10
How Am I Driving?
Develop a Vision, Mission, and Strategy
IF YOU’VE TRIED THE IDEAS from the first nine chapters of the book, you’ve already started collecting feedback about your leadership behaviors and style. Good. Now you know how you’re showing up as a leader. You’ve convened a Personal Board of Directors, found a mentor, and taken stock of your strengths. Check. You’ve been honest with yourself about your hardened opinions and even have a peer lined up to help monitor a specific development challenge. Excellent. You’re doing everything you can to evaluate your leadership. There’s just one more component to consider.
How are you at setting the vision, mission, and strategy for your group? Without question, setting compelling targets and stretch goals for your team is one of the most important of all leadership tasks. In fact, the higher up you go, the more critical it becomes. The leader must be able to motivate and focus people on these three elements; vision and mission provide purpose and direction, and strategy provides the roadmap for accomplishing your goals.
Now, you may get some input on these skills from peers and direct reports, but they don’t always know what “good” looks like here. Your peers and direct reports typically will provide input on your listening skills, your meeting behavior, your ability to give and take feedback, your time management skills, your level of compassion, and so forth. However, it may be difficult to get clear feedback from direct reports and peers on your ability to visualize a dream and make it a reality. For this crucial dimension, it helps to get feedback from leaders higher in the organization, particularly executives who have experience developing vision and strategy.
To begin this journey, answer the following questions: 1) Have I clearly articulated why my team or department exists? 2) Is the team clear on what it is we’re trying to accomplish? 3) Does everyone in my group know how we’re going to accomplish our goals? If the answers to these questions are crystal clear, congratulations; you’re a master at setting vision, mission, and strategy. If you’re not quite sure of the answers, it’s time to seek coaching and input from senior leaders. What follows is a look at each of the three elements of strategic planning and how to get a sense of whether you’re on the right track.
Start by Establishing the Vision
The vision is the dream—the future state, where you want to go. Think of it as the why—as in, “Why does our group exist?” The vision should be aspirational and motivational, something the team can rally around. The vision describes the “big idea” or your long-term intentions, and it is fairly permanent. A couple of examples illustrate the grandness of the vision statement: Disney’s vision is: “We create happiness by providing the finest in entertainment for people of all ages, everywhere.” Levi’s vision is: “We will clothe the world.” Both of these aptly describe the ultimate vision these companies are trying to define for employees (and customers).
What’s your vision statement? Why does your group exist? What are you striving for? If you haven’t done so already, try crafting a vision statement for your team (it can be something that supports the larger company vision, for example). Simply get out a piece of paper and start writing. Or, if you feel comfortable doing so, work on this with your direct reports; it can be a great team exercise. Answer the “why are we here?” question. Aim high and make it aspirational. A great vision can unify a team and give its members a reason to come to work every morning.
Craft the Mission Statement
Once you define the vision, write a mission statement. The mission is the goal: the objective in front of you. Think of it as the what—as in: “What are we trying to accomplish?” The mission should be challenging and should describe the business you’re in and the customers you’re trying to serve (whether internal or external). The mission should be connected to the vision; that is, by accomplishing the mission, you move closer toward making the vision a reality. Also, missions can and do change; it’s common for companies or groups to have different mission statements as the market ebbs and flows. Here are some examples of clear mission statements: Google’s mission is to: “Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Unilever’s mission is to: “Add vitality to life, by meeting everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene and personal care with brands that help people look good, feel good and get more out of life.” Both of these statements clearly articulate what employees should be focused on. The mission statement does just that; it provides the “true north” that guides employee performance; if your work does not support or drive the mission, then you are headed in the wrong direction.
Have you clarified your team’s mission? Do all team members have a complete understanding of what they should be focused on? Again, drafting and socializing a mission statement is a great way to drive alignment around your primary objective—what you need to get done. Strive for simplicity and clarity, and make sure the mission statement is tied to the vision. Help your group make this connection; crafting the right “what” (mission) will help achieve the “why” (vision).
Develop the Strategy to Get There
Once you’ve crafted the vision and mission, the real work begins—developing the strategy. Think of strategy as the “how”—as in “how are we going to complete the mission?” Strategy describes the specific plans taken to meet the objective, and should be clear and measurable. Good strategy includes detail about how the work will be accomplished, and includes resources, responsibilities, budget, metrics, and milestones. At a company level, strategies will be required for multiple areas such as technology, customer service, sales, marketing, and pricing. At your level, it will be focused on how to accomplish your team’s mission. Remember that strategy changes often; it’s common for groups to have a one year strategy, and for people’s performance objectives to align with the strategic plans.
What is your strategy? Can you articulate the macro plans you have in place this year to achieve the mission? Does everyone on your team know the strategy, and how they fit into the picture? You definitely need to get this right; aligning people to the strategy (and keeping them aligned) might be the most important leadership task of all. In fact, alignment around the strategy is so important that you should check in with your team a couple of times during the year to ensure everyone is still on board and that you’re sharing accountability for making the strategy work (see Chapter 40).
Seek Feedback from Senior Leaders
As the leader, you need to take the lead in developing the vision, mission and strategy for your team or department; this is not something you can delegate. But you shouldn’t do it alone—strategic planning is not a singular activity. Start by getting your thoughts together on the why, what, and how. Then, work with your team to flesh out the specifics of each element and strive to condense it to one page (see Figure 3 for a sample one-page strategy document). In addition, the “one-page philosophy” helps to keep your plan visible and alive. Tape it to your wall, post it in the conference room, or carry it with you to every meeting. Walk through it with your team members on a regular basis to remind them of the critical objectives, and tie everything you’re doing back to this summary of your strategy. Remember, if your vision, mission, and strategy can’t be articulated on a single page, it’s probably too complicated.
Finally, when it comes to developing something as important as the vision, mission, and strategy for your group, you need to open up the process and let others weigh in. In this case, it’s helpful to seek out the experts and get their advice and counsel. It’s the best way to ensure a clear purpose, direction, and operating plan for your team. When you feel you have something to share, socialize it with some of your company’s senior leaders. Seek out three leaders in particular: the head of your functional area (who will have good line of sight to how your strategy fits in with others in his or her department), a senior leader in Operations (who excels at looking at how the strategy can be “operationalized” to actually accomplish your mission), and a senior leader in the company who is known for being a good strategist. For this last source, seek recommendations; people definitely know who’s good at creating strategy and will be able to point you in the right direction.
Seek additional input and ideas. Share your one-page strategy document and ask for feedback. What do senior leaders like about it? What’s missing? What ideas do they have for improving the clarity or focus? Is it clear how you’re going to measure effectiveness and productivity? These are experienced leaders, with a proven track record of setting strategy. Be a sponge in these meetings; soak up their wisdom, and add it to your final document. And then, don’t hide the fact that you solicited input on your group’s strategy; let your boss, peers, and team know that you sought and received feedback on your strategy from respected senior leaders. Not only will you expand your network and build relationships with these leaders, but you’ll demonstrate your maturity and self-confidence by asking for their input.
Bootstrap Takeaways
Develop a Vision, Mission, and Strategy
1. Spend time crafting the right vision, mission, and strategy for your team; this is your roadmap to success.
2. Involve the team in this exercise and pare it down on one page. Strive to share the document with everyone on your extended team.
3. Get advice from senior leaders—tap into their expertise, and get their help in developing a clear, purposeful strategic plan.