It is satisfying, and rare, to hear someone communicate a feeling or thought you’ve never been able to put into words.

Many of the best leaders do this naturally.

Both the manner and substance of what they say causes other people to say, “Yes! That’s what I’ve been thinking all along!”

Unfortunately, many leaders don’t articulate what is important. Or why. Or what to do about it.

This doesn’t mean that they aren’t good leaders or the right leaders.

It just means that leadership will be more difficult for them. Success will always be more challenging.

The Real Role of Values, Vision and Mission

In most organizations, reading the Value, Vision and Mission statement feels like reading the back of a dinner menu.

It’s what you do when you don’t know what else to do. And then you immediately forget what you’ve read. Because it didn’t mean anything, and you’ve read it a million times anyway:

“We value good sounding words. Not bad ones. And we’re awesome. We do awesome stuff.”

You know this is true. I ask owners, executive teams and board members all the time: What are you trying to accomplish? What’s all the effort supposed to add up to? What’s your vision? What is your “why?” What are your values?

Almost no one can tell me. They usually try to remember where they filed the answers to those questions.

Why? Because what they came up with didn’t matter. It didn’t really mean anything to them. It didn’t reflect what was really in their hearts, their sense of driving passion or purpose.

Because something does matter to them. Something does drive them. But what is it? If you are the leader – you need to know. It needs to be on the tip of your tongue.

I don’t care if you have a slick elevator speech or you need some time to get the thoughts out. The point is: Do you know where you are going and can you tell anyone?

The purpose of Value, Vision and Mission statements is not to sound pretty. It isn’t for marketing or PR. Those are side-uses.

Here are the purposes:

1. To attract and screen who should/shouldn’t be on your team.
2. To keep you focused on what really matters.

That’s it.

Values

Everyone acts based out of their values. Everyone makes choices in alignment with their values. This happens naturally.

If someone is forced to act contrary to their values for very long, they will either: Quit, rationalize their compromise, or become mentally ill.

Being in alignment with our values is that powerful.

The challenge is that if you have a group of people, as organizations do, there is a multitude of values. So, it gets confusing. There is disagreement over whose values are most important.

Additionally, for any list of values, some will be more “valued” than others.

Effective leadership highlights the few guiding values that everyone can or should rally around, uphold and support. The kinds of values that, if they were lacking would leave you with an entirely different organization altogether.

How Value Statements Are Used: Every decision should pass through the filter of your values:

• Does this decision help manifest or demonstrate these values?
• At a minimum, does this decision not contradict these values?

Now, this happens on a personal level all the time. People ask themselves, “Is choice A, B or C worth it?” We know, intuitively, if we are acting in or out of alignment with what we believe.

But we don’t do this on an organizational level.

However, when we do this organizationally something magical happens:

Leadership decisions begin to make sense. There is an internal logic to decisions and policies and practices that everyone understands.

Management becomes easier. People know what is expected and what to do and how to act when it isn’t already clear

Employees are more engaged because they can see the connection between the values and their responsibilities.

Additionally, the organization is healthier because people will naturally react to incorrect dissonance – a decision or behavior or policy that violates the values.

Vision

I once was brought through an exercise of helping a blindfolded team put up a tent that none of us had ever seen before. I wasn’t allowed to touch anything or anyone. I could only talk to the team.

It was hard. They spent a lot of time tripping over the pieces of the tent and each other. It was frustrating.

The point of the exercise was communication and team dynamics. But the real lesson was: vision matters.

You can only build what you see yourself. Leaders often can’t see the whole picture they are leading towards. But the more they can see, the more significant is their advantage.

It’s also hard to lead people who can’t see what you want them to accomplish. They become dependent on you to provide every point of direction. They can’t start to use their creativity or knowledge – because they don’t have vision.

Vision is helpful. It’s not just a slogan.

A leader’s ability to articulate the future that you are building helps everyone move ahead. Your ability to have a vision for the organization, a department, a team or an individual is immediately empowering.

The clearer everyone’s vision is, the less dependent everyone is on being told what to do. People can begin to figure it out.

It is a critical and necessary task of leadership to be able to see. See potential, a possible future, envision solutions, envision growth and possibilities. Secondarily, leaders need to help everyone else see.

It is a mark of leadership to be able to inspire a shared sense of vision.

Mission

The mission is whatever your organization needs to accomplish to make the vision a reality. It should reflect your values.

It’s that simple. It should be practical and achievable. It should provide focus and direction for strategy. It should tell you what you should pursue and what you shouldn’t pursue.

You might have the same mission for the next year, five years or fifty years. It doesn’t matter as long is it makes sense, provides focus and direction.

Most organizations understand having a mission. That might be the most tangible piece of the Values, Vision and Mission pie.

Compelling mission statements are naturally endowed with meaning through the context provided by clear values and vision. A mission lets you know “what our work is.”

It keeps you focused. It helps you stay the course or get back on course if you wander.

Your Task As A Leader

I recently spoke with a partner in a company. She mentioned that, as partners, they tended to not communicate their vision or mission to their employees.

As a result, she said, the employees tended to create their own interpretation of the owner’s vision and mission. It wasn’t a favorable interpretation. It wasn’t accurate. It was demotivating.

But how could they know better?

Many people love having conversations about Values, Vision, and Mission. But they are too satisfied with the posters that sometimes result. Not satisfied enough with action.

They don’t like having to talk about how this gets applied in business decisions. Decisions like:

• Which contracts are pursued (or not.)
• How hiring practices should be shaped.
• Which strategic priorities should be developed.
• How to best make decisions during financial hard times.
• Facing ethical dilemmas.
• Addressing staff morale.
• Improving performance, impact or profitability.

But that is precisely why you identify your Values, Vision, and Mission. To create a common formula that will guide all of those decisions.

This is what supports an aligned organization. A focused organization. An organization with a strong and vibrant culture.

Your task as a leader is to make sure all of that happens.