01/11/2022

Effective Mission Statements are Bold Yet Believable

Offer an aggressive yet believable goal for improving people's lives

Over the past several decades, organizational leaders have grown to appreciate the role of purpose in building a thriving company. A strong sense of purpose attracts great talent, keeps them motivated and engaged, and bonds them together with coworkers to increase collaboration. For many senior leaders, however, organizational purpose begins and ends with a few flowery words written on a plaque or on the front page of annual report.

Of course, we’re talking about the mission statement.

The committee-crafted, jargon laden paragraph (or hopefully less) that gets quoted every so often in speeches and referenced in most printed documents. It’s important to give credit for trying where its due: there are few organizations where leaders haven’t given thought to answering the question of what we’re working toward. That’s great. But it’s also important to point out the flaws in the status quo: Most mission statements aren’t all that inspiring.

Please select this link to read the complete blog post from David Burkus.