time in the future. Clearly defined and communicated, the company vision will be accomplished through the efforts of your entire team.
In defining your vision, clear direction and expectations are set out. The vision provides for short-term success, and employees are encouraged to be creative, provide input, and take risk within the plan framework. Your primary role is to become a leader who continually coaches, provides support and training, and becomes a cheerleader for the company vision.
In his series The Psychology of Winning, Dennis Waitley made the analogy that operating without goals is like being on a ship without a rudder. Without goals, you will wander aimlessly stopping at any port of call without any real destination. Similarly, most ships have an ultimate port of call, which they are not able to see for fully 99 percent of the voyage. Yet through proper measurement and monitoring the progress along the way, most ships are able to arrive precisely to their intended destination. Most people and organizations are goal-achieving by nature. If you set out proper goals and then measure and monitor the progress along the way, your people will be able to achieve the goals set out before them.
It is difficult to run your life, your business, or your family without clear goals. You will find it especially difficult to run your company without clear and quantifiable goals, as everyone will have their own agenda. Having goals along with a clear vision of the future will allow everyone to look in the same direction together as opposed to having everyone looking at each other, or worse yet, looking at themselves.
- Must be quantifiable
- Must have an exact time frame for achievement
- Must be achievable yet just out of reach
- Must be understandable and clearly communicated to all involved
Your role in this mission is to hire good employees, create opportunities and remove obstacles. This is a great job description for a visionary leader who equips team members with an appropriate purpose, direction and destination. The owner can now become more of a leader, coach and cheerleader rather than a manager. If you arm your employees with the correct tools, coach and encourage them, create a map to the desired destination and get out of the way, your company will achieve exceptional success!
Create a high level of expectation and demand the best; everyone will rise to the level of those around him or her. Accepting this mission means you will delegate a degree of decision making to those around you; it may even mean your organization has several minor setbacks. However, it will create a healthier, more prosperous company in the long term, with motivated employees passionate about their company and their role in its success.
Caution:A compelling purpose, goals and destination can create a Catch-22 situation. If your employees buy into the concept and are motivated to achieve the desired outcomes, then you must be committed to following through with the program. Many companies become complacent with success. An appropriate analogy is that of a dieter who wants to lose 20 pounds. After losing 15, he or she feels much better and stops the program before reaching the ultimate goal.
The result of unachieved goals creates the possibility of alienating and de-motivating your best employees. Frequently, these top performers will become your competitors because they feel the need to complete the program. When you commit to your goals, vision and mission, put it in writing and be prepared to finish like a pro. Nothing short of total accomplishment should be acceptable!
