Values, mission, and vision: How advisor teams can create a culture of purpose
Bryan Powell, Senior Director, Practice Management, explains why having defined values, an aspirational vision, and a compelling mission is essential to your team’s success.
6 minute read
Key takeaways:
- Identifying your firm’s top values gives team members a foundation from which to make decisions, prioritize their time, and support each other, while also encouraging ownership and accountability.
- Your mission statement helps align the firm’s values with the actions and behaviors of the team and provides a clear, compelling, and memorable description of the reason your business exists.
- Your vision statement identifies what you aspire to be as a team. It establishes a unified direction so there is focus, clarity, and intention in your team members’ daily actions.
Over the past decade working with successful advisor teams, I have found that getting everyone aligned toward a common goal can prove challenging. Often, the leaders of the team understand what they want to achieve, while the rest of the team feels disconnected from that vision. This disconnect often arises from the fact that the team members were never involved in conversations of what the team is aspiring to accomplish in the future.
Research shows that when employees feel a strong connection to the team’s purpose and values, it leads to higher levels of enthusiasm, dedication, and motivation to influence success. And one of the best ways to keep your team engaged and motivated is to define your values and develop a mission and vision statement.
Identify and define your top five values
One of the first questions I ask when coaching advisor teams is, “What are your top five values?” It’s always interesting to see the reactions, as you can tell right away whether the team has had this discussion.
On most occasions, there has not been a conversation where all the members of the team have identified the firm’s values, which often leads to a lack of direction. Having a set of defined values gives team members a foundation from which to make decisions, prioritize their time, and support each other. Without that foundation, the team can struggle in areas such as ownership and accountability.
If you’re one of the many teams out there that hasn’t yet defined your top values, here’s how to get started:
- Ask everyone to send their top five values to a member of the team who will collect the responses.
- Hold a meeting to review all the values that were proposed by team members.
- Have an open discussion to narrow down the suggestions and gain consensus on the top five values, then define the meaning behind each one.
I think you’ll find that these conversations are enlightening, as they offer perspective on each team member’s mindset and how they define success. And the process of narrowing down to a set of five agreed-upon values can help galvanize and empower members of your team, because everyone feels that they’d had a chance to contribute something.
Craft your mission statement
Now that you have devised a values system for your team, you can begin crafting a mission statement that aligns those values with the actions and behaviors of your team. The mission statement should provide a clear, compelling, and memorable description of the reason your business exists.
One example I like to share with teams is Walt Disney’s mission statement:
The mission of The Walt Disney Company is to entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling, reflecting the iconic brands, creative minds and innovative technologies that make ours the world’s premier entertainment company.
Notice how certain values are incorporated into what Disney stands for, such as inspire and innovate. In capturing what makes the company unique, the statement focuses on areas such as unparalleled storytelling and innovative technologies. These concepts feed directly into how members of Disney’s team hold each other accountable for creating some of the world’s most recognized entertainment.
With the Disney example as inspiration, here are some questions you can use with your team to craft your firm’s mission statement:
- What problem are we helping to solve?
- Who is our ideal client?
- What uniqueness separates us from our competitors?
- What are the values we want to communicate about how we serve our clients?
Create your vision statement
Whereas your mission statement focuses on what you do as a team, your vision statement identifies what you aspire to be as a team. It is meant to align team members around a unified direction so there is focus, clarity, and intention in their daily actions.
In the examples below, notice how the companies’ vision statements do not mention products or services; rather, they are aligned around a common theme or goal that stems from a transformational concept rather than a check-the-box exercise.
Google – To provide access to the world’s information in one click.
Nike – To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.
Apple – To make the best products on earth and to leave the world better than we found it.
In my experience, teams that have taken the time to create their vision statement find a way to support each other when times get tough. They understand how to prioritize their time as they have a common aspirational goal. They feel a connection to what they do each day, because they feel they are contributing to the team’s success rather than simply performing tasks.
Here are some questions your team can review together to create a vision statement:
- What is our core focus?
- Who, what, or where does our team want to be in the future?
- What is our team’s unique differentiator?
A challenge: What kind of team do you want to be?
Here is a challenge I encourage you to present to your team: Do we want to be transactional or transformational?
A transactional team can have the knowledge and skills that allows them to succeed in accomplishing some of their goals. A transformational team can take what they know and build an environment focused on an emotional connection to each other, their clients, and their prospects. Transformational teams create a culture of purpose where members approach each day with intentionality, knowing they are contributing to the value and impact you provide together.
It’s your choice as a team which you want to be known for, so choose wisely…
Queste sono le opinioni dell'autore al momento della pubblicazione e possono differire da quelle di altri individui/team di Janus Henderson Investors. I riferimenti a singoli titoli non costituiscono una raccomandazione all'acquisto, alla vendita o alla detenzione di un titolo, di una strategia d'investimento o di un settore di mercato e non devono essere considerati redditizi. Janus Henderson Investors, le sue affiliate o i suoi dipendenti possono avere un’esposizione nei titoli citati.
Le performance passate non sono indicative dei rendimenti futuri. Tutti i dati dei rendimenti includono sia il reddito che le plusvalenze o le eventuali perdite ma sono al lordo dei costi delle commissioni dovuti al momento dell'emissione.
Le informazioni contenute in questo articolo non devono essere intese come una guida all'investimento.
Non vi è alcuna garanzia che le tendenze passate continuino o che le previsioni si realizzino.
Comunicazione di Marketing.
6 minute read
Key takeaways:
- Identifying your firm’s top values gives team members a foundation from which to make decisions, prioritize their time, and support each other, while also encouraging ownership and accountability.
- Your mission statement helps align the firm’s values with the actions and behaviors of the team and provides a clear, compelling, and memorable description of the reason your business exists.
- Your vision statement identifies what you aspire to be as a team. It establishes a unified direction so there is focus, clarity, and intention in your team members’ daily actions.
