Ignite Action by Shining an Inspired Mission
In a recent post I wrote about developing a BOLD Vision, the bigger picture of what you are aiming to achieve with your business with clarity and power. Once you’ve defined your vision you can define your Inspired Mission. In my book Amplify Your Business, I discussed the importance and benefits of defining a mission to ignite drive and action in yourself, your team, your prospects and your community.
What is an Inspired Mission?
Your mission statement should guide the actions of your company, spell out its overall goal, provide a clear path, and facilitate smart business decisions. The mission provides the framework or context within which the company’s strategies are formulated. It signals what your business is all about to your customers, employees, suppliers, and the community. A mission statement is a tool that can be as important as your business plan.
An Inspired Mission takes the mission statement one step forward. Some companies breeze by the mission statement and write out a general mission statement to check it off the things to do list, however they are missing the full impact of what a mission statement can do. An inspired mission should inspire your leadership, your team, your clients and yourself. If it is lukewarm, that won’t provide much power. Take the time to write a mission statement that is aimed to inspire.
Examples of Inspired Mission Statements:
Patagonia’s Mission Statement
Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.
American Express
To be the world’s most respected service brand. To do this, we have established a culture that supports our team members, so they can provide exceptional service to our customers.
Cradles to Crayons
Cradles to Crayons provides children from birth through age 12, living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive – at home, at school and at play. We supply these items free of charge by engaging and connecting communities that have with communities that need.
Universal Health Services, Inc.
To provide superior quality healthcare services that: patients recommend to family and friends, physicians prefer for their parents, purchasers select for their clients, employees are proud of and investors seek for long-term returns.
Rock My Image
To inspire and empower one hundred thousand business owners to thrive in life as Rockstar Professionals using their unique gifts, following their true passion and serving a higher purpose.
These examples illustrate some different ways to tackle a mission statement but they all clearly provide some direction on what the intended purpose is of the organization and how the organization aims to achieve it.
How to Develop an Inspired Mission:
To develop an inspired mission you should look back to your vision statement and reflect on the bigger picture of what you are aiming to accomplish then think of how your organization aims to make this happen.
Here’s another simple example of a vision and mission for a nonprofit organization that helps the under served. The nonprofit’s bold vision may be “A world without poverty.” That is the bigger picture of what they are trying to serve. Their inspired mission, consequently, may be “Providing jobs for the homeless and unemployed.” This is how they go about accomplishing the bigger vision. Now it would be recommended to add a bit more verbiage to make the mission statement a bit more inspirational and once you’ve developed it, share it with the world. Let the world now who you are and what your about.
