The exercise of defining your purpose, vision, and mission creates two camps.

The first camp will participate in the exercise but they don’t believe it will truly make a difference.

And for them it doesn’t.

The second camp engages in the process and turns these statements into something that generates fulfillment and growth.

The Edelman study found that on every business metric the companies that were committed to being purpose driven were 86% more successful. Doesn’t this sound like the better camp to be in?

Often the reason these statements are not effective is simply because there is a lack of understanding of what the differences are between each one and how to translate them into something real, measureable, and actionable and fun!

As with everything keeping it simple is an art!

Rambling long statements don’t create change. (I once saw a purpose statement written on the wall of a large corporation.  It took the entire wall, had 4 paragraphs and could not be remembered or repeated.)

Below are simple ways to define each of these incredibly valuable statements.

Purpose statement: this answers your why and explains the impact your good work has on the community you serve.

It is one succinct statement that is memorable and repeatable. It appeals to our emotions, is aspirational and everyone in the company should feel personally aligned to the purpose statement.

As you grow and change your purpose should stretch with you.

Your purpose makes your ideal client want to be part of your community. Purpose drives strategy but it will fail if it is the strategy.

Vision Statement: Where are you going and what do you do? What problems are you uniquely solving?

Mission Statement: How will you achieve your vision and purpose every single day?

This last year has shown us that the “what” and “how” of business rapidly changed and our “why” proved to be our rudder, our compass, for making key decisions and finding opportunity.

If you want to be part of the 86% nothing would make me happier than to help you get there. 🙂 My purpose is to elevate others through the power of their own story and I know your story needs to be told.