AGOSNET®

By Erika Allen, J.D., Ph.D.
Consultant to this Program

Photo of a smiling employee writing at his desk

In recent years, organizations have come to understand the imperative nature of a mission statement. Perhaps your organization has, as well. A mission statement clarifies fundamental goals of the enterprise. Perhaps even more importantly, a mission statement also helps organizations identify what they do not want to be doing.

Eliminating the distractions of modern organizational life is a key task at this moment in history. We live in an age where, at work, there are countless things you could be reading, responding to, or pursuing. The task has become not so much finding your way, as making sure you don’t take paths that, while seemingly sound, don’t get you where you need to go.

This is true for individuals as well as organizations. In a series of related articles, we will address three simple exercises that individuals can undertake to cut through the clutter that can plague most of us at work. This week, I’d like to suggest that the first step is drafting a personal mission statement. It is a ten-minute investment that will help you know what is important and, more importantly, what interferes with what is important.

Most people have never clarified their aspirations in any organized way. I am guessing it’s because most people are somewhat like me: my mundane daily tasks tend to zap my time and energy and leave little for sitting back to reflect on why I am doing any of this in the first place! One thing I do know is that crafting a personal mission statement needs to be an efficient process. If you have ten minutes and a piece of paper at your desk right now, you can get it done. Spend no more than two minutes on each of the questions below.

Name five things you have done well recently. These can be small or large and reflect any aspect of your work or personal life, but the more specific the better, i.e., “put together digital scrapbooks of our family vacations” is better than “preserved good memories.” Can you identify any themes that emerge? For example, when I went through this exercise in preparation for this article, I realized that most of my successes involved these things: organization and a material outcome that would have a broad audience.

Name five adjectives you would most like to describe you. Maybe they don’t describe you right now—and that is okay—as this is an aspirational part of the exercise. In fact, I found it interesting to compare how I have heard people describe me with what I listed. Clearly, what I want and how I actually behave are not always consistent.

In the biggest picture, list how you want to contribute to each of the following areas of your life. These can be a lot loftier than the kinds of things you were writing in step one. For example, under “family,” I wrote, “raise two children who are happy and effective in pursuits that are morally sound” and “be a good companion and helpful partner to my husband.” Write this kind of phrase for each of the following:

What is one task you identified from the list above that you could be doing now to foster each of the contributions? You should list at least one task for each of these; thus, at least the same number of tasks as contributions. And these should be specific. For example, to contribute kids who are happy and effective, I listed a listed a task as “finding support if and when there is a school subject that is difficult for one of my kids” (that contributes to “happy and effective”) and find opportunities to point out the difference between pursuits that are and are not morally sound.

Based on the above, complete the following sentences. I would encourage you to create an electronic document with this text so that you can easily save and update it.

Personal Mission Statement of … [name]

“I will capitalize on past successes such as… [answers from one] by putting… [theme from one] to its best use.
"I will be known by... [an important person/group]... as someone who is... [qualities you want to have from step two]...; by... [some other person/group]... as someone who is... [other qualities from step two]...;”
"I value... [answers from step two]... because... [reasons why these values are important to you]. Accordingly, I will... [what you can do to live by these values]."
"I will... [answers from step three]... so that... [reasons why it is important]. I will do this by... [answers from step four]."

Admittedly, this is a quick version of grand life planning. That said, I have found all too often that grand accomplishments often take less than we think, but that very little bit of time and energy can be so hard to come by.