This describes the second of five essential executive onboarding tools, Inspiring direction.
- Converging assimilation – New leader assimilation session
- Inspiring direction – Imperative mission and vision
- Enabling resources – Imperative strategy
- Empowering authority – BRAVE culture
- Credible accountability – Milestone management
Leadership is about inspiring, enabling and empowering others to do their absolute best together to realize a meaningful and rewarding shared purpose. What matters is that shared purpose. If you tell people something, the best you can hope for is compliance. If you invite them to contribute, they will and they’ll feel good about their contributions. But, if you want them to commit to the cause, to the purpose, you must co-create it with them so they own it.
Simon Sinek put it particularly well in his September 2009 TED talk on How great leaders inspire action in which he explained his “golden circle” of communicating from the “why” out instead of the “what” in.
Lead with Why Simon Sinek
Why? How? What? This little idea explains why some organizations and some leaders are able to inspire where others aren’t…
And by “why” I don’t mean “to make a profit.” That’s a result.
By “why” I mean: what’s your purpose? What’s your cause? What’s your belief? Why does your organization exist? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? And why should anyone care?
People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.”
Digging into mission and vision:
Follow this link to request a free copy of our Mission and Vision tools.
Mission:
Why here, why exist, what business we are in.
Your mission is about beliefs. The most inspiring leaders have a passion for what they do. This cannot be replicated or forced. It oozes out of every pore, and others are attracted to that. People want to buy from people like this and work with people like this because they can see how much these people believe.
While some mission statements can be flat, those with a strong belief behind them stand out. Simply put, a mission statement informs the organization of why it exists. The best mission statements are concise, clear, and motivating. They leave no question as to the “higher good”, “good for others”, or the “ultimate focus” of the organization. Your team should be able to apply the mission statement to everything they do. It should be so clear that they can relate it to any task.
A common mistake organizations make when crafting mission statements is making them so complex and convoluted that they fail to provide meaning for anyone. Keep them other-focused, pointed, accurate and inspiring. A few great mission statements:
“Provide relief to victims of disasters and help people prevent, prepare for, and respond to emergencies.” – American Red Cross
“Preserve and improve human life” – Merck
“To explore new worlds, discover new civilizations; seek out new life forms, and to boldly go where no one has gone before.” – Starship Enterprise
“Provide a safe overnight shelter for the homeless and support services to help them achieve their highest level of self-sufficiency so that they might lead more fulfilling lives.” – adapted from Pacific House
These are so much more inspiring than:
“To increase shareholder value.”
“To be the most respected and admired market leader.”
“To meet our customers’ needs.”
Vision:
Future picture—what we want to become, where we are going.
A good vision is an appealing picture of future success, showing what things will be like when the mission is accomplished. Some examples of clear and inspiring visions:
“The world’s premier engineering organization. Trained and ready to provide support anytime, anyplace.” – U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
“Create a world renowned, yet personable, showcase of maverick films, filmmakers and the technology that enables creativity. – Cinequest
“A world in which every child, everywhere, has equal access to life-saving vaccines.” – The Vaccine Fund
“A world without homelessness.” – Pacific House (adapted)
Critical point: the people the vision is designed to inspire must be able to picture themselves in the vision. Inspired members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can see themselves trained and ready to provide support as part of the world’s premier engineering organization. Inspired members of Cinequest can see themselves as part of a world renowned, yet personable showcase the enables creativity. Members of the Vaccine Fund can see themselves in a world in which every child, everywhere, has equal access to life-saving vaccines. These are rewarding pictures for these members.
John Hall
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