Corporate Mission Statements became a business fad of the 90’s, in the hope of implementing change and increasing performance.

Many fail for two reasons:

They are written to look and sound appealing to outsiders rather than insiders.  Outsiders don’t need to see your Corporate Mission Statement  up on the wall or in your brochures.  Why?  They determine what your mission is by their own personal experience with your organization.  Don’t focus on words which will appeal to outsiders, focus more on the content.  Allow employees to connect to the mission statement, so they can make relevant personal connections with the mission.

There is little or no follow-up.  Some people get the idea that just the activity alone of writing the mission statement will propel the organization to achieve greatness without the necessary work.  Once you establish your focus, purpose and principles, you must constantly, review, recap and remind yourself and your people of this Statement.  Every person in your organization must determine what each area of the Statement means to them, and they should be evaluated and compensated based on the principles outlined in your Mission.

Based on my experience, the primary focus of every Mission Statement should be Excellence.  Excellence should focus on four areas:

Average is not an option.  We will consistently raise the bar on our achievements.  We will never rest on past successes.  Personal Evaluation Interviews will be held every month.  Each person will determine three things he/she can do in the next 90 days to result in a 50% improvement in their area of responsibility over the next 12 months.

Entitlement will not be tolerated.  Advancement, responsibility, recognition and compensation will be based on results, not seniority, personality or personal relationships.

Profit is not a four letter word.  Profits should measure our worth and our value to the organization.  Profits provide income for our investors, compensation for employees, capital to create growth and eliminate debt.

Preserve the Result-Producing Assets.  Good business people invest where they get good returns.  Good companies focus not only on the bottom line, but also on their key employees and customers.

These four areas of excellence can  keep you from falling into the trap of quick fix management fads.

Tips for Creating Corporate Mission Statements