Welcome back! 🙂
As a leader, you are not only tasked with fulfilling the mission, it is your responsibility to help evolve it over time. The mission must adapt to internal and external business realities and environments. Today’s organizations are called upon more and more to keep up with competitive demands and dwindling resources. Evolve the mission so that you are riding the surf instead of being thrown around by the waves. It only takes one scandal, one bad economic decision, or one breach of public trust to dismantle even the hardiest of companies these days. Robustly defining and regularly updating the mission, and then insisting that every level of the company make mission driven decisions, creates a buffer zone that protects the viability and longevity of the organization. It is also an essential step towards scandal proofing your organization. When a well thought out, carefully vetted, contemporary mission is the defining factor in organizational life, it is much harder for anyone to stray off course.
The mission is the reason your organization exists. Your company (or team, or non-profit, etc) was created because someone had a dream, and they had very particular ideas about how those goals should be accomplished. It only makes sense that once an enterprise of any kind is up and running, adjustments will have to be made. One of the healthiest activities any organization can engage in, is stepping back regularly to ask “Is this still where we want to go and how we want to get there?” Refining the mission as you gain experience in the marketplace (or on the ballfield or in the boardroom) makes good sense and allows you to proactively adapt to changing circumstances.
Until next time, I’ll be praying for you as you dissect your organization’s mission to determine whether or not it is still relevant, or is in need of an update.