Mission statements require careful, thoughtful consideration. A team mission statement sets the agenda, functioning as a north star, a guiding light directing each team member toward a common goal.
Author and businessman Stephen Covey said it best:
Well-constructed mission statements assist teams when:
Setting agendas
Building forecasts
Collaborations
Project management
Reporting
Assigning new responsibilities
What goes into creating a mission statement? How do you create a team mission statement? And what are some mission statement examples you can use as inspiration? Read on or jump to the most appealing section to find out:
What is a mission statement?
United by a shared mission!
A corporate mission statement is a brief description that summarizes the purpose of the company’s existence. It alludes to the company’s corporate culture, defining shared goals and values that drive companies to achieve growth.
A team mission statement is very similar. However, unlike the corporate mission statement, a team mission statement defines the team’s purpose with more narrowed goals and values.
Your team leader, director, or VP may seek input from each team member to create the team mission statement. Collaborative construction of the team mission statement ensures every team member agrees with the purpose, the shared values, and the general vision the team defines on a path to success.
The difference between mission, vision, goals, and values
Fulfilling a mission to achieve the goals and vision.
Your corporate or team mission statement isn’t the only method to instill structure in your organization. There are also vision statements, goals for the organization, and the values each team will embody while conducting business.
These terms are often used interchangeably, but their meanings differ. Make sure that your team defines each of these terms in concise statements. You want to create clarity and consistency across the organization.
A mission statement defines the team or company’s purpose. The mission statement is a brief synopsis describing what your team will collectively work to accomplish. Team members may refer to their mission statements if or when they’re uncertain about newly assigned tasks. The mission statement helps team members realign themselves around the team’s core purpose.
A vision statement is an aspirational future a company or team strives to achieve. Unlike a mission statement, which embodies how teams conduct themselves, the vision statement describes an idyllic outcome. Vision statements should tap into shared emotional desires among team members. If everything proceeds perfectly, your vision statement could become a reality.
Goals are long-term outcomes your team aspires to achieve. Unlike mission or vision statements, goals describe very tangible desires. Common examples are profitability, brand awareness, exceptional customer service, employee satisfaction, or market share. Defining your team goals creates alignment around shared desires that you can use as milestones to flourish.
Values are a series of shared guiding principles or fundamental beliefs. Shared values help each team member complete their work ethically and responsibly to achieve team goals. Examples include integrity, accountability, perseverance, compassion, and discipline. Values help define corporate culture, assisting hiring managers with talent recruitment and allowing managers to promote team members who best embody the shared cultural values.
How a mission statement works
The purpose of a mission statement is to create focus and structure within a team. Mission statement examples encompass the corporate vision, goals, and values. Team members refer back to the mission statements for clarity as they work to improve productivity or efficiency.
The mission statement applies to all corporate stakeholders regardless of their titles or roles. Therefore, think of the mission statement as a rule book to which all members of the organization are accountable, such as:
Employees
Managers/Directors
C-suite executives
Shareholders
Suppliers
Distributors
And even customers
The mission statement defines what the team does, how the work gets done and, most importantly, why. This is key to creating an organizational structure. Structure and organization allow teams to execute tasks with precision and efficiency in pursuit of shared goals.
Project management and documentation help you communicate clear, structured, and accessible tasks to all team members. Transparent guidelines enable every team member to effectively and efficiently contribute to the team’s pursuit of the shared mission, vision, goals, and values.
You can use project and task management tools to create working processes that make collaborative teamwork a success. Learn more about how to get collaborative teamwork right so that you can achieve the goals of your mission.
Advantages of a mission statement
A team mission statement benefits organizations in several ways. Here are some of the most prominent advantages of a mission statement.
Hiring managers hire the best talent whose values align with those of the team. A clearly defined mission statement articulates the desired values in new recruits. As a result, the best hires get made, improving team productivity while reducing turnover rates.
All team members align around one shared direction. Mission statements provide a documented summary of the team’s purpose. A collective goal creates alignment as each team member agrees to work together.
Team members refer to mission statements to realign themselves. Sometimes, stress causes team members to lose focus or question their roles. During these times of crisis, team members can refer back to the mission statement and realign themselves with the shared team mission and values.
Mission statements set performance standards for all team members. As organizations work to achieve their goals, all team members must perform at a certain level of excellence. Mission statements help every team member understand what’s expected of them so they can excel in their role.
What is a good vision statement?
Creating a viable team mission statement requires alignment with the company vision statement. Whereas a mission statement is more detailed, reflecting the shared goals and values of the organization, a vision statement is more concise.
Mind mapping exercises help jumpstart and organize creative thinking. Use MindMeister to build a collaborative vision statement workflow and document your efforts with MeisterTask.
Begin by listing out several ideas of what your organization wants to achieve. Trim down those concepts into one or two key objectives that best represent your organizational desire to make a difference. Keep your vision statement clear and easy to understand so that everyone on the team knows how best to fulfill their purpose.
Try the Vision and Mission note template in MeisterTask.
Document your mission and vision with MeisterTask’s Vision and Mission Note Template. All you need to do is fill in the template and invite team members to make their contributions. It’s easy to share, structure, and finalize!
How to write a good mission statement
Every company and every team is unique. There’s no single cookie-cutter way to craft a mission statement in a diverse global landscape.
However, a handful of underlying principles help answer how to create a mission statement. Follow these five concepts to help write an effective mission statement for your team.
Provide clarity on your team’s purpose. Internal and external stakeholders must understand what your team does before they can trust you will provide real value. Your mission statement should explain to people outside your team the value of your service or contributions.
Describe your shared team values. Values represent your promise to uphold a certain standard of care while delivering your service. People who connect with your values form an emotional bond with your team, brand, or services. Your mission statement should allude to your team values so that those emotional bonds can develop.
Connect your team’s purpose to your core values. People won’t form those emotional bonds without help. You must show how your services will improve their livelihoods and fulfill those expectations. As a result, your mission statement must explain how you’ll realize your purpose while staying true to your values.
Make it clear who you’re servicing and why. Mission statements should be clear, concise, and transparent. You need to convey in a few short sentences what you’re offering to do, who your service will benefit, and why it ultimately matters. Follow that structure while writing your mission statement to be as clear and concise as possible.
Keep your mission statement free of fluff. Remember that your mission statement summarizes your team’s purpose. Keep hyperbolic language out of the mission statement so that it professionally summarizes your purpose.
Improve your mission statement creative process with task and project management software. Add MeisterTask to your mission statement workflow today.
5 of the best mission statement examples
Now that you understand the purpose of a mission statement and how to distinguish a mission from a vision, goals, and values. It’s time to create your team’s mission statement.
What are some mission statement examples to use as inspiration? These are 15 of the most prominent mission statements from leading global brands to help you get started.
Life is good: to spread the power of optimism
There are thousands of t-shirt companies, but Life is Good has distinguished its products with a compelling mission statement. Their mission is to help people feel more optimistic whenever they read one of their t-shirt's funny or uplifting slogans.
Examples of their t-shirt slogans include “Seas the Day” or “Forecast: Mostly Sunny.” You can’t help but smile and feel more positive when you see one of their uplifting shirts.
Patagonia: use business to protect nature
Patagonia’s mission is to give back to the environment. Their founders believe in creating environmentally sustainable products that can last a lifetime and be recycled. It reduces ecological footprints by conserving the planet’s limited resources.
Patagonia believes so passionately in their values that it donates a percentage of its sales to global environmental causes. If your team is passionate about giving back, use Patagonia as an example to create a mission statement that makes a difference.
American Express: become essential to our customers
American Express prides itself on its customer service. Therefore, promoting their service as essential for their customers is an excellent mission statement.
The mission statement extends to the values of teamwork and celebrating employee excellence. Empowering employees to feel good about their contributions directly feeds into the quality of service delivered to customers.
Warby Parker: impact the world with vision, purpose, and style
Some mission statements use precise language to communicate their values. Warby Parker is a perfect example of a brand that conveys its vision and goals as a business.
The more detailed parts of their mission statement allude to their innovative business model. If your team’s goal centres around innovation, Warby Parker shows how to craft an innovative mission statement.
IKEA: to offer functional, low-cost furnishing products
IKEA’s leaders dream big, and that dream is to make fashionable home furnishing products that are affordable for everyday consumers. It’s difficult to find fault in a mission statement that places the needs of its customers above anything else.
IKEA includes the phrase “as many people as possible” in their mission statement. A simple statement makes all the difference by conveying that they are a global brand that wants to help everyone it can reach.
