Have you ever written a Vision, Mission and Values for your company?
First, let’s talk about WHY you would do that. If your team knows what your company is trying to do in the world, they know why they got up this morning and what part they play in making the world a better place. If they know what your values are, they can have a shot at behaving in accordance with them. If they don’t know these things, all they might be thinking about is they are here to make the boss money and copy the behavior of all the other employees, or just stay out of trouble.
So try writing it –
Vision. Your vision is aspirational. It may be something you never achieve. Ours is “A world with healthy, safe, and efficient homes”. We may never see a world where every home is that way, but it is what we are trying to do. What would the world be like if you had your way with it? What is your vision?
Mission – Mission is actionable. It is something we can work on today. Ours is “To be the contractor of choice by giving consistently excellent service to all our customers and each other.”
Values – What qualities do you hold as important when your employees are doing their thing each day? These are one-word or two-word values such as –
Communication, Trustworthy, Loyalty, Excellence, Growth, Friendly, Courtesy, Clean, Education, Caring, Detail-Orientation, Safety, etc.
Pick just four or five. Not that the others are not important, but if you choose everything, you choose nothing.
Have you ever seen a company’s mission statement that is a full page of fine print? Who remembers that? Nobody!
Your Vision, Mission, and Values should be two short sentences and four or five words. Short enough to easily train people and for them to remember it. Then put it up on the wall in a prominent location. It will likely be appropriate to share with customers and vendors.
Clarity. Your people will never have more clarity than you do.
Get it. Share it.
Scary. I was just thinking this morning about our companies burning issues for an upcoming peer group meeting, and not having a clear, communicated, shared vision/ mission/ values came to mind. We have all them. As you said, it’s too much, it’s not clear, it’s stale, and I would have to look myself to find it. It’s time.
Do you have our office bugged? Ha ha. We are working on this RIGHT now!! 🙂 Have had a mission statement for a long time, but that is only part of the puzzle!
This is great advice and truly should be one of the first things that someone hears and considers when starting a business. It also must be reviewed periodically to be sure it’s still accurate and people still ‘get it’. I like how you break it down so simply and make it so easy to accomplish. I’ve seen and been involved with multiple different methods and processes for determining vision, mission and values and this is the simplest. And it must be simple or, as you say, no one will be able to remember it and internalize it.
All so true on Vision, Mission, and Values. I think the role of effective managers though is to take the mission statement, and turn that into 3 or 4 tangible actions that a staff member can do in support of the mission. If we are going to bring superior service to the whatever-buying community, then what behaviors could your in-home technician do to contribute to that. Wear booties in the home, call ahead if you’re going to be late, be clean and uniformed at all times, park in allocated areas, etc. People appreciate very clear direction on how they can contribute.