Most corporations and businesses have a mission statement that they post in their lobby so those who enter can see the purpose and goals of the business. It also serves as reminder to the employees who work there to what their purpose is individually to keep to this statement alive. A mission statement identifies what the purpose of the business is, take Google for example; “Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” I think this states what they do very well and I think everyone would agree that they are on target with their mission. If businesses have mission and vision statements to define their purpose, shouldn’t we ourselves have a mission and vision statement too?
I have never really thought of having a personal mission statement for me, but in a way I do have one by the way I live and what I do. I have just never put it down on paper, or written out what my personal vision is. At first when I was pondering the thought of creating a personal mission and vision statement I didn’t think it would be too hard, but when I tried actually putting it down on paper I began to struggle with what exactly to write. A mission statement should include things like; what you do best, personal goals, what does success mean to you, it is not that easy to put my thoughts about these questions into just a few words. A vision statement is to identify the humanistic side of your mission statement, giving your mission statement life and passion. I think this is going to take a lot longer and a lot more thought to complete, but I am excited as it will help me really define my purpose. There is something about writing it down that makes it more real and concrete….give it a try. I’d like to hear from if you already have done this for yourself and what challenges you may have had and has it made a difference in your life by having done it. Personal thinking challenges are good for your soul.
Mission Statements Vision Statements
When I hear that any of my staff has a problem that they are dealing with I like to step in to help them fix it (make things better for them). Training and helping them is part of my job, but I think back when I just started out at my job (it was just me, no other staff), I had no one to help me figure out problems and I had to reach out to other medical office managers for help or just try to figure out what was the right thing to do. Sometimes I did figure it out what was right and sometimes I made mistakes, but with the mistakes I really learned a lot and I would not trade the knowledge of those lessons for anything. There is something about learning on your own and figuring things out that builds your confidence and makes you feel like you really do have a brain and it works, it gives you experience. It is not that I want my staff to struggle, but it might be good for them to try to solve the issue first, or at least come up with a solution that they think would work to run by me before I step in and help them. They are smart people and I trust them and after reading the fable below, I certainly do not want to be the cause of stunting their growth. What do you think? 
I received a phone call over the weekend from a friend who manages a retail store, he needed some input on how to motivate his employees after an event that happened with his company this past week. Apparently his company had been negotiating a deal to sell to a larger company and of course the employees were not told about it. He said that he received an email in the middle of the week from the corporate headquarters stating that they realized that there was some rumors that the company was selling, but they were just that rumors. The next day the news became public knowledge that the company was indeed planning to sell but that the deal fell through on the part of the buying corporation. Customers were coming into the store and talking about the possible sell of the company and asking questions to which they (the employees) had no answers. He said that his store team (who are all good dedicated employees) were feeling pretty angry and betrayed by their company. They knew if the company was sold to this larger company that most of the employees would lose their jobs. His question to me was “how do I motivate my team now?” They have developed the “why should I attitude” and have lost their sense of loyalty to the company. I told him that this was a tough situation and I totally understood where his team was coming from. I reminded him that no one’s job is totally secure, companies get sold all of the time, and companies go out of business too. I suggested that he contact his supervisor and talk to him to see if other managers were having the same issues now and what suggestions could he make. Also he needed to have a talk with his team to let them know as long as they were employed they needed to continue to give their customers the high service standard that they have been use to getting not only will their customers appreciate it, but if the company ever does sell, hopefully they will be one of the ones asked to stay on and if not, at least they will have a good work record to take with them. This is a very difficult situation to keep employee morale up in, I know my friend will do okay, he is a good manager, even though he himself has been taken back by this event his thoughts are on helping his team get though it. 
Why is it that most people are resistant to change of any kind, even when it will actually make life a bit easier for them? Change is difficult even when your life depends on it. I read an article recently that said that when cardiac patients were told what changes they needed to make in their life-styles in order to extend their life that 90% of the time these patients could not make a permanent change to do it. That is pretty amazing, you would think that if your life depended on a change that you would do it, but that is just not the case. So knowing this, I guess I can kind of understand why when changes happen in the workplace that they can be difficult for some employees to adopt to. There are several reasons why employees do not like change, below are the top three, can you add to the list?
Today I had the reminder of an experience that I had many years ago of breaking a habit of using certain “filler words” when I talked and even worse when I lectured. I needed to place a call to technical department of a very large insurance company to get help with a problem we are having with some electronic claims. After being shifted from one person to another a nice sounding woman came on the phone and said that she would be glad to help me. I explained the problem that I was having and when I was done she replied “GOTCHA” quite loudly, enough that I pulled the phone back from my ear. I was a bit taken by surprise at her response, but she continued to work on the problem asking me questions and guess what? At the end of each reply that I had she loudly said “GOTCHA”. After talking to her for 10 minutes and about 25 “GOTCHAs” she was able to give me the information that I needed to get my problem fixed. I thanked her very much and told her that I appreciated her time and patience with helping me, and to that she replied “GOTCHA”. After hanging up the phone, I wondered if anyone had ever told her of the habit she had using this filler word when she was helping clients and how unprofessional it sounded. I know from my own experience that until it was brought to my attention (in an evaluation at a conference!) to which I was horrified, did I really realized how many times in a conversation or lecture that I said “you know”. Once it was exposed, to me, I asked for help from my coworkers and family to bring it to my attention if I said “you know”. It did take a while, but with time and persistence I broke that habit. I am very conscious now watching that I do not pick up “slang words” in my everyday language this way they do not come in to my professional language either. As a professional in any field we not only need to walk the walk, but we need to talk the talk and that should sound professional. Take the time to listen to yourself, is there anything that you might need to remove from your professional vocabulary?
Many years ago when I had just been an office manager for a couple of years we hired a young woman who seemed like she would be a good fit to our office. After a short period of time (a couple of months) I noticed that occasionally she would be moody and seem to have a chip on her shoulder when certain job tasks were given to her. But being a mom with kids about her age, I just brushed it off to being young and learning to deal with the difficulties of adulthood. When she had these moods she never took it out on our patients, it always seemed to be directed more towards me, giving a cold shoulder, the silent treatment or an “evil eye”. Since I was a new manager I wanted to “win” her over and make the best employee of her that I possibly could. I bent over backwards with kindness and treats, trying to let her know that I thought she had potential and we were willing to invest in her because we saw that potential. But, it didn’t seem to help, in fact, at times it seemed to make her more angry at me, which really had me baffled. In trying to talk to her “during her nice times” I did find out that her father was in law enforcement, she had an older sister that was “perfect” in her parents eyes (at least that is what she thought) and her household was ruled with a “heavy hand”. These bits of information gave me some insight into why she may have authority issues. As time went on and I continued to try “win” her over, things just got worse and then one day after she got a phone call from her roommate during lunch hour she just blew-up, ranting and raving, yelling in the office (thankfully it was lunch hour), I was horrified by her behavior and told her to stop immediately, that her behavior was unacceptable and she told me to go to “—-!” I asked her to go outside and come back in when she was calm and ready to talk. When she returned she wasn’t happy, but she did apologize for what she said and asked that I not fire her over it. Being a new manager of course I wanted to make a good employee out of her so my boss would see that I was capable of managing even “tough” employees. I did tell her that if she did exhibit this type of behavior again that it would be terms for immediate termination, she agreed and promised not to do it again. Now to let you in on a little secrete my employer had been telling me to let her go for several months, but I wanted to prove my management skills by turning her around, that shows you how immature my management skills were, willing to take abuse from an employee because I wanted to make a good employee out of her, I cringe when I think of it now. Well things went sort of okay for the next few weeks, only because she hardly spoke to me, but she did do her job, so I felt there was not much I could do. Then one afternoon when we were working I could tell she was really bothered by something and asked if everything was okay and she just blew up, telling me everything that was wrong along with what she thought about me and our employer, screaming and shaking her fist at me. Then from somewhere deep within, I stood up and told her that was it and she was fired, she was to gather her stuff and leave the building now. She looked at me and said “you had better watch your back, because you never know when I will get you.” Shocked and scared I called the police and reported her threat, and for months I was on the look out for her. Wow, I let this happen to me, I saw the signs almost two years earlier but because I wanted to prove something and give someone a chance, I totally missed that this person had some real problems and a total disregard for authority in the workplace. What a lesson I learned and the hard way. But just to let you know that several years later my employer and I were looking for office equipment and saw her working in the store as a greeter, we both when up to her and said hi and asked how she was doing. She was totally shocked, but we could tell that she also was very happy that even though she threatened me that we could let it go and treat her kindly, and chalk this negative situation up to experience. Not an experience that I want to repeat though. This was a tough lesson but one that I would not trade for anything, because it did make me a better manager and I am thankful for that.
Have you ever been part of a team that had talented people on it, but did not seem to go anywhere? If so, it is very possible that the team lacked vision for what it was trying to do. It has been said “Great vision precedes great achievement.”
