Your company’s mission statement is an opportunity to galvanize and motivate your team – and in most companies, it’s an opportunity lost.
The Mission Statement Crisis
Most organizational mission statements are inherently forgettable, even boring. Many corporate mission statements are confusing, even meaningless. Bottom line… They move no one.
And that’s a shame, because an effective mission – one that actually means something – can inspire people to move mountains together.
In our work with growth-minded leaders over the past 11 years, we’ve seen the difference between mission statements that give letters and wallspace something to do… And those that ignite teams to achieve the extraordinary.
Create a Powerful Statement
Fortunately, there’s a pattern to follow. The mission statements that truly work – the ones that people are willing to endure hardship to pursue – share seven essential characteristics:
- Clarity and Simplicity: Can people grasp and repeat your mission easily?
- Purpose-Driven: Does your mission speak to something bigger than profit?
- Inspiring: Is your mission worth getting out of bed for (even when the floor is cold)?
- Actionable: Can you and your team use your statement as a compass for daily decisions?
- Specificity: Does your mission statement define the problem you solve and keep you focused?
- Timeless: Will your mission statement’s relevance endure beyond current market conditions and technology?
- Stakeholder-Focused: Can everyone who’ll help bring it to life relate to and find purpose in it?
Directionless Mission Examples
Let’s look at some real-world examples of mission statements that fall flat:
Hershey’s (Former):
“Undisputed marketplace leadership.”
Missing from this mission statement:
- Purpose-Driven: Speaks to stockholders, not humans or chocolate lovers
- Inspiring: It’s hard to feel that the world will be better if we manage to achieve “marketplace leadership” – not without a more profound mission behind that
- Actionable: Fails to guide daily decisions or strategic choices – marketplace leadership for WHAT?
- Specificity: Could apply to any company in any industry at any time in history
- Stakeholder-Focused: Ignores customers, community, and team members Result: It’s like telling your team “Win!” without giving them a reason to care about winning – or even telling them what game they’re playing.
American Standard (Former):
“Be the best in the eyes of our customers, employees, and shareholders.”
Missing from this mission statement:
- Clarity: Best at what? Why?
- Specificity: Could belong to any company anywhere
- Actionable: Does little work to help teams make strategic decisions – the best at what?
- Purpose-Driven: Lacks connection to meaningful impact Result: While it acknowledges stakeholders, it gives them nothing to grab onto. It’s a mission statement that belongs to everyone and therefore to no one.
Imagine a military commander telling the troops, “Go win undisputed marketplace leadership!” What would the troops do?
No commander would ever be so unfocused. They’re better trained at giving orders and defining mission objectives than that.
Imagine that commander saying, “Be the best in the eyes of our customers, employees, and shareholders.” Not much better.
Effective Mission Statement Examples
Now let’s examine mission statements that actually work:
LinkedIn Mission Statement:
“To connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.”
Strengths of this mission statement:
- Clarity: Immediately graspable purpose
- Specificity: Clear focus on professional connections and success
- Actionable: Every feature can be measured against this goal
- Purpose-Driven: Creates economic opportunity globally
- Stakeholder-Focused: Benefits both users and the broader professional community
- Inspiring: Promises to make people more successful
- Timeless: Not tied to specific technology
Result: This mission statement transforms every feature and update into part of something bigger. When people understand how their daily work connects to others’ success, they bring their best to every task.
If the internet and websites as we know them become obsolete, the LinkedIn team will still understand what it is that they are meant to accomplish.
Doctors Without Borders Mission:
“To provide lifesaving medical care to those most in need, wherever they are, regardless of race, religion, gender or political affiliation.”
Strengths of this mission statement:
- Clarity: Crystal clear purpose
- Purpose-Driven: Saving lives without discrimination
- Inspiring: I’m not a doctor, and I’m about ready to become one so I can contribute meaningfully to that mission
- Actionable: Clear guidelines for where and how to help
- Specificity: Defines both what they do and who they serve
- Stakeholder-Focused: Considers both providers and recipients of care
- Timeless: Built on enduring human needs
Result: Every action becomes meaningful because it’s not about generic healthcare – it’s about saving lives without discrimination.
Google Mission Statement:
“To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
Strengths of this statement:
- Clarity: Simple and graspable
- Purpose-Driven: Serves global knowledge needs – and is a BIG, even infinite project
- Actionable: Clear filter for decisions
- Specificity: Focused yet expansive enough for innovation
- Stakeholder-Focused: Benefits both information providers and seekers
- Inspiring: Connected to human progress
- Timeless: Not tied to specific technology
Result: This mission statement gives every team member a clear filter for decisions: Will this help make information more organized, accessible, or useful? If not, likely, we shouldn’t be doing it.
Employing Your Mission Statement
A mission statement isn’t magic (almost) – it’s a tool that works only when it moves people.
Once you’ve crafted a mission statement that meets the seven characteristics that galvanize, you’ve got to put your statement to work – like any employee.
Here’s how to keep your mission alive and working:
Lead Through Stories
- Start meetings by connecting the work before you to your mission statement
- Celebrate team members who’ve acted in ways that further the mission
- Tell stories that show your mission statement making a difference – results!
Make it Part of the Conversation
- Connect daily decisions back to mission impact
- Include mission alignment in team development discussions
- Let your mission statement shape how you communicate about challenges and opportunities
Strengthen Mission Alignment Regularly
- Ask teams how their current projects serve the mission
- Create space for honest discussion about mission obstacles
- Use your mission statement as a filter for new initiatives
- Learn what moves and motivates each person on your team and help them connect their personal mission to the company’s raison detra
Evolve Your Mission Statement With Care
- Check in regularly with those doing the work
- Gather stories of mission impact
- Refine understanding while keeping the core purpose intact
The Bottom Line
When you state your mission in a way that combines all seven elements and stays alive through consistent action and conversation, it becomes more than words. It becomes the force that aligns your team’s energy and points it toward something meaningful.
Look at your current mission statement. Does it move people like LinkedIn’s? Guide decisions like Google’s? Transform daily work into meaningful impact like Doctors Without Borders’? If not, it might be time to craft a mission statement that gives your people something worth moving mountains for.
What’s moving your team today?