Business owners and leaders often confuse ‘mission’ and ‘vision’ and this is incorrect – both are different concepts and need their own statements.
As I mentioned in a previous knowledge drop, a vision is a big picture of the desired future state of a business or project; a mission seeks to try and put more flesh on the bone and help people move in the right direction.
What Makes a Good Mission Statement?
A good mission statement tackles three key questions:
· Who is our target market? (KEY MARKET)
· What product or service do we offer to our market? (CONTRIBUTION)
· What makes us unique or the best at what we do or offer? (DISTINCTION)
While the vision gives a strategic overview of the future, the mission concerns itself with the purpose of the business both now and in the future.
Criticisms of mission statements are often similar to those of vision statements: that they are bland, vanilla messages that do not mean anything to either the market or the people that work within the business. As a consequence, a number of high-profile mission statements have been derided for their pointlessness.
How do you avoid crafting a bad mission statement?
Consider the following:
· Ensure it provides clear direction
· Keep it brief
· Use language that your market and your people would understand and avoid overcomplicated jargon.
· Ensure it tackles KEY MARKET, CONTRIBUTION, and DISTINCTION clearly.
A mission statement can be a powerful tool in communicating what you are in business for and done well, it can help with employee engagement and performance. Additionally it can also be used as the basis for business planning and the structuring of how people should work. Ensure you keep it brief and simple to understand, and make sure that it fits in with the great vision statement that you have created. A mission need not be impossible…
As always I’d love to hear from you, so get in touch with me via seanpurcell@actioncoach.com
