Repetition Makes it Real

Have you ever tried to look up the mission statements of large companies? I just did. It was pretty hard to figure out what the current mission is, and how it differs from a Vision Statement, Purpose or tagline.

You see, my first thought was to open this newsletter with a mission statement chosen at random. I’m not doing that because it’s surprisingly difficult to validate that any statement I found online is actually the correct, official version.

Contrast this with the behavior of Bill Carrier, who leads Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches program, of which I am a member. At the beginning of each biweekly meeting, he reads the program’s mission statement, which is, “To elevate the individual impact of world-class leadership professionals through connection and learning.”

Repeating the same words week after week brings them to life. They cease to be a phrase gathering dust; they become the actual focus of our collective attention.

In a similar manner, when fellow 100 Coaches member Alan Mulally was CEO of Ford, he opened every weekly Business Plan Review meeting by restating the purpose of the meeting, the process that would be used, and the ground rules for behavior at Ford. ?

This introduction was ostensibly for the benefit of invited quests, but an even more important reason that Mulally repeated this message every single week was to remind every single leader, even the ones who were there every week, of how important the purpose, process and ground rules were.

As leaders, we sometimes think such things are too obvious to restate, but it’s restating them that makes them real.

Whatever actually drives your business—a mission, vision or purpose—make it a mantra that you and others repeat over and over and over again. This is the only way to know it has taken hold: that you and others never stop mentioning it.

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I help successful leaders and their teams agree on what needs to change and how to make it happen. I am the author of?Fearless?Growth and?The Agility Advantage.?

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