I’m currently writing a undergraduate course that focuses on leadership in nonprofit organizations. One of the key topics is the importance of the organizational mission. Here is an excerpt…
At the core, as it is with all businesses, a key component of a successful not-for-profit organization is the commitment of its employees to a well crafted and implemented organizational mission. Phillis (as cited by Heyman, 2011) states, “Mission is the most critical element of a nonprofit because at its core it defines the purpose, primary goals, and vision of the organization.” In the book In Search of Excellence, Peters (1982) supports this by stating, “Figure out your value system. Decide what your company stands for.” Further support can be found from organizational strategists Thompson, Strickland, & Gamble (2010) when they state, “The real purpose of a vision statement is to serve as a management tool for giving the organization a sense of direction.” Mission statements hang in the board rooms and hallways of many American organizations, however, they do no good if they are written and never implemented. The key is that the words stated need to be the actual life’s blood of a thriving not-for-profit. Every team member should not only be able to recite the written words, but also daily look for ways to implement the essence, intention, and spirit of them. Not-for-profits that thrive do so because their team is sold out to the organizational mission and implements it in every way possible.
I have provided that excerpt in this blog because it acts as a great reminder to each of us that not only in our organizations is a statement of mission important, but also in our own leadership life. Most leaders have, at some point, gone through the exercise of drafting a life’s mission statement, but it is all too easy to let it slowly slip out of our thought processes as we tackle our day-to-day tasks and responsibilities. Just as I have stated above, an organization must move past having good words hanging on a wall to full implementation, so too, should we as leaders be living the mission we have adopted for ourselves. If we do, the people we lead will benefit and our leadership will flourish.
So, my encouragement to all of us is to get out that document, which we toiled over when we decided to live via a mission statement, dust it off, and revisit it so that we can again make it our personal life’s blood. It does no good just to be on the page, it must be how we live and lead.
Lead well.