Leadership Live - The Trouble With Mission Statements

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Welcome to another edition of Leadership Live. We've been on hiatus for a period of time, but we are finally back. My name is Steve Loewes and I am your host. And kicking this off, I've got a special guest with me today, Mr. Scott Monte.

Steve, it's a pleasure to be here.

I appreciate you being with us. Why don't you give the audience a little bit of your background? Because pretty vast.

Well, I don't want to waste too much time here, but I am an executive coach and speaker. I help leaders and their teams become better communicators to create a better environment to move forward together. I have experience as an executive at Ford Motor Company. I was there for a good number of years during the Carpocalypse, which ages a fellow every now and again. I headed up social media and digital communications there, working directly with Alan Mullally, who is a legendary leader. And I learned an awful lot at his knee there as I was coming up. And interestingly enough, and this may come back to haunt us later on, I majored in Classics as an undergrad.

Yeah, we talked about that.

It's only more recently that I've come to appreciate that education, what it has to say about humanity and understanding each other and moving forward together.

Well, one of the things that we've been talking a lot about and as we do a lot of work with our clients as well, is this whole idea of corporate mission, corporate purpose, core focus, whatever you want to call it, and the challenges associated with that. Talk a little bit about your experience there, and I'm going to throw some thoughts into that, too. But it seems to be one of the biggest challenges, at least we find that organizations face when it comes to that.

Yeah. You know, so I had come up in a corporate environment when I lived back in Boston, and you would walk through the hallways of these very stale office buildings and on the wall there would be like this accessories plastered all over. Yeah. And it was. And some of them were kind of funny. Some of them were meaningless. A lot of them were meaningless. And they were just kind of, you know, corporate rah rahs. And you didn't really take it seriously. When I got to Ford, you know, here's this multinational company, Fortune 10 company, struggling financially, as were all of the car companies at the time. And working with Alan, he had a process called the bpr. And it started with the vision. And the vision, Alan said over and over again, having a clear and compelling vision is the thing that will set us in the right direction. And for Ford, it was exciting and an exciting and viable Ford working on profitable growth for all. Right? It was simple, it was clear cut, and everybody could get behind it.

But let's dig into that a little bit more because I think so many leaders are burned out about all this talk about vision, about mission, about, you know, why do we even want to talk about it? I talk to leaders all the time. And if you're watching this, you're either that leader or you're working for a leader who probably mentioned it once. It's on the wall, as you already referenced, and then that's it. Nobody talks about it any longer. It's like it has no energy after that. First, hey, we came up with this great vision, Scott. You should be excited. And then we go about our jobs because we have that responsibility to do and the mission has nothing to do with it.

Why, that's exactly right. And I think it's because it has meant nothing to most people. It's because it's up there on the wall and only on the wall. It's not in the daily cadence. It's not talked about at all. As a matter of fact, you say that I have a client. I started to work with him and his entire executive team. And I said, well, share with me your vision. And he goes, I don't know what our vision is. It's on the wall in the conference room. And I had to go to the wall in the conference room. And I looked around. This is, you know, where it pays to be. Feet on the ground. I looked around and there was this little plaque. And it really wasn't even a vision. It was more of a goal for the year. And I said, well, that's not a vision. I said, so what is the vision? And he couldn't articulate it. And I said, see, if you don't know where we're going, how is anybody else supposed to know where they're going and why they should even follow you, right? And because they've got burned out on vision, statements don't work. I think it's because they haven't spent enough time crafting and honing that vision, that vision statement. And it takes a lot of work to come up with something that simple. And then to implement that and work it into everything you do that it cascades down to the entire team. So everybody understands how they fit into the mission, Right? That's the secret sauce.

This is what it means to win. I mean, let's think about that for a second. I'm gonna just put it in really simple Terms, if you're playing on a team, sports, you know what it means to win. But if I walk into your organization and I ask five people, what does it mean to win, there's a high likelihood I'm going to get five different answers or I won't get five different answers. I'll get no answer. And nobody knows what it means to win except, well, we got to make money. Well, really, obviously we know that one. But if we don't know what it means to win, how does a player know what they're supposed to do? Am I playing offense? Am I playing defense? Am I playing special teams? Everybody's confused. Then we wonder why we have so many challenges within an organization and everybody.

Thinks they're doing the right thing to win, whatever that means to them. But they're operating in silos, and in some cases they may be working against each other rather than everyone working together to collaborate to help the organization win as well as the individual teams.

So if an organization has no vision or not a real vision, just say that there's not a real one.

Right.

Or there's not. How did they go through that? How did they come up with something that they understand what it means to win and that they can take it? And we won't even talk about how to do it, but they can take it and cascade it through rest of the organization. How do they actually develop that vision of where they're going to take the company?

Well, I think a lot of it comes from knowing what you stand for, what you're trying to achieve, but. But also going out and talking to a lot of your people to understand what it is they think they're working on. Right. A leader really spends a lot of time listening. Any good leader I've seen In their first 90 to 100 days goes on a listening tour of sorts and gets a sense as to the dynamics, what people are working on, what they think they're doing. And then the leader, obviously aligned with the board or the other stakeholders, knows exactly where they need to take the company, but it's then their responsibility to kind of take all of that information in and start crafting. All right, well, here's what it means to win. Here's why we need to go where we're going, here's the direction we need to go, and here's why it matters to you. I think that's the part that a lot of people leave out. That meaning that sense of why does it matter to me down at the middle management level. Right. Because otherwise people are just Showing up and doing their job, and they're not fundamentally connected with it.

We were talking about this earlier today. It's like these companies that say, hey, our. Our vision is to be a billion dollar company. Now, good for you. The owner or the owners or the stockholders. But, but if I'm not, what, what. What does it matter to me if I'm somewhere down the chain and. Well, it means that you're going to get paid more maybe, but you're going to line your pockets. And that's not a vision, is it, Scott?

That's a goal. And it's a valid goal, like you said.

So there's a difference?

Yeah. Goal and vision are completely. I mean, they're not completely separate, but they are different. Right. The vision is the North Star. The vision is aspirational, why we do what we do. Why? Exactly, exactly. And then the goal is, here's how we are actually accomplishing where it is that we're.

Or a measurement to get us closer to that particular thing. Why are so many people burned out on it?

Because I think it's lacked meaning. Right? I mean, you spend enough time putting all these buzzwords out there. We were talking about the Weird Al mission statements.

Do you have it?

I. Oh, you don't have your phone.

So tell. Say something about this song, that it's the first I've heard of it. When you mentioned it today, the song.

Is at 10, 12 years old. Weird Al wrote a song called Mission Statement, and it was designed to capture the absurdity of mission statements today. Or vision statements. They're kind of interchangeable in that sense. But it's, you know, we will operationalize our efficiency to realize synergies and, you know, all of those words that themselves, okay, you can define a word, but when you put them together, they don't have any meaning to people. Right.

So go back. So the leaders have to talk to their people in order to create this mission statement, this vision statement, and so forth. Ask questions. First 90 days, gather. What do they do then?

Well, then you craft that clear and compelling vision statement. And it has to be integrated into everything you do. And you're going to get sick of it. Right. You have to say it over and over again, but you integrate it into every meeting, every email.

What do you mean by integrated? Those guys.

For example, when I was at Ford, Alan would state Ford's vision at the end of every email. He would integrate it into why he was talking to you. Hey, the reason we're doing what we're doing, just as a reminder is to create a viable forward with profitable growth for all. Right. He repeated it. And it was made clear that the stuff we were doing directly contributed to moving in that direction of the vision.

Did that vision at Ford also affect the culture at Ford?

Oh, 100%, and it affected it in a couple of ways. So just stating the vision alone isn't enough. The process we put in place on a weekly basis, not only at the executive level, but then cascading down to the other teams, was a process that we call the bpr, the business plan review. Everybody knew what they were supposed to be delivering. Right. And they would show up and be completely transparent as to how things were going, even if they were going completely sideways, which culturally was not done previous to that.

And most times you kind of hide when things are going sideways. You don't really want to admit.

Right. That's weakness. Right. Well, there's strength in admitting where you're not succeeding. Because guess what, Your colleagues, if they're aligned with the vision and everyone's aligned to the same vision, they want you to succeed as well. So they will go out of their way to make sure you get the help you need so that when you come back next week, hopefully that red on your chart has turned to a yellow and then into a green the following week.

Now you're on track.

Exactly. But it's wanting, it's supporting each other, working together in a collaborative environment that we all succeed.

Well, the reason I asked that question, and anybody who's followed anything from us at LLI knows my vision, my vision, my focus on culture. See, I think, and. And it's a little off subject, but it's tied to. It is. I think too often we try to use perks to create culture instead of using the vision. This is an. This is kind of an offshoot of the vision. If the vision is the vision and it's the right vision that you're talking about and we're making decisions against the vision, the. The vision becomes king and that creates the culture organically, and people will buy into that culture instead of using a bunch of perks to try to make people happy. People that are working towards the vision and winning are naturally happy, and the perks become secondarily.

So I think that's a really interesting way to look at it because when you think about perks, as you just stated it, those are transactional in nature. You know, you do this, you get that. Right? And a vision and a culture is relationship based.

It is.

Right? You are building trust and you're Exhibiting vulnerability in the process, you're showing courage, you're showing kindness and grace and the willingness to work together. Right? And that's what relationships and what business is ultimately all about.

And people self select into that kind of thing or they self select out. And that's okay too, as long as, as you say that vision is kind of the North Star, but it's a practical thing, not a altruistic thing.

That's right. I mean, you're doing it for practical purposes. In the end, and to your point where people self select in or out, that makes it all the much easier for the manager to say, well, maybe this isn't the right opportunity for you. Maybe this isn't the right position for you or the right company.

So we create the vision. The senior leaders are all on board with it. Now what?

Well, now you start to implement it on a regular basis. So.

Because doing it at the top is.

One thing, Scott, and we talked before about the cascade. So there needs to be a process built around this, and that's where the BPR comes into place. You know, we had a weekly cadence and everyone showed up and they had their strategic objectives and they had their measurables for those objectives. So you knew, all right, are we 83%, right? Is that good, bad or indifferent? Right. And you color code it and everybody can see at a glance as to what's going on. And, and you just, you highlight the stuff that needs highlighting. You don't run through every single thing because that, you know, puts everybody to sleep. We go, okay, here are the things we're working on, that ladder up to the vision, right? And here's where we need help and people get behind it, and then that cascades down to the next level of the team. Right? And culturally this is important because you have the BPR at the executive level. Well, then you have it at the director level as well. And people at that level are getting the same sense as to what's our vision, why are we doing what we're doing, what are our strategic objectives, are we on or off? Right. And they see how they fit into the bigger solution.

So no matter what, every department, every individual within every department understands the vision, how it cascades down to each individual person. So using my sports analogy, whether you're on special teams, you're the punter, you're on defense, you're on offense, you know your role. So even on defense, I may not be scoring the points, but I know my role in keeping the other team from scoring the points. So there's no question to how I contribute to that vision, which is not existent in most companies.

Most companies have people that are just kind of staying in their own lane. Don't bother me. I'm doing my work. That's it. I'm checking in at 9, I'm checking out at 5.

But I have no idea how it contributes to the overall vision of the company. And I may not even know what the vision of the company is. That's a problem.

It's a huge problem.

Whose responsibility is this?

Well, I mean, it goes all the way to the top. You know, the leaders have to craft the vision, and without that. And your board should be holding your leaders accountable to having a clear and compelling vision. If you're showing up to board meetings and it's just a chance to rub elbows together and give a quarterly update on our numbers, well, that's all very superficial. Where are we headed? How do you know that you're still aligned with the North Star? And of course you're taking into account all of the externalities at the same time. This isn't just about inclusive inside the company. You have to operate within the reality of the rest of the world. And hopefully what's happening, your vision still remains true. You still have that North Star. As your ship is being buffeted by the waves, you still have that vision. Maybe you need to create different strategic priorities to get to that vision, but you are true to that vision throughout.

So let's say I'm a middle manager, no board in the organization, privately held or whatever, whatever the case might be. And I don't know what the vision is. Give me some advice, Give me some coaching. Because you're a coach, Scott, right? I know you coach mostly C suite, but give me some advice as if you were coaching me, what would I do?

So if you're a middle manager, you don't know what the vision is. First of all, you need to talk with your direct supervisor who you report to and ask them what the vision is. Do you know what the vision is? Right. Can you explain it to me? And even if the vision isn't as finely tuned as it should be, if it's a weird Al mission statement, say to your manager, explain it to me like I'm five, right? And if they can't, well, then you got a bigger problem. And that's a bigger problem than you as a middle manager can address. But it should be, it should set off a red flag, right? But if they can and you go, okay, now I understand, say, well, what do I need to do next to make sure that I am delivering on that vision. And ideally, you should be sitting down with your direct supervisor to create your strategic objective for what you're trying to deliver. And if the stuff that you're working on, on a day to day, week to week, quarter to quarter basis doesn't fit with that vision, then again, you need to ask yourself, what's going on here? It's not clear that all of this stuff is aligning.

Yeah, don't wait. If you don't know what the vision is of your organization, don't wait for it to come to you. Take the initiative, go find it. And if you can't find it, keep digging, keep digging, keep pushing. You might even irritate some people, but I think that's the right thing to be able to do. And if you're at the top, I'm the CEO and I've not been clear. Now give me some coaching.

This is the hard part. Because I think most leaders think they're clear with what they're saying. Well, they're clear in here. But when you ask them to articulate it, well, what does that mean? What does that mean? Right? And keep asking. If you ask your three to five questions to really get down to it, why, why are you doing it? Why does that matter? Right. And if they can, if they can defend their vision through a series of questions like that, then you know that it's the right vision. But ultimately the vision that you craft has to be meaningful to everyone, can't just be meaningful to you and the rest of the leadership team. You need to think about it in the lens of, well, how does it affect your suppliers? How does it affect the frontline employee? How does it affect the shareholders? Right. If the vision is meaningful to each and every one of those groups, then you've got a winner.

Do you have an example of somebody that you've worked with that maybe didn't have it aligned that you can give us a little bit of insight?

So the client I have that told me to go to the conference room, it was some 3% number. Again, it was more of a goal than it was a vision. Well, we went back and we said, well, what do you, this is a, it's a family owned auto dealership. And we said, well, what does it mean for you guys to be successful? How do we define success? Because you've got seven different divisions within this dealership. You've got auto glass, you've got commercial trucks, you've got service, you've got sales, you've Got used cars, et cetera. All of these folks are pulling their own weight and define their success differently. But how do you want to be known to the market? And ultimately it came back to, well, we want to be the first in customer experience. No matter if it's somebody coming in for a repair, if it's somebody coming in to buy a used or new car, we want them to feel like they matter to us. Okay, I said, great, then we need to kind of backwards engineer our way to a vision that puts the customer at the center of everything we do. And the vision came back that we were going to be the number one dealer in this metro area in terms of customer experience and customer success defined by. And then we had three different things that defined it. So everybody looks at that and they go, okay, so every time I'm interfacing with a customer, whether it's a vendor or a sales service, whatever, a commercial, we know we need to be treating them in a certain way, right? And that culture then starts to cascade internally because we begin treating each other that way as well. And it becomes a relationship based approach to succeeding at your business. The relationships you create internally, the relationships you create externally, and how that radiates.

To the world, that's a good example of getting some clarity around it and figuring out, hey, this is what we really want to be in order to get to the ultimate.

And that 3% profit or whatever it was they were trying to achieve, well, they would get there if they achieve.

It in the first principle. And that's something that I've had to convince multiple leaders on in the past that are very focused on just the number. In fact, you know, one of the leaders have had to convince of that.

That the cobbler's children.

So, you know, I've been, I've been in business one way or another for 32 years. And for the first 16 or so years, it was the number that drove me and it caused me some problems, right? And for the last 15 or 16 years, it's really been the, the driver has been the mission. And the numbers have a tendency to follow. Imagine that, right? This exact same thing. But it took, you know, boneheaded sometimes as guys, but. But it took me some time to actually get there, to focus on what do we want to do and why do we want to actually do it. And the numbers ultimately will follow as a result of that, because now we're focused on that one thing. It's just, it's amazing how some of this, this falls out.

It's not rocket Surgery.

It's not. But I find very few companies do this well.

Right.

We need help and then struggle. Well, that's the thing. They need help. But why do so many not take the help or not ask for the help?

Scott, I think it's a sense of, you know, you're in a leadership position, you're expected to have the answers. Right. And people come to you all day long, every day looking for answers from you. Well, who's your peer group, who you're turning to for answers? Who do you sound out for? You know, is this a reasonable approach? What am I missing? And I think the leaders that are willing, at least willing to be introspective and willing to raise a hand, be vulnerable, ask for help, are the ones that I see the most success from. It's the ones that are defensive and that say, I've got all the answers, I've got this figured out. They made me CEO for a reason. Those are the ones that usually struggle.

There's not a leader that has every answer to every problem.

We're all human.

Not every leader thinks that, but that is the case. I think every leader has an opportunity to continue to learn more, continue to learn more and continue to learn more. And any leader who's self aware knows that that's the problem is there's so many leaders that, that are not, that are not self aware. But I mean, I, I don't think this is a, this is a topic that we want to continue to have a conversation about because I don't think it's. This is. We're not done with this topic.

A lot of stuff to mind. Absolutely.

Yeah. But I, at least, I appreciate you coming on to at least start to have this conversation around this whole idea of the importance of this vision. I think too many people look at this thing, again, as an altruistic thing. If we don't have a vision for where our company is going, if you don't have a vision, if you're watching this for where your company is going, your department and how it fits into that vision for your organization, you're going to continue to have challenges, you're going to continue to have expectation issues for your team, for your own organization, you've got to nail this thing down. If you've got some concerns or some thoughts or some questions on how to actually do that, feel free to reach out to Scott. You can find him online. Email address Scott scottcottmonte.com Really easy to do. So if you need some additional support around leadership and so on, you can always go to loisleadershipinstitute.com but this has been another edition of Leadership Live. We'll be coming back more regularly now that we've got this thing figured out. If you've got specific Leadership questions, please send them to us. If you have something that you want to bring to Leadership Live, please let us know. We'll have that conversation. If you'd like to be on the show, we would love to have you. We just want to make sure that it's something relevant. But thank you again for watching. Thank you for your time, and we'll see you during the next episode.