Want Employees Who Give It Their All? Give Them Something to Fight For
How to create a mission statement that inspires and motivates your team no matter the size, function, or industry
Many leaders struggled to support their employees during the pandemic and in the aftermath, it hasn’t been much better. More employees are reporting feelings of burnout than ever.
I see reports every day and anecdotal stories from leaders that their employees are feeling unmotivated. They don’t see the point of working hard. They don’t trust that the company will reward them for their efforts and their outcomes. It is depressing.
Unfortunately, it isn’t easy to shift this mindset since it is deeply rooted in distrust and fear that is cultural and not specific to one company or leader. Employees have been feeling growing distrust for decades. I hate overpromising, so this newsletter post won’t give you an instant solution.
That said, you can help reinvigorate team members who are open to the idea that a company and a leader aren’t simply out to extract value from their employees.
A clear mission can help your team find its purpose and create new energy and momentum. You can do this for any function in any industry at any time. You just need to prioritize doing the work.
Let’s dive in!
A Story
Cassandra was recently hired to take over the finance department of a midsize consulting company of 3,000 people located across 5 offices in the US. Cassandra had experience building finance departments in smaller organizations and had had great success. Her teams were lauded for strong financial planning & analysis, great collaboration with other leaders, and high efficiency.
A Disillusioned, Downward-Spiraling Team
When Cassandra met with her new team and reviewed their HR metrics, she noticed several concerning trends:
Performance rankings were relatively high, but few staff members received raises or promotions, raising concerns that her predecessor was inflating ratings or not doing a great job advocating for her team
Departures of highly ranked team members were increasing year over year, indicating employee dissatisfaction
Employee engagement ratings for the past 2 years were low and declining compared with other departments, further confirming her theory that employees were unhappy
After meeting with her direct reports and through skip-level meetings (employees who reported to her direct reports), Cassandra learned that the finance team felt unmotivated and undervalued.
In addition, talking with her peer leaders, it seemed other department heads were not impressed with her department. Her team gave the impression that they were “phoning it in”. Several finance team members often didn’t come to meetings prepared with up-to-date numbers and didn’t add value in conversations. They passively waited for input and feedback versus proactively making suggestions or asking questions to clarify their understanding.
Cassandra had her work cut out for her.
Developing a Team Mission (hint: Focus on Purpose)
While there were many areas to address, Cassandra, an experienced leader, prioritized creating a clear mission — a purpose for her team. Her team felt adrift and the easiest way to ground them was through a mission statement. She knew that she would likely need to exit some team members out of the organization, but before she could do that with confidence, she wanted to give everyone on the team a chance to turn it around by rallying around a mission.
She took the following steps to build a mission statement and gain buy-in at the same time:
Surveyed her team and her peer leaders on
Who does the Finance department serve
What value does the Finance department deliver
What are the 3 most important ways the Finance department contributes to the organization overall
Synthesized the survey responses into a few themes
Created a Working Group (5 people) that included a mix of her direct reports and more junior team members across different sub-functions and offices to ensure diverse perspectives
Created a draft mission statement, using this template:
We enable [our company] to [x, y, and z] by contributing [a, b, and c]
They added the following for each department they collaborated with:
We work with [d] department on a [weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual] basis to ensure we collectively deliver on [g]
Reviewed the draft with her direct reports and her boss, the CEO, to gather feedback
Made final adjustments with the Working Group
Created a communication plan that included her leadership team peers, direct reports, and the HR team
Rolled out the new mission across the organization and incorporated into existing processes like onboarding and annual planning
Surveyed her team afterward to gauge how the mission statement landed and made a plan to annually review and adjust as needed
Here is the final version Cassandra rolled out:
FINANCE DEPARTMENT MISSION
We enable our company to strategically plan, advance our company mission, and maximize our profits to shareholders by:
Informing the leadership team of our financial outlook and proactively making recommendations
Maintaining and optimizing a rigorous and efficient financial planning process
Collaborating effectively with each department to ensure we are resourced to reach our goals and strengthen our bottom line
Rallying the Team
Cassandra saw the rollout as an opportunity to unify her team — to build a battle cry of sorts. She enlisted the help of the internal communication team leader and together they created a 2-week roadshow:
Luncheon staff meetings to leverage food to entice everyone to engage
Coffee chats with Cassandra to allow for more informal Q&A and discussion
Beautifully designed slides to convey not just the words of the mission, but the essence & energy
Cross-department get-to-know-you sessions where each team member shared more about their specific Finance role and how they contributed to the team mission
This was only the first step to resetting the Finance department for success, but Cassandra knew she was on the right path when she heard the following feedback from different team members:
“It was great that the CEO and other executive leaders joined some of the luncheon meetings and coffee chats. [Finance] now feels less like a background function and more like one that plays a valuable role.”
“Cassandra cares about how we are perceived and whether we have a positive impact on the company.”
“I hadn’t thought of our work through the lens of who we serve and how we serve them. It still feels good to know that we matter.”
Over the next several months, Cassandra had to take several more steps to get the team in shape, but she was able to do so without as much collateral damage because most of her department was committed and recognized that the changes she was making were helping to realize their department mission.
A Learning (or two)
Creating a mission for a department may feel rudimentary, but as evidenced by the feedback Cassandra heard from her team, the positive impact on team morale and focus can be material. Just because other leaders take this foundational element for granted, you don’t have to.
Teams perform better when they have a shared purpose. Done well, it aligns your people, it connects your function to the company’s needs, and it helps others in the organization understand how your department relates to others.
What Cassandra did to outline a mission for her department could be done by a leader for any team, large or small, for any function, and for organizations in any industry.
If you are in a smaller company, you might need fewer cycles (maybe just 1:1 and small team conversations), less structure (maybe no surveys), and less time. If you are in a larger organization, you might need to do the opposite and add steps and time to the process.
To summarize, the general actions are:
Gather inputs
Form a working group
Synthesize a draft
Get feedback
Build a final version
Create a communication plan
Rollout the mission statement and incorporate into regular processes such as onboarding and strategic planning to integrate it fully
Survey the team for feedback a few months later to see if you have made any progress or simply leverage your regular company employee engagement survey. Iterate as needed
The process might take a few weeks, and the resulting team cohesion, pride, and enthusiasm will make the effort worthwhile. Importantly, do this when things are going well and you and your team will be able to rely upon it as a way to stay grounded when conditions get more challenging.
Practice & Play
If, as you are reading this, you feel concerned about being able to execute this process, as simple as it sounds on paper, you are not alone.
As with many efforts that impact multiple people, there are potential land mines that you may encounter. Everything from a disruptive team member in your working group to not getting buy-in at the executive level. These are real challenges, but don’t let the possibility of resistance hold you back. Take the time to anticipate and understand the objections and work through them with each of the players that raise concerns.
Worry less about getting the process and the statement perfect the first time. It’s far more important that you have a mission statement and that you iterate on it over time.
See this as a galvanizing opportunity for your team and less as a test of whether you can herd cats to group write well. No one group writes well — recognize that at the outset and you can make this process more seamless, less stressful, and more enjoyable.
If you are feeling ambitious, talk with your entire executive team and consider making this a company-wide initiative. Make it an opportunity to learn how different departments work together and create more cross-department connections. The resulting increased understanding and alignment across the company will be well worth the time.
Your Turn
I’d love to hear from you in the Comments.
Have you ever created a department or team mission? What worked well? What would you do differently?
If you haven’t created one, why not? What has held you back?
Thanks for reading and look forward to seeing you next week!
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Additional Resources
Team Mission Statement: How to Create a Team Statement (MasterClass)
Powerful Team Mission Statement Examples (And How To Write One) (Indeed)
Setting a vision, mission, and strategy for your team (LeadDev)
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