So you’re a mission-driven organization. You desire to make a meaningful social, environmental and/or human impact. Well, are you actually making one or are you talking the talk without walking the walk?
In order to create impact externally, you must begin internally. You can’t put the cart before the horse. Think about this: What if a cupcake bakery was opening, but all the bakers operated as if the bakery was specializing in pies? A lot of people would be left confused, and the bakery would not be successful at fulfilling their mission.
Your mission should penetrate all aspects of your business – from finance to human resources, entry-level to executives. Your organization should be living, breathing, sleeping and eating your mission.
If you’re already doing these things, great job. Big things are ahead for your organization in 2015. If you have yet to truly internalize your mission, it’s time for some changes. Start with our list below.
- Define your mission. Hopefully by now you already have a mission statement. But if you don’t, schedule time to sit down and workshop what you desire to achieve as an organization with your team. This can be done by only your top-level executives, but we suggest calling on employees at all levels to ensure diverse feedback and insight.
- Make your mission known. Integrate your mission into employee training guides, email signature lines, send out an email reminding employees of your mission, create internal signage to display around the office, add it to your employee handbook – shout it from the rooftops! Basically make it impossible to NOT know your mission statement by heart.
- Implement mission-driven workshops. Your most important business asset is your people, so take the time to invest in their understanding of the beliefs that form the foundation for your operations. You might choose to host a company-wide workshop on topics as diverse as revenue generation and human resources, but whatever you focus on, make it a priority to give your employees an inside look at how each aspect of the organization is impacted by your mission statement.
- Hold weekly status meetings with department heads. Set aside time each week to check-in with department heads, and within this meeting review how your mission is being integrated into your workflow. Department heads should make decisions based on your mission, and those they supervise should execute with the mission in mind. It is important to keep communication flowing for accountability purposes.
This four steps should will give you a jumpstart on integrating your mission internally. Changing the way you do things to bring your mission front and center takes time, but once your guiding beliefs and values are truly embedded in your organization, you will see your impact become increasingly more meaningful.
Ready to make your marketing mission-driven? Check out our blog every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for insights or contact us for a free consultation!
Photo credit: P L Chadwick, Google images via Creative Commons
