A sense of mission is one of my favorite parts of any organization. It creates team camaraderie, makes decision making easier, and makes people happier. One of my past employers did a great job giving a sense of mission to the company. For a year, the team of 15 people or so felt like the company was going to change the world… the world of freight at least. It made going to work an a fun experience and created a tight bond with early employees. That sense of mission wasn’t lost, just diluted as new people were hired and they didn’t have the same indoctrination as early employees.
With the new marketing team there isn’t a sense of mission yet, and creating that sense is going to be a big focus. Here’s why.
It creates a shared goal. Shared goals have the effect of creating mutual trust (assuming shared effort), which leads to a less stressful work environment, greater information sharing, and less micromanaging. These qualities help speed up decision cycles, allowing the company to move productively faster. It also helps people focus on the larger, company goal.
It makes job intent more apparent. Team members make decisions everyday, and if the goal is understood, the intent of their jobs is more apparent. Search marketing people might be hired in a web startup to increase revenues from Google but they can contribute a more. For example, BAS has a mission to be the best source of signs that people and businesses need most. How does search marketing help? By helping the usability team understand what signs people need and what they call those signs. If the job were just, “grow search profitability” then the team member would have less incentive to help. When the mission is “To be the best source” each marketing team member has a better understanding of what the company TRULY wants to accomplish and how that person’s skills fit into the goal.
It makes work more satisfying. Money is great and having a job in this market is fantastic. However, working for more than money makes people happier. Because when the job gets stressful and the money doesn’t feel like enough, if people are motivated for other reasons they become more resilient. Think of it as happiness diversification. It’s why people should live well rounded lives with work, friends, family, civic participation and hobbies. When one of those areas is difficult the others can provide support. With a mission, when the money isn’t enough, or the chances of an IPO start dwindling, mission provides another reason to value work.
It creates trust in management. When the company grows beyond one room every-non manager’s visibility into decision making decreases. Employees will hear a decision but not the reasoning behind it and question why it happened. Some decisions will make no sense. When the mission is apparent people can evaluate the decision through the mission lens – “How does this fit into the company’s mission? How does it support it?” Decisions make more sense, new ideas can be evaluated with the mission in mind, and the managers seem more consistent, creating trust.
Having a sense of mission is important, but instilling it in a positive way is just as important as having one.
