Today I'm going to share with you what a mission is and why it's important, as it relates to your organization and your strategic plan. My name is Anthony Taylor, I'm the managing partner at SME Strategy. We help organizations create and implement their strategic plans. At the heart of that is a mission or a mission statement, and I'm going to explain what it is and why it's important, in five slides - let's go.
So, what is a mission?
A mission or mission statement very simply is who you are. It explains what you do and who you do it for, and that's it. A mission statement explains who you are, what you do and what you do it for. One thing you want to watch out for when creating your mission is to use words that are not open to interpretation. So when we create a mission statement we really make sure that we focus on avoiding buzzwords and getting to the core outcomes of what your organization provides, versus using buzzwords or things that look like features. So as you look at your mission, is it similar to every other organization, could it be interpreted as any other organization's or does your mission have a word that not everybody agrees on the definition? If you don't agree on the definition of keywords in your mission, people are going to be working on different things to different degrees, and I'll get into that shortly.
Why is it important?
Your mission or mission statement aligns your people and aligns your organization. And it is the thing that will help you accomplish your vision. Your mission statement, like all parts of your strategic plan, help you focus your team on what you need to work on, and what you don't need to work on. Because in strategy, it's about choices. So if your team is not aligned around the mission, they'll have no idea how to accomplish the vision in the most effective way possible.
Your mission helps you focus your energy and your work. It helps you prioritize, and it helps you maximize your impact on your target customer. It's especially critical in nonprofit or mission based organizations, because if different people in your organization have different a understanding of what the mission means, you're going to have endless challenges and frustrations. When you don't have a clear mission or purpose in a for-profit organization, it's unclear where you need to focus your energy, focus your value creation, and how you can drive the most amount of value for your customer (so that you can accomplish your vision).
The mission statement is critical to everything you do as an organization. So your mission, or mission statement, is why you exist, written on paper. Use your mission to guide your people, to guide your strategy, and to guide your decision making. Ultimately, your mission statement helps you focus on where you need to deliver maximum value and maximum impact. So you might be in a place where you totally know your mission, you know what to do, and you know how to do it - which is great. If you do have any questions about how to create a mission statement, or any other part of your strategic plan, click the link below for a free consultation:
>> Get a free consultation to discuss your mission planning & strategic planning needs.
Alternatively, you can take our course that will teach you how to create a vision, mission, goals, actions, and everything you need for a strategic plan:
>> Learn how to create your own strategic plan from scratch (without hiring anyone).
So I hope this helped you better understand why you need a mission, what a mission is and how you can use it. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel if you'd like to follow more information on strategic planning and how to move it forward successfully. Thanks for joining us. My name is Anthony Taylor, and I'll see you next time.