Mission At Work
The themes of our blogs this year have been very focused on the power of understanding your personal actions, as driven by your sense of identity. The central concept is to decide who you want to be and then behave as that person every day. I often get asked how all this applies in workplaces. Companies have brands and images they portray. This is often backed with purpose, mission and vision statements. Sometimes people call this the “soft and squishy stuff”, saying that the business is just ‘kowtowing’ to modern fads.
Purpose, mission, value and vision statements succeed when they mean something to people and unite them in a common purpose. Poor implementation often means that the outcome is little more than expensive wallpaper. People are often a lot more perceptive than companies give them credit for. If the leadership team is cynical, it will show. It is not what they preach and stick up on the wall that matters, as much as what is lived and tolerated. As a junior manager, I remember being told that what I walked past was what I accepted and endorsed. It remains a powerful lesson.
When values, mission and vision statements are well used, they guide the entire team's psyche and give purpose, passion and drive to team members. You see it in the way people behave. They do not do things just because management says they must. Rather, the team understands, believes in and lives by the company aspirations. It gives meaning to all work. People prioritise their decisions and actions guided by the company's stated intent. You want a situation where everyone can relate what they are doing to the company's goals, vision and mission. You want your team to feel and be able to say, ‘I am an important part of making the purpose of the company’s existence a reality.’ When you are a part of your company’s bigger cause, it can carry you along and give depth and meaning to the work you do and to the life you are living.
A classic illustration is the oft-quoted story of the cleaner telling US President John F. Kennedy that his job was helping put a man on the moon. Another example is the one attributed to Christopher Wren, the architect of Saint Paul’s cathedral. While inspecting the site, he individually asked three bricklayers what they were doing. The first replied, ‘I’m laying bricks,’ the second replied, ‘I’m building a wall.’ and the third replied, ‘I am building a cathedral.’ When you see the impact of your work beyond your immediate actions, it is inspiring.
If people see the company’s purpose statements as little more than a corporate mechanism to get people to work harder so the shareholders make more money, it is demotivating. People work harder when they can see that the purpose is greater than financial profits. Companies need to be profitable, but in purpose-driven businesses, profit serves as a measurement of success rather than the goal of existence. Serving a greater purpose is why so many people choose to work for charities.
Does your company mission statement encourage you? Many are more of a ‘fill in the blanks’ statement than something to unite and inspire a team. Often businesses fail to do the work of showing how each role contributes to the larger vision and purpose. This tends to create teams made up of more of the ‘bricklayers and wall builders’ in the cathedral example.
Do you align with your company’s values?
If your personal values do not align with the business values, I would recommend you move. That’s a big call, but if you stay, you will feel the conflict of pulling in a different direction. Most people feel like they have to keep their job. They need job security and the income it provides, even if they do not fully agree with the company’s reason for being. The challenge is that they will rarely derive much satisfaction from work that is merely a means to an end, especially compared to a job that means a lot to them and resonates with their reason for being.
If you discover you (or any of your team) are not aligned, it’s a good idea to start looking around for roles that better suit you (or them). As we have covered in these blogs, identity drives behaviour and it is powerful to be working in alignment with who you want to be.
Are you and your team aligned? If you are, you will know that an aligned team creates a great work environment that makes work easier, more enjoyable and more rewarding.
