Focus on the Mission
Focus on the Mission
Theme: Mission
Introduction
Mission means a lot of different things, to a lot of different people, in a lot of different contexts. To the casual church-goer, a mission is a trip to help others and share their faith. To federal agents and military personnel, a mission is an operation to be completed (hopefully) once. To an organization, and to a leader within an organization, a Mission is the purpose and goals of the organization, as well as how they want to accomplish those goals.
As a leader, after finding your Vision, the next thing you want to clarify is your Mission. Every organization should have a Mission statement. If the Vision statement is the Why that Simon Sinek talks about in his book, “Start with Why,” then the Mission statement is the How.
My constant mantra in leadership is “Focus on the Mission and Be Kind.” The assumption is that the organization’s Mission statement is directly linked to its Vision statement, and the hope for how the Vision will be accomplished, within the established Values of said organization. There are myriad ways to bring about any world change. The Mission is how you are currently working toward that, considering the Values that prompted the Vision.
When I say, “Focus on the Mission,” it is because the Mission should be the lens through which the leader makes all leadership decisions. For the benefit of my fellow ADHDers: think focus like sight, rather than focus like only thinking about that one thing all the time.
Key Insights
Mission: How we are working toward the Vision of the future of the world.
For the organization: This should already exist as the Mission statement. It’s a summation of how the organization is doing its work.
FOR your team: As their leader, you should consider how the team should function, what you want for them within the organization, and how you can help to bring these things about.
WITH your team: Your team likely already has a job to do within the organization.
I would encourage you to have them come up with their own mission statement as a group. (I’ve done it, and it’s a great team building exercise… just don’t call it that.)
Be sure to reserve the right to adjust it based on your own interpretation of the organizational mission and how you intend to lead.
For yourself: You have defined your personal Values and your Vision that was inspired by them. HOW are you working toward that future?
Examples
Every time (except the last one) that I argued for or against a change in the organization, and was able to link it to the Mission of the organization, my argument was successful.
The last time, my boss wanted the decision to go through, without any care for how the team, the stakeholders, or the people we served felt about it. He ignored my protests connecting the Mission, and he could not connect the decision to the Mission, either. He pushed it through, anyway. He lost the trust of the entire staff. He literally lost the entire full-time staff in the fallout. The Board is much smaller now… as people timed out, they didn’t want to renew, and neither did former Board members who could join again. The organization itself has lost money every year since, because it lost trust. Fewer people came for its services, because it lost trust.
This downfall wasn’t because of me (though I’m sure he tried to blame me). It was because of his poor leadership. And his job has likely been progressively more difficult ever since that one poor leadership choice.
What This Means for Neurodivergent Leaders
For those of us with executive dysfunction (which is arguably all of us), it can be difficult to prioritize tasks, goals, projects, etc. Especially when we can’t see the big picture. It’s easy to fall into doing what we always do, and maybe getting creative from there.
Consistency is not bad. Creativity is not bad. We just have to check in with ourselves regularly to be sure that the things we are doing and the choices we are making are still in line with the Mission of the organization.
Sometimes, I play a jewel-matching game. Every level gives me a different task to complete in order to pass, along with the number of moves I have to do it in. Here’s an example of one I played recently:
It’s really easy to get caught up in the game, assume what the task is, and just start using moves, without checking what the task actually is. It’s bitten me a few times. On this one, it would be easy to assume that I had to get rid of all the records on the board. But it’s not one of the tasks on the left, so focusing on that would use up valuable moves.
Likewise, sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in business as usual, or in whatever KPI or other metrics you and your team are responsible for. But if that’s all you’re focusing on when you make leadership decisions, it can result in an unhappy team. If all you’re focusing on is the numbers, you are just a manager. You step into leadership when you recognize the humanity of your team members and understand how the work you are doing contributes to the Mission of the organization.
Tips & Action Steps
Study the Mission statement of your organization.
Do your best to commit it to memory.
Meditate on how you are already fulfilling that Mission.
Use a short mantra to remember to consider it when you have to make a difficult leadership decision.
Consider each member in your team:
What do you appreciate about them?
What do you hope to help mentor them into becoming?
At their Annual Review, ask them what they would like to progress in. Find ways to mentor them in that, and find development opportunities for them.
Use these Reviews, not as punishment or a way to get them to work harder, but to get everyone on the same page, and to learn what strengths and values each person has. We all do better when we play to our personal strengths.
Encourage your team to come up with a team mission statement.
Make sure it includes:
How they do their jobs (generally, not specifically)
How their jobs contribute to the larger Mission
How they treat each other as a team.
It’s like the teacher allowing the students to come up with classroom rules. They take more ownership of it when they have a hand in creating it.
Come up with your own personal Mission statement in life.
You have your Vision Board (or whatever). How are you going to accomplish that?
I can want a new car, but am I going to work any high paying job to get it? Am I going to get a fast food job to make the payments? Am I going to start my own business? Am I going to steal it? (Hopefully, not that last one.)
There are many ways to achieve your Vision. Your Mission is how you intend to do so.
Call to Action
As mentioned above, it is helpful to get everyone on the team onboard with the Mission, and one way to do that is while conducting their Annual Performance Review (see how in the Tip & Action steps section above). Get your guide on “How to do Annual Performance Reviews,” written FOR ND Leaders BY an ND Leader (me) here!
As always, remember to Focus on the Mission and Be Kind.
