4 Steps Managers Can Take To Inspire And Retain Their Employees Using Mission, Vision And Values

An excerpt from HR.com’s book, HR Fundamentals for Non HR Managers

Managers carry the increased responsibilities and exposures that come with the role. In fact, managers are the number one reason why people will either stay in or leave their jobs. It’s a lot of responsibility for managers, but thankfully there is a way to make it a little less stressful.
 

Your company’s mission, vision, and values statements can play a role in helping to inspire and retain your employees. The reason is simple -- people like to know they are part of something bigger; the mission, vision, and values show what the bigger thing is. This can also help employees make choices that are aligned with the company’s purpose. 

Here is how HR.com defines Mission, Vision and Values:
 

• Mission – why we exist and what we aim to accomplish
• Vision – what success will look like
• Values – what behaviors we commit to as we strive for that success

Simply stated, the company’s culture should be a reflection and a manifestation of the company’s mission, vision, and values. It is a manager’s job to make the connections so that their employees understand and buy in to the mission, vision, and values. If they do that well, it will create the culture managers want and need.

To Get Team Buy-In, Start by Buying in Yourself

We’re going to look at mission and vision before we look at values. Whether you are creating your own mission and vision statements or working with the ones you were given, you need to get your team’s buy-in. Your team needs to understand and recognize the value of working collectively to achieve the goals of your company. Without your team’s support, the company’s mission statement becomes meaningless, and more importantly, their responsibilities become less meaningful. 

The best way to align your team with your company’s mission and vision is to make sure they understand the intent behind each statement. That’s going to take some thinking on your part, some thinking on their part, and a fair bit of ongoing discussion so that the connection between the statements and their individual work is clear.

Here is how to start:

Step 1:
Think about what your company’s mission and vision mean to you. What part of the intent behind those statements resonates with you? What inspires you? How does it help focus your own goals and activities?

Don’t head into a discussion with your team without having answers to those questions first. You want to approach the discussion with a certain amount of passion in your heart; and to have the ability to explain why the mission matters to you before you try to convince your team that it should matter to them.

Focusing On What Makes your Company Different

When you are thinking about your mission and vision, it’s worth pondering what makes you different than your competitors. The mission and vision need to reflect who you are, and at the same time emphasize some of the things that make your organization special.

You should work from the assumption that knowing what makes you different is important and that employees may have no clue what those differences are. That’s why you were made a manager — to close that gap.

Ideally, the mission and vision statements clearly show some elements of differentiation. If not, then you’ll have to extrapolate from what’s in those statements. This takes us to your next step.

Step 2:
Think about, and be ready to articulate, how the mission and vision relate to what makes your organization unique.

The Crucial Role of Communication

Whether you are creating your own mission statement or working with the one you were given, you need to effectively communicate it to your team.

There we have it; it’s about communication. Now ask yourself, is putting the mission and vision in a poster on the wall sufficient communication? What about having a meeting where you read them out? What if you go on to explain them?

Steps one and two are good, but they’re far from sufficient. Employees need a chance to discuss their ideas. This brings us to steps 3 and 4.

Step 3:
Meet with employees and, bringing your own passion to the discussion, explain what the mission and vision are, why they’re important, how it makes the company different from its competitors, and what it means to you personally.

Step 4:
Give employees a chance to discuss these ideas. Break them into small groups of 2-4 people so they get a chance to voice their ideas. Get people to share their best insights with the full team. This can (and should) be done with remote teams as well, video conference technology now allows breakout rooms.

You don’t need to do this all at once. You can break up the discussion over several meetings. In fact, you may find that setting aside 15 minutes to discuss various aspects of mission and vision over four meetings, is more effective than a single, one-hour meeting. You should end each meeting with a request that employees think about these ideas so that they can share their reflections in the next discussion.

Remember that the people in your HR department have a lot of expertise in getting employees engaged with new ideas. Talk to them about how to best approach this. Remember that HR can be a great thinking partner; you can bounce around some ideas with them whenever you face people issues.

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