There are certain crucial steps that no successful organization can ever hope to skip. Defining who you are and where you want to go is among the most essential things you can do. That means creating a mission statement, a vision statement and core values. It can be tempting for organizations to skimp on these, especially with the demands of everyday business, but they will suffer for treating them as chores rather than critical tools in their pursuit of building something special.
At Fryed Egg Productions, we work with organizations to dig deeply into who they are, so that together we can pinpoint what makes you special and where you want to go. We help create a mission, vision and values that will help you build the brand you dream of.
Here are the basics to this invaluable process.
Mission statement
A mission statement is a sentence that simply and succinctly describes what your organization does – what its purpose for existing is. It should send a message to both internal and external audiences who you are and why you do what you do. Crucial to a great mission statement is to use plain language and to avoid the temptation to be clever or far-reaching. It should be focused, highlighting in a direct manner what is most important to your organization. It can be a major challenge to boil down what you do to a short, straightforward – and memorable – phrase, but it is essential to creating a mission statement that will resonate and mean something. Your mission statement should be specific to you, steering clear of generic-sounding cliches, but without drilling too much into the details of your work. Remember who you serve and how you serve them – your mission statement is not about how you make money but how you impact others.
Vision statement
While your mission statement focuses on your present, your vision statement should train your gaze on the future – who you aspire to be in the long term. The importance of your vision statement is that it can help frame decision-making about your organization as you move forward. It gives your organization a big-picture goal to pursue, a sense of direction that can clarify the path ahead. It will send a message to your team. When difficult questions emerge, a vision statement can provide guidance for how to tackle them. As with a mission statement, your vision statement should be concise, clear and specific. Fancy language without meaning or purpose will leave your vision statement lying flat, and it soon will be forgotten, rather than pushing your team to seek to accomplish that vision for your organization.
Core values
Your core values allow you a bit more room to expand on what you hope makes your company special. These values serve to support both your mission and vision statement, while similarly providing guidance to your team about what your organization most values and expects from its team members. They are your organization’s central principles, indicating what you stand for, how you treat others and how you conduct yourselves. Although longer than a sentence, your core values should still be concise and clear, and the list of values should be kept to five or six total values – each one briefly phrased. These core values should loom large at your organization and play an active role in building the kind of culture and expected conduct that you want to have in place. These values should define your organization and be immediately accessible and recognizable to your team members.
Once you’ve created your mission, vision and values, they must be incorporated and emphasized. It doesn’t matter how powerful they are, if they are effectively put in a drawer and forgotten. For leadership, it’s important to keep your mission, vision and values in the foreground so that they will truly be adopted and will help drive your organization.
At Fryed Egg, we help organizations build brand identities that reflect who they are and then develop comprehensive marketing strategies to protect and advance those brands. If you want to see if Fryed Egg is the right agency for your marketing needs, contact us at (813) 478-0494 or [email protected] or visit www.fryedegg.com.