How long should a mission statement be and does it have to reflect the current reality?

I received a good question from Deb and with her permission am sharing this because I think it will be useful to other people as well - how long should a mission statement be and if you are just starting out, does it have to reflect current reality. This is what i think:

You mission statement needs to be authentic and yes truthful, but truthful to the vision you have for the future - so what you are saying is not maybe happening today but it is what your purpose is and your activities and energy are directed towards meeting that vision. So, it does include your over all purpose, some idea of how you are going to achieve that, and what is unique about.

I do not believe there is one format for all organizations - profit and non profit. Each organization needs to communicate its authentic voice in how many ever words they choose, as long as it is meaningful and clearly communicates what difference you are making to this world in your unique way. For example, if you look at 350.org's mission, they have a video and then a text version which runs pretty long, but it conveys what they are about - some of it through the words they use and also using a video shows they are innovative in their approach - so some of what gets conveyed is through other symbols, images, and other ways of communication.

Check out 350.org's Mission

Women's Fund of western Ma defines their mission and then states their vision and how they are going to get there:
Check out Mission of Women's Fund

And then Bioneers has a full page to describe their Mission and point to how they intend to reach their goals.
Check out Bioneer's Mission

I think it is important to communicate your authentic story, what is your vision, and how you as a unique individual/organization will work towards that vision - say it your own way - get ideas how others do it, but it has to be your voice and your own way of communicating as long as it clearly highlights your purpose, unique qualities, and how you will get there. It should be written keeping the long term in mind, but this is not to say you can never change it. Especially, when we are starting out new, we may start at one place but as we start talking to people and studying the environment, we may find there is a greater need for another related area and that may become your mission or at least contribute to the mission.

So,
Think big
Think long term
Be honest
Be authentic
Share your unique strengths
And share how you make a difference

Can also refer to the article translating inner purpose into an authentic mission statement and that exercise will also help to identify key words that are important to you and should come through in your mission statement.
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/translating-inner-purpose-into-an-authentic-mission-statement.html

What can we learn from Bonnie Siefers, eco-designer and entrepreneur?

Bonnie Siefers' success as an eco-designer and entrepreneur is inspiring, especially to us women in business with a purpose. She changed her career as an artist and business owner to a completely different field in textiles. To add to the challenge, her clothes are ecologically friendly, cutting edge, and yet affordable. In less than three years she has become a principal force in the green community and is involved in the introduction of new sustainable fabric collections, such as ecoKashmere and eColorgrown and coming next fall, Begonia Silk and Energy Satin. Her company was recognized at the Sun Dance film festival and MTV Movie awards. How did she accomplish all this?

Here are some take aways from an interview with her:

1) Stay in the moment and do the best that you can:
Bonnie says that her mantra in the morning is, "if I can stay in the moment and do the best that I can, I cannot fail.”

2) Ask a lot of questions and reach out for help:
When Bonnie entered the textile industry she had to learn how this market operates - "I had to learn what trade shows to go to, how to create catalogs and more." She expresses gratitude for the local talent and non-profits who extended their expertise to her. But it is always a good reminder, that if you are sincere in your desire and ask, you will receive. So, don't be afraid to ask.


3) Effective use of technology:
Bonnie speaks to how the internet and other technologies will only continue to evolve in enhancing communication possibilities while reducing the carbon footprint. Bonnie herself is successfully using social media devices like blogging and facebook to communicate with her customers.

4) Innovative solutions to fit your mission
Bonnie is using innovation not only in her apparel collections, which are made of fabrics that are certified organically grown, renewable, biodegradable and sustainable, but also in how she runs her business over all. She emphasizes that "if you look around you can find solutions that fit your mission.”

5) Transparency in business
Authenticity to Bonnie means “transparency.” It means “being who you are and not hiding parts of you...This is also true in business. Communicating in an honest and open way encourages greater trust, support and can lead to a true partnerships and ultimately success.”


6) Mindfulness in business
"In a nutshell I think the best adjective that describes the uniqueness
of the Jonäno brand and lifestyle would be mindful.” Jonano has created a unique positioning in apparel market as a mindful company that cares for the environment, its customers, and its employees. In Bonnie's words, "Just as a drop of water in a pool will show ripples, my choices will have a ripple effect – which is why I choose organic, and sweatshop free both in my business as well as my personal life."

Bonnie was introduced to meditation and mindfulness 15 years ago. But this is more than a sitting practice for her. The concept of "Metta" is important to Bonnie and she tries to weave it into her daily life. “Metta means to me a giving of love for others and a giving of a prayer for others. Its all about the spirit and energy, which I try to give back because I have been given so much.”

For the full interview with her please visit the iAM Business Consulting website.

Just Starting Out from the Lens of a Fresh Graduate

So here many of us are on the edge of our future. Gone are the days when even if our summer wasn’t going well, we knew we’d be back in school in September, ready to face classes, grades, and fun with our friends. As a fresh alum of UMass, there is no going back in September, no more structure to everyday life. Now is the time for me and my classmates to build our future and create a new structure that involves adult responsibilities. We cannot postpone thinking about our future anymore, which brings the question, What do you want to do with your life?

Since childhood, we have been told that being a doctor, or a lawyer, or a scientist is the way to go. With all the money we’d make in our job, we could have anything we wanted. Several years later, this can be interpreted as, “Even if you don’t like reading books all day or hate doing math, it’s ok because you can use the money you make to do what you really want to do when you’re not at work.” But why not turn the tables and do what makes you happy to begin with? From having several internships throughout college, from sales to customer relations, to advertising, I have come to discover in positive and negative ways that if you can barely get up in the morning to face your job, you will not be happy outside of it either. I’d rather love getting up every morning with a sense of purpose and making less money than dragging myself through the day and making more money. After all, you do spend 8 hours a day at your job, and much more time outside of it thinking about it. If you do not go for what you truly want to do, you will only be feeling a sense of relief when the day and the week are over. This is not happiness. But what happens Sunday night when you now have to face another week of the same old thing that you hate? It’s back to being unhappy. In this type of scenario, if you are just doing it for the money, then you won’t last. You will feel unauthentic, and you will be “found out” by your colleagues, boss, and customers. As a former financial representative intern for a large insurance company, I noticed this phenomenon firsthand. If I didn’t believe in my product, but I tried to sell it to other people because I could make a good commission off of it, it would backfire. Potential customers could tell by the way I spoke and through other non-verbal cues whether I truly believed something or didn’t, and that would be carried out in how I presented the products whether or not I wanted it to.

So back to the question: What do you want to do with your life? Some of my peers have discovered what they want to do with their lives, as I have (more on that later), but that’s only the beginning. In one of my business classes last semester, we had several speakers come in to talk to us about how they started their own businesses. The string that linked each of them together was following what they believed was their calling and not giving up in the face of obstacles. Given the way they became successful, they challenged each of us to do the same – to throw caution to the wind and go after what we really want to do. After all, this is the time to do it. We have no children, no mortgage, and no real responsibilities. Many of my peers pointed out after each speaker that to them, taking a year off or waiting for what they really want to do just isn’t practical. After all, health insurance would expire upon graduation and loans would start to kick in six months later. Not to mention that there were companies out there recruiting that were dangling high salaries and sign on bonuses in front of students, tempting them to take an offer that they weren’t too excited about just because of the money and the slumped economy.

What is the solution? To allow me to better follow my purpose, I have chosen, and am very grateful, to live with my parents for now and work a part time job while I actively seek out what I want to do with my life. But what about my peers? I think the solution to the obstacles we face today in following our purpose is to move back home and start searching for the right opportunity. It all comes down to choice though. If, as a fresh graduate, you value your independence and want to rent an apartment, then that’s fine. That’s a choice you make that will require you to sacrifice in other areas of your life. On a broader scale, each of us has many little choices to make each day that will either bring us closer to fulfilling our purpose or farther away from it. As long as we are making progress each day towards fulfilling our purpose, it is better than feeling trapped in a job that is just a “job.” Remember that we cannot blame the economy, our parents, or the weather for why we aren’t moving towards what we really want to do. The choice is ours; we just have to want it badly enough. What choices are you making to move towards your purpose?

3. I Love What I Do, But Marketing, That Stresses Me Out: The 8 Steps in Mindful Marketing

Are you one of those people who has something to offer to this world, but does not feel comfortable marketing it? This blog posting is a response to people’s fears and misperceptions about marketing. I started writing this posting as one, but it ended up being so long that I have split it into three separate postings, addressing each of the purposes stated separately:

1) To bring awareness to some reasons for negative perceptions about marketing

2) To clarify the meaning of marketing and differentiate it from related terms like selling and advertising

3) To lay out the eight steps in marketing as a systematic and natural aspect of living a mindful life

I started writing this posting as one, but it ended up being so long that I have split it into three separate postings, addressing each of the purposes stated separately.

Enjoying marketing as a natural process: The eight steps to mindful marketing

Part 3 of 3 of “I love what I do, but marketing, that stresses me out.

”The third posting in the series is intended to provide a new perspective on marketing that is a natural expression of who you are – a mindful woman in business. The eight steps of a marketing plan described in part 2 of this series are not cumbersome, intimidating things you have to do but are simply an external manifestation of who you are internally. This is the inside-out approach to marketing.

I will be taking each of the steps in the traditional marketing plan and providing a new way of thinking about it so that you can think about each of these steps as a mindful expression of your inner purpose.

1) Your purpose, the business mission

The first step in traditional marketing starts with having a mission statement. Now, coming up with a statement that reflects your business purpose, your core competencies, and how you will meet needs of your target market, may seem like an intimidating task for some or a lot of work in the least. Instead, you can focus on your inner purpose and special gifts that can touch this world in very positive ways. Think of the people who are looking for something you have to offer and how you can help these people. Having a clear vision of your purpose and specific ways in which you will make that happen is the first step in mindful marketing. If you do not have a clear idea of where you want to go, you will never get there. So, the first step is a quiet reflection of the following:

· Your purpose

· Specific ways in which you will enact your purpose

· What you will bring to your work that is uniquely you – what you love about yourself, your talents, and what you enjoy

· Broadly, needs you will be meeting of people

Now, most of you would have already reflected on the above or some of the above points. And if you have, staying connected with that clarity of purpose, write it down and that is your mission statement. When you write the statement, think as if you are speaking to your customer. What do you want to tell them about your purpose, about what you can do for them, and what it is that make you “You.”

You can read more about finding inner purpose here.

2) Learning from the environment, a situational scan

The situational scan described in part 2 refers to an examination of the environment, internal and external to the business. The purpose is to stay in touch with the changes in your business environment – changing technologies, consumer culture, competitors, and so forth. As we get more busy and more comfortable with systems that work for us we are less inclined to study the changes around us. We know that the only permanent thing is change. You can either fear it or embrace it as your teacher. Changes compel us to find new ways of thinking and as such are responsible for innovations and improvements. In this context, I would also like you to think about competition. It is so important to be aware of what other people in your business are offering. Competition can be seen as a very healthy force that is constantly challenging you to improve and grow. If you are open, and curious, and want to grow, learning about and from your environment is a natural outcome of who you are. So, look around you, notice, Google, read, talk to people, try new experiences, explore new subjects, research, and continue to grow – because if you are not growing forward, you are going backward.

You can read more about environmental scan here.

3) Understanding your customer needs, target market

This step is about really understanding and connecting with your customers. At this point your focus moves from your inner purpose to how you can meet specific needs of others. You may be driven by a higher purpose, but if the people that you are targeting do not feel a need for that product, then you are wasting your energy on the wrong market segment. It is important to identify people who need your services and then communicate with them in a language they understand, using channels of communication they use. Learn as much as you can about your potential customers so you can connect with them most effectively. While you will be engaging in tangible processes like market research, trends analyses, and collecting information about your potential customers, also trust intangible processes like your intuition to connect with potential customers. Know that if you are operating from a place of higher purpose, that you will be connected with the people who need your service.

4) The unique ‘you,’ your positioning

As a business you can position yourself uniquely by differentiating along factors like product attributes, pricing, brand image, service quality, and delivery channels. Within the mindful marketing framework, this is not something you will artificially create, but will be a natural manifestation of the unique ‘you.’ For example, as a marketing consultant, my unique positioning is my experience and knowledge in integrating science, business, and spirituality. This is not a strategic decision that I took but was a manifestation of my many years of meditation, business experience, and academic training as a marketing PhD, coupled with my inherent passion for inspiring people and finding better ways of doing business that are holistic and mindful. So, make a list of your skills, past experiences, and other attributes that you will bring in meeting your customers needs in a way that no one else can.

5) What you have to offer, your product

Now that you have a clear vision of your purpose, your customers’ needs, and your unique positioning, you can describe what products and services you will be offering. This is an external manifestation of your inner purpose in specific and tangible ways. So, if my inner purpose is to bring mindfulness in business so that people are in touch with their highest purpose and can express that in profitable ways, I have to find ways to make that happen through the services that I offer. I decided to manifest this through consultation, research, and workshops. This step involves making a detailed list of the products and services that you will be offering in terms of detailed attributes and services. It is again important to think in terms of the solutions you will be providing. So I am not just offering mindfulness workshops to corporations, but I am offering solutions that motivate their employees, that help to deal with stress at work, that improve team-work, and enhance creativity.

6) Communicating and educating, the promotion

This includes all the activities involved in promoting and selling your product. This is the fun step where you get to share your work with people. Yet, this is the step I have found many women in business with a purpose having trouble with. So you have this wonderful gift to offer, but you do not want to or perhaps know how to sell your product. Maybe the problem is in the way we situate our attention. Focusing on selling can be a problem because it creates expectations and moves us away from our inner purpose. The solution is to stay with your inner purpose and focus on reaching people who need your service. You are not selling but helping people satisfy a need. Describing what you do is a way of communicating with people who need your services and educating people about things that you may have learned and would like to pass on now. I realized the importance of shifting energy from selling to helping during events I was organizing for a non-profit organization. As long as my focus was on getting the number of people we needed to meet the quota given to us, I was stressed and my attention was wrongly situated in meeting quotas. When I re-connected with what was my initial purpose and went with the energy of simply spreading awareness of the workshops to people who needed this, I found unexpected success and joy in the process of sharing information about the workshops.

7) Understanding your value, the price

There are many ways to set a price for your product. The easiest is a combination using your cost and the price of similar products available in the market. But before you do that, also reflect on how you value your own services. Be clear about how you are benefiting people and what is the value you are providing them. Having clarity of the value you provide to your customers will help you reach a price that is fair to your clients and to you for the time and energy you are devoting. Pricing can be a very tricky process and one area that can benefit a lot from bringing mindfulness to the internal and external factors that influence the price you will charge for your products. The right price is subjective and requires mindfulness of all factors starting from how you value your services to your relationship with money to all the external factors in the environment including your customers and competition.

I have written about mindful pricing tips here.

8) How will your customer find you, the place

The last aspect that you need to consider is the delivery options or the places where your customer can find you. It is important to be aware of the places that your customers are likely to find you. In today’s world this can be a very creative process because there are so many ways of reaching out to your potential clients. Keeping the focus on helping people through your purpose, be creative and find ways to build an energy around your work – be it online through your website and blogs, through newsletters, articles, retail outlets, partners, and other social networks that reach out to your potential clients.

The above process reflects the iAM Approach, which is based on mindfulness, authenticity, and innovative thinking. When your work becomes an authentic expression of who you are and you are mindful and open to new perspectives, life becomes an enjoyable journey.

As a mindful marketer, the above steps reflect my way of being and operating in the marketplace. What are the challenges you face in marketing? What are the solutions you found that have worked for you?