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How can a corporate mission statement create passion?

Mission statements are trendy. There was a time a few years ago when every company wanted to have one. Or many at least, the ones that understood its power.

Now tell me about a mission statement that really moves people

Do you know of any? In large as well as in middle and small sizes organizations you can find mission statements: a set of beautiful words. However, beautiful words mean nothing if the person reading them doesn’t feel them.

A successful and thriving organizations needs passionate people, a management and staff who believe in what they are doing, who put their heart in their work for a common goal.

But what do you do when your staff shows no real motivation and enthusiasm?

There are several things that could be done, and one of the most effective ones is actively involving your staff in the organization’s processes. This could include involving your management and staff in the creation of the company’s mission statement.

What’s good about it?

Involving your staff in this process can be an extremely powerful way of focussing your company’s forces towards your goals. When the vision, mission and goals are shared, every member feels as an active part and contributor. This will motivate them to be more productive and to improve their internal relationships with their colleagues as well as their external ones with customers and suppliers.

How can this be achieved?

1. Every employee is invited by the owner(s) of the organization to create a corporate mission by:

• sharing their vision about their ideal workplace, workload, processes, relationship with management and colleagues
• sharing their vision about their ideal relationship with their customers, suppliers, business partners
• sharing their vision about how each of them can actively contribute to these improvements

This process could ideally take place in a team-building workshop, or many depending on the size of the organization.

2. Every manager goes through the same process, in order to collect both the employees and the management’s visions.

3. All these answers are collected and processed to draft three possible mission statements

4. The three mission statements are submitted to the employees who can choose the one they prefer and they can best identify with

5. The chosen mission statement will become part of the organization’s internal and external communication.

How does this feel?

Such a project can only be successful if the top management honestly believes in its power and value. It takes a “stretch” in order to acknowledge the power that our staff can have for our organization, and an even bigger one in order to use it. But it’s definitely worth it. How could your organization benefit from this?

Leading people to become highly motivated and committed

We have a new member in our “Passion for Work” Forum, Mr. Bennet Simonton, a Management Consultant with an extensive professional experience in managing people. With his persmission, I’m posting an article he wrote and that I found very interesting.

QUOTE

WHEN MANAGING PEOPLE, WHAT IS THE GOAL?

This was a question of great importance to me during my 30+ year career of managing people and here is my take.

How we manage employees has some striking similarities to how we manage anything in business. And one striking difference!

Managing anything is simply directing or controlling the use of that thing. Managing in a business environment would also entail making the most effective use of that resource or function, whether it be money, machines, material, supply chains, accounting, engineering, people or whatever.

So what is the “most effective use” of people?

For a machine, it is obvious that using it as it was designed to be used and operating it in accordance with its operating manual is a starting point. But effectively using it would also have to include maintaining it in good condition (well lubricated, appropriately fueled or provided power, well overhauled, parts replaced when worn, etc, etc).

Very few managers are unaware of the fact that if we only used the machine and never properly cared for it, the machine’s capacity would degrade rather steadily over time and eventually suffer a casualty which would render it useless. So effective use includes routine preventive maintenance and corrective maintenance in order to “maintain” the machine in tip-top operating condition. The better we maintain it, the better its output. No rocket science here.

In such respects, are people any different than machines? Not at all! But what exactly is tip-top operating condition for people?

Is a tip-top condition extremely high morale or very low morale or somewhere in between? Is it a strong sense of ownership for their work or no sense of ownership? Is it acting like a robot or is it using their full potential of creativity, innovation, productivity, motivation and commitment on their work? (Note that the experts indicate the difference between the top and bottom of this performance spectrum is about 500% in productivity.)

To be successful at maintaining machinery or a function like accounting, one must thoroughly understand that machine or function, how it works and what it needs. Is it any different for managing people? Not really.

There is one significant difference between machines and people. People have a brain completely capable of deciding what they should do, when they should do it, how they should do it and then actually doing it. This would seem to imply that managing people is more about maintaining the natural capabilities of the “machine” (people) than about operating it.

So the primary goal of managing people is to cause them to unleash their full potential of creativity, innovation, productivity, motivation and commitment on their work because fully committed and highly motivated people will beat all competitors.

UNQUOTE

What must happen so that the above is achieved with mutual benefit?

Write your comments here, or join our discussion in our Forum.

What you should be aware of when doing business in Italy

If you are considering starting business in Italy, and you would like to be successful, it’s good to be aware of the following issues. Very simple at first glance, but definitely worth to know!

• In Italy, “who you know” is usually more important than “what you know”. It is very difficult to do business with Italians if you are a complete stranger, even if you have an excellent project. Make sure you get to know the right people who can help pave the way for your success.

• Most Italians do not speak English well enough for a business meeting, so you will probably need a translator. Of course there are exceptions to this rule, but it’s good to find out beforehand.

• Always carry your business cards with you, and possibly have them printed with your full title and position. Italian businesspeople like dealing with “important persons”. Even so, important senior business people use very simple business cards.

• For the reason above, many Italians with a university degree like to be called “Dottor ” +Surname (for a man) and “Dottoressa” +Surname (for a woman). Even if some Italians do not care about this, and in cases you do not know, it’s better to address people with this title. They will tell you whether you can simply call them by their first name or surname.

• The first meeting usually takes place in the office. Be sure to make a good first impression: you should look and sound professional, friendly without over-doing it, build respect and trust. Wear a well cut suit and new-looking shoes. The Italians pay a lot of attention to “the outside”.

• Your proposal should be carefully and logically planned and organized, concise and clear. All your presentation material should be well-designed.

• From time to time, you may feel that the process is taking too long or is handled in an un-efficient way. Be patient, the Italians have their own way of dealing with time and processes, and this doesn’t mean your chances are collapsing.

• Decision-making requires time, from several months to a year. So be patient and avoid putting too much pressure, otherwise you may lose the business even if chances are basically very good.

• Italian people tend to speak loudly and to interrupt the other at times. This is not a sign of lack of respect. The Italians appreciate a talkative person rather than someone who is too introvert. However, be yourself and do not over-do it.

• Identify the most important people within a group or organization and respect them. Age comes first, but power can be stronger than age.

• Many Italian companies are family-owned businesses. Even if your proposal is very interesting or provides proven benefits, the head of the family takes the final decision upon his (or sometimes, even if rarely her) own thoughts and experience.

• Especially in the south of Italy, relationships with families and friends are extremely important and must be handled with great care.

• When talking with Italians, prefer topics like sports (especially soccer, and try to find out your counterpart’s favourite team), arts, architecture, luxury goods, food – by the way, never criticize Italian food! : )

Why you need to invest in people when going global

What is worth more? A loyal customer or a loyal employee? Let’s assume you reply a loyal customer. How long will your customer be faithful when they deal with your unsatisfied or frustrated employee? Probably not very long. The quality of your product or service will be in jeopardy, not to mention rising costs for quality checks, sick leave, staff turnover etc, and all the while your competitors are just around the corner.

So perhaps the answer is a loyal employee

There is no such thing as a stable economy. Companies open and shut down, they decide to restructure, to grow, to create joint ventures. Companies undergo continuous change, minor ones as well as dramatic ones, either as a pro-active management decisions or because the economic situation requires it. How can you make sure you don’t lose your customers and manage to gain new ones? You need someone who is ready to go through all these changes with you. The loyal employee.

Going global

When a company decides to grow by entering a foreign market, by acquiring a company or merging with another, it’s all a matter of numbers. How much money do they want to invest to bring new products or services to the market, and to what return.

Companies want to be sure their investment is as low as possible and brings the highest result. So they struggle deciding whether to hire a professional to do market research before venturing into a new area, or they search for ways to transfer their risk to agents by finding foreign business partners.

Knowledge

How much do most companies truly know about the market they want to conquer? Many get into the foreign market having no clue how to deal with the local business situation and mentality, negotiating deals that turn out to be disastrous for them. Or they open a sales office or a production plant, transferring their employees without any solid preparation on what to expect and on how to deal with problems that may arise.

Working abroad

Their expatriate staff may even break down under the weight of the high responsibility, the struggle to find the right way to handle the local staff, the questions surrounding the new business and living environment, the stress caused by frustrated spouses and homesick children. How many companies have invested high sums of money for projects abroad, to just to fail after 1 or 2 years?

A company’s asset

Markets are made up of people, and the ones who deal with these people are your people.

Just as you prepare yourself for an important business meeting, it is vital to prepare your management and staff when you want to do business in a foreign market.

Investing in learning as much as possible about the people and the market you want to gain, equals preparing for a business meeting, so you know what to expect and can work out the best way to respond.

Investing in choosing the right people to send into the market can help you save a huge amount of time, which means money. And it can propel you to the key players instead of having to deal for months with fruitless minor ones.

Investing in adequately training your managers and the staff who will deal directly with your foreign market will drastically reduce the time and money needed to settle minor and larger mistakes, internal discussions, troubles with the local authorities as well as with disillusioned and unproductive employees.

The way you invest your money can mean the difference between success and failure.

So, if you decide to go global, do not only look at the numbers. Be sure to also invest in your people.