How To Write Your Mission Statement And Mission Objective Part 2

In part 1 of this article, you discovered why a written mission objective is so necessary to your success. Now let's figure out how the heck you write one, alrighty? Let's face it--Has anyone ever asked you to write down your mission? If they had, you wouldn't be reading this article, now would you? Alas, all is not lost. I have the answer for you, and a mission example to boot!

A few years back while giving a presentation, "Customer Service Secrets and Skills," for a water utility company, I bit the bullet and asked each participant to draft a work mission statement. One lady stated hers this way: "I take people's money and collect on past due accounts." "Whoa," I said to her. Let's analyze this a bit. First of all, WHY do you take people's money? What do they get in return?" She said, "Water." I asked, "What does that water do for them? Does it let them bathe, cook, clean, brush their teeth, water their plants, and so on? Without water, what would happen to your customers?"

This is when the V-8 moment hit her hard. She exclaimed, "Oh! I never thought of it that way." She realized that if the water utility's customers did not pay their bills, they would not receive water and this would be a serious inconvenience and even a health risk. (Have you ever gone days without drinking water? Of course not--You'd be six feet under ground, 'hon.)

She took the simple but deep formula I'm about to share with you and turned it into an amazing mission statement that got your psyched up about her work--Yes, excited about collections!

What's the framework? "I, __________(and put your name and the name of your company if you want), help people _____________________________ (and here you need some catchy, highly desired and SPECIFIC benefits people want such as save time, preserve their health, protect their loved ones, etc.) by/through/with (you choose your preposition) _______________________________ (and this is where you give a quick, jazzy description of what it is you DO.)"

So, you're wondering what we mission objective came up with for our customer service rep in billing? "I, Wanda Waters (okay, that's not her real name-- forgive the bad pun, we are protecting the innocent), help people continue to enjoy the health benefits and convenience of clean water by helping them pay their water bill on time with an easy payment plan."

Presto! Look at that! She went from being a billing customer service representative (Ick! How BOR-ING!) to someone who supplies a necessity and valued service that gets people what they want AND need! Quite a difference, isn't it?

I hope that after reading this article, you will no longer refer to yourself as "a lawyer" or a "doctor" or a "customer service representative" or an "auto mechanic" or an "exotic dancer" (just checking that you're still awake) when people ask you what you do. I hope you will instead tell them your benefit-laden mission, a mission that provides an invaluable outcome to the people you serve.

Sure, it's not easy to write a mission statement. You have to really PONDER it and your mission purpose will undoubtedly transform through many incarnations as you try to ferret out exactly what it is you do for others.

Now I bet you want to see more mission samples, so that will be my next installment for you. I'll show you some mission statements that fall short and give you some ideas of what to AVOID as you write your mission. More importantly, we'll revise and turbo-charge those oh-so-boring, mission statement duds into mission statement doozies that make people exclaim, "Wow! That's exactly what I need! Do you have a business card?"

Your mission statement should be the scrumptious, succulent bait that you throw into a sea of marketing messages. In a recent article in USA Today, J. Walker Smith, president of leading consumer research company Yankelovich is cited as saying that consumers encounter between 3,500 and 5,000 marketing messages every single day.

That means your mission objective statement has to be such absolutely tempting bait that you can reel in just about anyone you share it with and compete with the other 3,499 to 4,999 messages out there on a given day.

Whether you're employed by yourself or someone else, your written mission statement is the rudder that steers your mission dream boat into a lucrative port.