Strategies

Articulating Your Mission and Vision

By Erica Olsen ⋅ February 26, 2007 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Earlier I
shared that successful strategic
planning is a continuous process – something that you need to make a habit.
Now, I’d like to also propose that the process isn’t linear but circular.

To that
end, let me begin at the requisite starting point – your mission statement. A
mission statement, we all know, is a statement of your company’s purpose or its
fundamental reason for existing, but it should also serve as both a guide for
day-to-day operations and the foundation for future decision-making. In other
words, it should determine your primary business and organization purpose AND
be the roadmap in a strategic plan to empower your employees to be more
effective. It should be specific, short, sharply focused, and memorable. The
mission statement of Olsen & Associates Public Relations is “Dedicated to
improving and optimizing public perceptions on behalf of our clients.” If the
company doesn’t live up to this mission, it has no reason to exist.

I encourage
you to think beyond bullet points on a memo or a posting on the break room
wall. Instead, think of your mission statement as the primary guideline for
leading your organization to higher levels of performance. It should provide
the framework for independent decisions and actions initiated by departments,
managers, and employees into a coordinated, company-wide game plan.

Your
vision, likewise, should provide long-term direction while it delineates what
kind of enterprise your company is trying to become and infuses the
organization with a sense of purposeful action. Identify your corporate values.
Create an image of what success will look like. Your vision statement needs to
be something you can achieve at some point in the future while also serving as
a unifying focal point for everyone in the organization – like a North Star. I
recommend developing one that’s far reaching but attainable. A vision statement
can be as far reaching as 100 years or as short as five. It just needs to work
for your company and the industry in which you operate.

Here are
two examples of visions that were very lofty at the time they were established,
but they don’t sound so crazy now:

• “We will put a man on the moon before the end
  of the decade and bring him back” (President John F Kennedy)
• “A
  computer on every desk and in every home using great software as an empowering
  tool” (Microsoft)

 Together
the mission and vision statements function to clarity why your organization
exists and what the end game is. In this way, your mission and vision should
drive every action and initiative on the road to where you are going and
provide a constant reference point to keep your strategic plan on track.

Join me
again as we continue with the Strategic Planning Process Checklist to keep you
and your team on track while also making the strategic planning process a
habit. Next time I’ll be discussing your Strategic
Position. And remember, success is
not a matter of chance, but rather success is a matter of choice.