Now mission statements may feel outdated. Visions of men in blue polyester suits sitting around a conference table may flash into your head. However, there is a modern way to personalize your mission statement and it’s an important and simple tool that when done right acts as your guiding north star.
Your Mission Statement Your Way
Your mission statement should be deeply personal to you. It’s not just a task to bang out because we’re told that every company should have one.
In a nutshell, a mission statement is a short blurb about why an organization exists and what its overall goal is.
Sounds pretty basic but when you lean into it, it actually is an illuminating exercise that challenges you to be concise and really dig into who you want to serve and what you provide that person. It’s the bedrock of what you’re focused on today.
Keeping our massive global shifts in mind, if you haven’t created or addressed your current mission statement, it’s a good time to look at it with fresh eyes - tweaking it so that it’s in better alignment with who you are today and keeping in mind the changes that your ideal client has experienced and their current desires and needs. It’s time to relook at who we are and what we want to accomplish.
Make Better and Faster Decisions
Being aware of your mission will help you navigate your decisions. When something comes your way, and you’re super clear about your company goals you can easily match up the opportunity with your mission and see if it aligns and will help you accomplish your desired benchmarks.
When was the last time you identified the purpose of your work and outlined new goals? Ask yourself, what do I want to achieve now in 2021 and beyond? It’s helpful to isolate the most important thing in your business - its heart and soul...the core of why you developed what you created.
Is your mission statement in alignment with your core values?
To see if your mission statement stacks up - it’s great to match it up with your core values. If you haven’t done a core values assessment, I encourage you to head over to the Values In Action and complete their VIA strengths and virtues test. For example, Perspective - which is the way we see something, according to the VIA Institute, is a virtue of wisdom. It’s providing wise counsel and takes the big picture view.
And that’s exactly what this exercise is aimed at - getting a new perspective on your who and why and communicating that perspective so your divine right clients will know if you’re the one they align with working with.
Once you’ve crafted your mission statement - all of your content takes sprout from that place. Like I said before when done right, your mission statement becomes the bedrock of your company. Your content will be the most powerful when it’s rooted in your mission.
Here are a couple of top mission statements -
Tesla: To accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy.
Prezi: To reinvent how people share knowledge, tell stories, and inspire their audiences to act.
IKEA: To create a better everyday life for many people.
And they are all cool. Don’t be afraid though that you have to stay in a box. If you’re reading this, I know that you like to create your own rules...just like me. Write something that lights you up. If you’re a lightworker, name it and claim it. The more authentic and raw you can be the better you will magnetize your perfect clients. Out-of-the-box thinking is refreshing and attractive. So permission to crush any preconceived notions of what “professional” sounds like.
My mission is to spark momentum and hope in female entrepreneurs so they can lead with enthusiasm and purpose using business to grow personally
and inspire positive global change.
To me, I love the word spark - you need a spark to light a fire. I love to be surrounded by people on a mission, trailblazers excited to carve a new path, risk-takers that know they can figure anything out.
Momentum - we all know that blissful feeling when we’re experiencing momentum. It’s like riding a wave and we never want to get off it. It’s also the opposite of stuck - a common problem that I hear prospective clients struggling with. When a spark of momentum is created, forward motion, action, and excitement are propelled forward. And once a wise woman is set in motion, anything is possible!
If you know my work at all you know how passionate I am about enthusiasm. To me, enthusiasm can’t be taught. It has to be caught. Once it’s felt, it has the power to spread like wildfire. And I know leaders on a mission to serve are dedicated to increasing their impact and leaving a legacy. Of course, if you’ve been on the entrepreneurial journey for a while you know it takes extreme moxie, a love of learning, a growth mindset, and a desire to optimize your personal development.
There is nothing that pushes us out of our comfort zone and stretches us to grow other than being an entrepreneur. Once we start with ourselves and illustrate that we are walking our talk, it inspires others to do the same. This positive ripple effect can change the world. Our small acts of kindness and authenticity do have a global effect -- little by little, day by day.
I know that there were a lot of words behind a little statement. Craft it in a way that works for you and has deep meaning - that’s what’s most important!
So why does your business exist my friend? Why did you create what you did?
I’d love for you to take action, get out your notebook or a fresh google doc, and craft or recraft your mission statement.
Now more than ever we need clarity and our clients need clarity. We need hope and our clients need hope. We need to feel on purpose and that our work has value and meaning and so do our clients.
