How does having, or not having a mission statement contribute to an organization’s ability to have impact? Is merely having a mission statement enough? In this video post, I take a look at what mission really is and how to effectively accomplish your mission.

Recently on Twitter, I asked, “Do you have a mission statement, biz or personal? Do you feel you are having impact? Care to share?” Here is some of the feedback that I got. For non-Twitterites, be sure to read from the bottom up.

I like “Be an Outsider” because it says something about the nature of the organization, while at the same time communicates a passion, a vision and an action – encourage and motivate others to get out and enjoy the great outdoors. Short and to the point, it does the job.

The one from Geoff Livingston “Works Well” is also short, but it takes a little more info to get to the heart of the matter. Jeff runs a PR/marketing communications firm where the mission is more fully stated as, ” Our mission is to develop and execute superior outreach campaigns that deliver results, plain and simple.” He also had a recent blog post on Strategy that spelled out in more detail what his company’s approach is to communications. My comments there reiterate the same thought here – there’s got to something more in back of your mission statement than just the words.

Do you, or does your company have a mission statement? Do you feel like you are having impact? I would love to hear your comments.

———————————————————-

Also, don’t forget that next Tuesday, May 13th, Ken McArthur is releasing “Impact: How to Get Noticed, Motivate Millions and Make a Difference in a Noisy World“.

To build awareness of his new book, Ken is giving away training from over thirty successful business owners with all kinds of specialties to help you succeed in business. It’s available free at The Impact Factor.

One of the discussion topics that came up a while back was: If you could only give three pointers to someone seeking to become more persuasive, what would they be? There were some interesting answers like, learn and love the art of storytelling, fit your communication to the other persons state, reaction, wants and needs, and create intense curiosity so that they want to know more.

I thought these were pretty good, but it kinda seemed to not get down to the CORE, or the heart of the matter. Here’s what I wrote:

“I’ll share what I’ve written and spoken about elsewhere on this topic. This is what I seek to live by whether at home with my wife and children, at work with co-workers and customers, or in my community or the world at large.

1. Impart Vision – What do you SEE that others need to see? What insight, solution to a problem, or vantage point do you have that others could benefit from? Vision creates unity, unity creates synergy, synergy creates results. If you can’t see, you can’t lead, so why should people follow?
2. Ignite Passion – How do you FEEL about your topic, or subject matter? What is it that really gets you going with contagious
   excitement and enthusiasm? If you’re not passionate, why should anyone
   care?
3. Inspire Strategy – What do you DO that gets massive results? What action have you taken that practically demonstrates your ability to accomplish great things? If what you do doesn’t work, why should anyone listen to you?

The result? Impact Society. Ultimately the altruistic goal of persuasion is to compel people to get engaged in making a positive difference in their lives and the lives of others, not just buy my stuff. If buying my stuff will help them accomplish that, then I haven’t merely sold them a product, I’ve changed their life. And maybe even made a little contribution to changing the world.”

It seems to me that this is not only what persuasion should be about, it is also what business should be all about. It takes persuasive sales, marketing & PR to be successful. But it’s got to go beyond the bottom line. In back of it all, there’s got to be a heart burning with passion for something bigger. What do you think? I’d love to hear from you.