Earlier this year, before entering paternity leave in late March, I had the opportunity to work with 82 people from a couple of large companies in Tech and to help them apply strategic thinking to their own professional growth.
About 40% of them were team contributors, 40% managers and 20% directors.
Part of the exercises were around helping them clarify their own mission - their everyday contribution.
Here are 9 examples of such missions, which might inspire you to articulate your own:
Team contributors
Everyday I’m finding the most efficient and simple solutions for my clients and my colleagues.
Everyday I’m offering support and expertize to my clients and colleagues.
Everyday I’m helping my clients and my colleagues to make faster decisions and with less hassles, by offering them prompt answers based on my expertize.
Managers
Everyday I’m creating the conditions for growth and development for my colleagues, to offer our clients high quality and adaptable services.
Everyday I’m helping my team by offering support, sharing knowledge and setting directions for development.
Everyday I’m challenging the ambition and the mindset of the people in the team to increase their accomplishments and offer a positive experience to our clients.
Directors
Everyday I’m striving to obtain the maximum possible for our clients, our company and our colleagues, given the available resources.
Everyday I’m getting teams together and moving forward strategic projects to achieve tangible results for my stakeholders.
Everyday I’m organizing, simplifying and driving the work in my division for my team, peers and stakeholders.
Here’s also my own example, illustrated through a visual explainer of the elements it comprises:
Or, the shorter version:
Why bother?
Articulating your mission can bring you lots of clarity and momentum.
Being clear about:
Who you help? (Beneficiaries)
How you help them? (Contribution)
On a daily basis can help you:
Focus on what matters to you;
Become more assertive - e.g. say no to requests, work or opportunities that aren’t fit with your mission;
Help people know that you care about something specific (which might increase # of right opportunities coming your way);
And also help you get through tough times, by remembering how you contribute and who you’re mainly helping.
At the same time, if you feel that you aren’t able to offer your contribution in your current situation, maybe it’s time for a readjustment. I’ll share more insights about this in a future post about mission/context fit and I also invite you to check out the info about the energy-level based trigger in the When to adjust your personal strategy? article.
Useful ideas
When it comes to articulating a mission, here are some thoughts and practices that might be useful:
You are the primary beneficiary of clarifying your mission - so it has to make sense, resonate and inspire you.
From practice, this doesn’t mean that you will get it right from the first time. The first draft might sound too simplistic, or too corporate; too deep or too shallow. That’s fine, you can adjust it on the go till it sounds just right. In my experience of working with lots of people on this topic, the drafting and the further iterations till people are happy with the outcome can happen as fast as 15-30 minutes (in the right setup).
Simplicity and memorability are two key principles that help you make better use of your mission. Simple and memorable so that you’re connected and remember it daily, without checking any paper or digital document where you ‘once wrote it’.
For example, the main work that I’m doing with people participating in the sessions where we craft personal missions, visions and strategies starts from the question: “Is this something you will remember and use next week?” or “Is this something that you’ll easily share with the people around you?”.
Even though I shared 4 elements above (main activity, value proposition, beneficiaries, what kind of beneficiaries) - you don’t need to include all 4 in your mission statement. Just use what makes sense to you.
For example, you can check the 9 initial examples above and see which elements they used in their missions.
From my own experience, as you evolve in life, the mission is also (slightly?) adjusting to reflect the current you. If you’ve already articulated your mission some time ago, reflect on how it resonates with you now.
For example, I’ve recently adjusted my own mission to reflect that I’m working with leaders, and not any kind of leaders, but the ones who are focused on making more impact.
Also, notice how the 9 missions above shift focus in terms of contribution from team contributor to manager and to director.
Make a habit in sharing the mission phrase that you crafted and see what reactions and realtime feedback you get from the people around you.
For example, for me the contribution of sharing knowledge has been a constant theme since the beginnings of my professional life back in 2008.
This is why when I tell people around me that my everyday focus is to share knowledge I get no surprised looks, but rather questions of how this manifests and has an impact in the various type of work that I do.
Your turn
Why not spend 10-15 minutes in a quiet place to craft, or at least draft your own mission statement? Just complete the sentence: “Everyday I’m …”
Would love to read what you come up with.
As a strategic adviser and lifelong learner, Bülent Duagi works with Directors in 🇷🇴 Tech companies to help them make more impact with the limited resources they have at hand, by:
🧭 having a clear strategy that enables better and faster decision making;
🤝 organizing better to both run operations and implement strategy with the available bandwidth and budgets;
🚀 implementing strategic initiatives and programs in an efficient and effective manner, paying attention to the people side of change;
⚡️ intentionally developing proper internal capabilities that are sustainable in the long run.