The Importance of the Business Mission Statement

Reflecting on my Business Mission Statement is a daily task for me. My sense of mission is the anchor that helps me address the important things in my own life and business.

It is the statement that continually reminds me of what I am in business for and what I am supposed to be doing to achieve my business purpose.

Mission must be a lived reality, not just a bunch of words that decorate the top of my strategic business plan or are displayed on a slick poster on the wall of my office.

What am I here for? What do I do? For whom and to what end?

These are all questions that must be asked and addressed everyday in the high performing business.

By reflecting on our mission, we rediscover our emotional energy and rekindle the fire and passion that informs all of our action and drives us to the next level of excellence and outstanding performance.

Get in touch with your sense of mission today. It will transform your business.

Clarity, Coherence and Congruence

Clarity, coherence and congruence in business come as a result of taking the time to sit down, think through our ideas and get a clear understanding of the nature of what must be done to bring about the results we desire.

Successful business people sort through how their ideas will be realized by formulating and writing down a plan. They spell out the various tasks that must be completed to realize a desired outcome. They assign responsibilities and accountabilities, and they establish clear deadlines for completion.

They then insure that everyone in the business is working to this plan, one step at a time, in a disciplined manner and reporting back on their progress at regular intervals.

Following this method insures that we are right-minded in our business. When we fail to seek clarity, coherence and congruence, we can become scattered and ineffective. Our efforts are less productive, and our overall level of performance declines.

Achieving Outstanding Results in Business

What do you want to achieve in your business that will make it an outstanding business?

The answers to this question are simple and are within your power to resolve.

We need to be very clear about the end results we desire for our business in order to achieve them. We must have a picture in our mind’s eye that we envision for our business. We must draw the road map that will get us to where we want to be. Without this map, we will find ourselves lost in the wilderness. We then must diligently follow this map that we have set out for ourselves.

Along the way, new things will arise in the form of opportunities and threats that will inform our actions, and we must have the flexibility to respond to these events decisively.

It is imperative though, that in the first instance, we decide where we want to be, write out our plan, execute against that plan and be continually evaluating our progress.

Take that first step. What are the results you want to achieve in your business?

The Call to Action

How do we know when we must do something in our business? We feel it. The signals for the call to action are felt in the gut. If we are experiencing one or more of the following emotions, we know we must act decisively:

• Discomfort
  
• Fear
  
• Hurt
  
• Anger
  
• Frustration
  
• Disappointment
  
• Guilt
  
• Incompetence
  
• Overload
  
• Loss

If you feel any one of these about something that is going on or not going on in your business, then you know that you have an issue to resolve. These emotions are your call to action.

Do you feel it? You must do something about it right now!

Self-management is Management in Business

If we cannot manage ourselves, how can we achieve the success we crave in our business? The core of self-management is to know where your center is and to manage yourself from that center.

Know what you are passionate about in your business. Know what you desire for your business, and know what you believe. These elements form the basis of defining the parameters of effective business decisions that will deliver powerful results.

The transformation of our business occurs when we align our thinking within the confines of our belief system. This belief system creates our identity and brand as a business. It encapsulates our values and ensures that our capabilities and behaviors are honed and focused on delivering products and services to our customers.

I deeply believe in this inside out approach, because it has stood the test of time in my own life and in the businesses that I have had the privilege of working with and for.

Discipline Is a Critical Key to Business Success

One of the profound things that I am constantly learning is the need to have a disciplined approach to realizing the Vision of my business.

I find that by picturing the quality world I aspire to, at both the personal and business levels, momentum is created that in turn builds inner strength and speed.

This is what I often refer to in my business as building our internal “bench strength.” This bench strength develops over time as a natural outcome of adopting the disciplines of clear headed thinking, managing our emotions, nurturing our relationships and relentlessly pursuing excellence in everything we do.

By diligently following a plan and achieving milestones, one step at a time, you ultimately arrive at your desired destination. In this way, success breeds success.

The ongoing transformation of my own life and my own business, as I work in a disciplined way toward this quality world I envision, produces astounding results.

I feel good. I am totally in touch with my passion for business and focused on achieving and celebrating wins and learning from failures. I have greater clarity when I speak, and I notice my behavior changing consistently for the better. Let me repeat that, consistently for the better.

Our envisioned future, defined by a set of clearly articulated and understood goals, which we consistently hold ourselves and others accountable to and responsible for, further builds the discipline required to gain mastery in all the elements of our business.

Business Is an Act of Creation

I was reminded this week, by one of my mentors, that being in business is a very creative and wonderful activity in which to be engaged.

Apart from the financial measures of success, being in business provides the opportunity to deliver a wide range of beneficial results.

A value-based business begins with a picture in the mind’s eye of the owner. He or she has an ideal for which they are striving. In this sense, the business person is very much like an artist or artisan, engaged in creating and shaping an organizational masterpiece.

In my case, the ideal of showing people how to transform their own lives and that of their business creates single-minded intention and a very powerful impetus.

This obsession, passion and striving for transformation, with, through and for others, in turn, continues to shape my own business and my own life in all of its dimensions and leads to even higher levels of excellence and success.

Time is Short

Time is the player sitting across the table from you with whom you are always competing. That’s the reason there is no time to delay or procrastinate in your own transformation or that of your business.

Now is the time! Napoleon Hill, in his classic Think and Grow Rich, says that the biggest enemies we must overcome are indecision, fear and doubt.

With maturity, comes the wisdom and discernment to know that there is no time to lose. Make a choice, cast out fear and step out in faith.

In business, you have to be clear about your passion, embody it in your main purpose and pursue this relentlessly, by aligning the architecture of your life and your business with this vision of the future.

Now is the time to shape the future you desire and believe and imbed it in your business.

Yesterday has gone. Tomorrow is not real. Now is here. Time is short.