Mission: Accomplished
One of my most memorable moments as a consultant was when everyone in the room all had the “that’s it!” moment within a second of each other. I was working with a new agency to develop their mission and vision statements and they were so excited when, after a few hours of consideration, they knew they got it “right.”
I have worked with many organizations and teams to help develop guiding statements. And yet, I had ventured into my own business somewhat organically, and when I made the leap to full time I did so with a sense of my mission, but with nothing documented.
And so, I took that on for myself. It was a different experience creating alone as opposed to guiding a company or agency where several stakeholders are involved. In this case, I wanted my work to truly reflect me, and why I do what I do, so I made it an internal, self-reflective process.
Let me share three observations I made as I worked:
I have several people who keep pushing me to market to corporations because “that’s where the money is,” and yet, I chose to focus my mission on nonprofits: not because I haven’t and won’t work with others, but because I am most interested in working with organizations that are mission-driven and have strong values that support the communities they work in. Nonprofits tend to speak about themselves in this way and I get easily invested in what they do and how they do it. While my mission may be limiting, I believe that for-profits who are strongly connected to the type of approach that I take won’t feel disconnected from what I offer. That became the case recently. I have a new contract with a large international company who sold me on the chance to work with them because of their impressive set of values which I saw evident in the people I interviewed.
I really feel like there are two clients in my work: the agency itself, and the staff that work there. It was important to me to always have both top of mind. I would love for the nonprofit world to be the “go to” place for employment. I can’t change that alone—but I choose to do what I can to make a difference. And I think that shows up in my vision.
My values were easy for me to write—because they have been my guiding principles in my consulting. And that is the “truth” about organizational values. Values should not be aspirational. They should reflect what is true and demonstrated in the organization already. I am working with an agency right now where the identification of their core values was not nearly as arduous as they had feared, because all they really needed was a process (which I developed and guided for them) that helped to reveal what was already there.
While my mission, vision, and core values are not new, I strive to make them evident with each new client and project.
