I was teaching a course on strategic planning last week in Kelowna for credit union directors. For years, I have bounced around various definitions and semantic conversations about the words vision, mission and values. There are related phrases like, guiding principles, core purpose and the like, and all are trying to describe the ‘compass heading’ if you will for an organization. One of great examples of a vision statement, in my view is Martin Luther King’s vision in August of 1963 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vDWWy4CMhE “I have a dream”.
As the participants in the class were working on a case study, I had an insight, what if we imagine vision, mission and values at the individual level?
• A vision describes, ‘where do I want to go.’
• A mission describes why I would go there, (what common good will come from it?) and,
• values describe ‘whom will I be on the journey.’
As soon as I wrote them on the flip chart, I thought, ‘need to share these in Leadership Notes!’
As a leader, I need to know where I’m going. Yes, this is about career, but it is also about personal growth; what are your dreams? Or in the wonderful metaphor from Stephen Covey, what do you want people to say about you at your funeral?
As a leader, I need to know why I’m going there, and typically that is about a common good. Although this does not happen for all leaders, many leaders change their mission as they get older. Moving from a selfish mission about ego and financial success to doing something for the community, for the good of the city or country.
As a leader I need to know whom I will be on the journey. What are the lines I will not cross about integrity, about honesty, about compassion? And to be fair, we sometimes do not know about the line until we see it. What are the values that people can count on me for? At the end of the journey, will I be able to hold my head up and say, ‘I did it well, and I did it respecting myself and others?’
As I’ve been writing images from the Lord of the Rings trilogy have been in my mind. These three questions, I realize, drive the mythic adventures. Think of Frodo as he has to choose to leave the Shire on this grand adventure. Where is he going? Why is he going? Whom will he be on the journey? His answers to these questions emerge on the journey, and so do our answers. The first step is to leave the Shire, with an inkling at least of what the answers could be.
May this week, be one of leaving shires, and making discoveries about ourselves.