What is Your Mission Statement?
A mission statement is a sentence that describes the company’s reason for existing and its objectives. Generally, mission statements identify the company’s goals and provide a good idea of the company’s corporate culture. They usually describe what products or services they offer, how they provide them, their values, and their relationships with customers, employees, and shareholders.
What Makes a Good Mission Statement?
A good mission statement should be short and express specific, well-defined goals. Short mission statements are clear, concise, and effective in describing the organization’s purpose and values. Mission statements should give consumers a clear idea of what they want from the company and how they can expect it to be delivered. They should also create a strong, positive image of the organization for your consumers, encouraging them to choose your company over others. A good mission statement should be written in a way that can be understood by all employees working to accomplish it.
Below we will discuss how to write your mission statement according to entrepreneur Raphael Avraham Sternberg:
1. Interview Leadership
A good mission statement comes from the company’s leadership and the major executives. A mission statement should have a clear vision and steps to achieve it. The executive team will have to be involved in the creation process and willing to invest time in writing a short but well-defined message.
2. Identify Common Themes from Your Interviews
After the interviews with the top executives, identify common themes in their answers. From there, try to develop a few words to describe your mission statement’s objectives.
3. Present to Leadership
Presenting your mission statement to the leadership will allow them to review it before it is distributed outside the organization, thus avoiding unwanted criticism that might damage your company’s reputation.
4. Make Sure it is Easy to Understand
Make sure your mission statement is easy and comfortable for people to understand. With effective writing, your mission statement should fit into one to three sentences with less than 300 words.
5. Make Sure There are no Ambiguities
Also, make sure that there are no ambiguities in your mission statement. For example, a sentence like “We strive to offer excellent products and services at competitive prices” could be interpreted as either one thing or another by a customer.
6. Make Sure it is Targeted
Last but not least, make sure that your mission statement is targeted at the public. For example, use the word “we” instead of just a company or company logo. It’s always better to be very specific in your mission presentation, making the message more valuable and understandable.
Raphael Avraham Sternberg believes that the goal of a mission statement is to give your company meaning and direction. With the right knowledge, your mission statement will support the overall mission of your organization and the driving forces that will keep your organization moving forward.
A mission statement is very important in defining the company’s future, business strategy, and organization. It is an excellent tool for communicating its main objectives to consumers.
