Mission: The Clear Way Forward

This is part three of a four-part series about brand attributes focusing on values, purpose, mission, and vision.

So far in this series, we’ve explored how to better understand your values and purpose. These inform the next step in the journey—your mission.

Strategic thinking can sometimes seem lofty and impractical. While this may be true in some cases, the purpose is for it to produce clarity and compelling change towards an actionable goal. Let’s consider how to begin formulating a mission, narrowing your focus, and how to have a sustainable influence on those you are seeking to serve.

Formulating a Mission

If your values are the foundation, and your purpose is based on those values, your mission is how you apply it. By aligning your values with perceived needs in the world, your mission will begin to take shape. Here are a few questions to help you get into a mission-focused mindset.

• What are your unique skills and abilities?

• What unique experiences/feelings do people have when they interact with you?

• When do people ask you for help?

• What do they ask you to help them with?

• What services do people tell you they wish they had access to that you could help make a reality?

Let’s consider an example from a client, Patty Brown Hair Design. She is a professional hairstylist that is passionate about enhancing beauty by caring for clients hair in its natural state. She seeks to serve health-conscious individuals using low-chemical products to revitalize or maintain the health of their hair. She also wants to welcome her clients into a comfortable, relaxing space.

Patty’s mission is to provide low-chemical, natural hairstyling services that leave clients feeling beautiful, healthy, and revitalized. This mission includes unique skills, experiences, and feelings of how Patty intends to make an impact. It will inform all of her decisions for doing business and serving her clients. Hopefully, some ideas are starting to take shape for you. The picture may still be a bit out of focus though.

Narrowing Your Focus

Some camera lenses zoom in and out, and others do not. The ones that don't are called prime lenses. While zoom lenses are versatile, they tend to focus on everything. Unless an experienced photographer is composing the frame, you might not always know what you’re supposed to be looking at. Prime lenses, on the other hand, have one focal length to provide a clear focus on the intended subject.

There are so many needs in the world, and many of us have more than one skill that we’ve learned in life. After answering the list of questions above, you might be compelled to mix all of the perceived needs together with your skills. You might feel scared that you'll miss out on a world of opportunities. I would encourage you to avoid the wide-net approach and make a brave choice instead.

Identify the most compelling need for the smallest amount of people that you have the skills to help with. This will empower you to do passionate work with the most impact. If you do not have a clear focus, you will be influenced by others who try to decide what you should focus on. You will also confuse those you are seeking to serve because you are not clear about what your message is. Narrow your focus, and you’ll begin to make decisions with renewed clarity.

“Identify the most compelling need for the smallest amount of people that you have the skills to help with.”

Sustainable Influence

A mission mindset is focused on what others need, not what you want or think they need. If you think the world needs a new exercise machine, but it really needs access to healthy food, you’re going to miss the mark drastically. You may sell a few machines. You may sell millions. Years later, you learn most of them were never used and ended up in landfills. So how can you know if your mission is going to have a sustainable influence?

Unlike values and purpose, you should expect your mission to change more frequently. Your mission must be explored, tested, and evolve to address current and future needs. It takes time for a clear mission to form. Once it does, you will most likely discover a new way to improve it. Further help can come from talking with family and friends or seeking professional insights.

The Clear Way Forward

Successful strategic thinking needs to be practical and actionable. The goal of this exercise is to help you fulfill your purpose by forming a clear mission for your business supported by your values. Now that you have the framework to formulate your mission, remember to narrow your focus to have the most sustainable influence.

What change are you seeking to make in the world? What is your mission?

Thanks for reading. I’m always open to your questions, follow-up thoughts, and feedback. Feel free to reach out at the link below.