More on Mission Statements: Stating Your Mission in No Uncertain Terms

Published: September 1, 2009

“Scores of business planning and strategic experts state a mission statement is mandatory for your company’s direction,” Darrell Zahorsky writes on About.com. “Other advisers suggest writing a mission statement becomes a meaningless few sentences collecting dust somewhere in your office. Is a personal and corporate mission statement necessary for success in today’s hostile business climate?”
The answer according to the experts is “no” if you are never going to look at it again, you make it so wishy-washy that it does not mean anything or you decide not to live up to it.
But for those who take mission statements seriously, they can be quite valuable. A mission statement can help you, among other things, develop an answer to the famous question posed by the management sage Peter Drucker, “What business are you really in?”
If you think a formal mission statement may benefit your company, the following ideas can get you started.
START HERE SmallBizMarketingTips.com does a good job of defining what you are trying to create.
“A mission statement is your customer-focused business definition. It’s your sense of purpose. The reason why you get up every day and do what you do. It encapsulates your values and visions, your employees and community, your suppliers and stakeholders. It literally is the foundation for your company’s future.”
WHY YOU WANT ONE Suite101.com, an online magazine, succinctly points out the benefits of a mission statement and what your goal should be as you set out to create one.
“The statement should be clear, powerful and broad enough to guide your decision-making and help explain your organization’s efforts to potential funders.”
HOW TO WRITE ONE Tim Berry, writing on Bplan.com, a planning and strategy Web site, says a mission statement “is an opportunity to define your business at the most basic level.” He adds, “It should tell your company story and ideals in less than 30 seconds: who your company is, what you do, what you stand for, and why you do it.”
With that as background, he suggests these guidelines in constructing one:
¶It’s about you. While you may want to look at the way other companies have put together their mission statements, “make sure you actually believe in what you’re writing; your customers and your employees will soon spot a lie.”
¶“Don’t ‘box’ yourself in. Your mission statement should be able to withstand the changes that come up over time in your product or service offerings, or customer base. A cardboard box company isn’t in the business of making cardboard boxes; it’s in the business of providing protection for items that need to be stored or shipped.”
¶Think short. No more than four sentences.
¶Ask employees for their thoughts and suggestions and to see if the wording is clear, easily understood and something they endorse.
THE PAYOFF Rose Halas, writing on Essortment.com, an information and advice Web site, summarizes the benefits of a great mission statement.
“A handful of words can do much to rally employees around a unifying idea and organize job tasks to meet a specific objective. Having a mission statement can bind each person to the rest in establishing a common goal.”
LAST CALL Of course, when done badly, mission statements invite ridicule and parody, as the cartoonist Scott Adams so aptly demonstrates with his Dilbert comic strip.
Here are two of our fictional favorites from “Dilbert’s Automatic Mission Statement Generator”: “It is our job to continually foster world-class infrastructures as well as to quickly create principle-centered sources to meet our customer’s needs.” And “Our challenge is to assertively network economically sound methods of empowerment so that we may continually negotiate performance-based infrastructures.”

What to Do If Your Boss Is the Problem

By DENNIS NISHI
A bad boss is the most common reason employees quit their jobs, according to staffing firm Robert Half International. And a survey of workers by the Workplace Bullying Institute, a nonprofit group that does research and training on the subject, conducted last year found that 27.5% of respondents reported that ill treatment by superiors got worse after the start of the financial crisis. You don't have to suffer silently. Here are ways to deal with a difficult boss without scuttling your career:

• Cool down. If you've had a disagreement, sit on it for a couple of days, says Richard Hart, director at ProActive ReSolutions Inc., a Vancouver, Canada, company specializing in workplace conflict resolution. Do an honest self-assessment of your own work to determine whether you're doing anything to cause the problem. Ask coworkers and personal friends for some outside perspective. "If you're still thinking about it after two days, it's probably important enough to require resolution," he says. At that point, take the time to write down recent incidents of abuse, arguments and anything else that falls outside of a normal employee/management relationship. Be objective about your observations, since your notes may be used down the line if any actions are filed. Writing your thoughts down can also be cathartic.

• Go to the source. Employment experts say talking with your boss is usually the best way to solve a problem. "Have a regular conversation and focus on the problem and not the incident," Mr. Hart says. You might find the boss isn't aware there is a problem. A recent study done at the University of Iowa showed bad behavior can often be enabled by supervisors who overlook abuse if the boss delivers results. "Whatever you do, don't be confrontational," he says. "Be ready for the fact that the conversation may not go well."

• Find allies. If it seems reasonable, consider talking to another manager within the organization who you trust. They may be able to approach the problem boss as a peer or offer perspective about the behavior that could temper the issue. Look for somebody who is respected by coworkers, who doesn't play office politics and who understands the role that you and your department play in the company.

• Seek outside help. If these tactics don't work, seek guidance from the company human-resources department, says Rich Falcone, a labor attorney and partner with Payne & Fears LLP in Los Angeles and San Francisco. They may be able to give you very specific advice, but aren't likely to be able to immediately solve the problem for you. Unless the HR person believes there's a harassment or discrimination issue they're legally bound to report, "they can keep the matter confidential and work with you," Mr. Falcone says.

• Grin and bear it. If it's critical to your career to simply put up with the boss, try to make the best of the situation. Focus on doing your job well and minimizing conflict. Lean on your friends and family for empathy and support says Joel Mausner, a business psychologist at Irvington, N.Y.-based Workplace Psychology. "Find other ways to cope like taking up a new hobby or using relaxation techniques," he says.

• Walk away. If nothing else has helped, consider asking for a transfer to another department. "If you decide to quit, plan ahead," or you could end up being traumatized by long-term unemployment, says Dr. Mausner. "You don't want to quit precipitously since you can traumatize yourself even more by facing extended unemployment."

Write to Dennis Nishi at cjeditor@dowjones.com

Work Therapy: How to Handle a Bully Boss

From the Wall Street Journal
Q: I have a boss who has morphed into a bully, and chosen me as her pincushion. Unknown to her, I plan to retire at the end of year and have been trying to train her to be nicer. Whenever she bullies me, I tell her, "I'll fix that problem," or "No, that won't happen again." Then I email one of her bosses or human resources about her behavior. I believe I'm entitled to write these emails and think I'm providing a service to the coworkers I'll leave behind when I retire. What do you think?

A: While it may make you feel better to blanket the office with tattletale emails about the boss, it's not an effective way to get her to behave. There's a simple way to tell that the letter campaign isn't working: No one's ever done anything about your notes. No department head or human-resources representative has ever swung by your desk and said, "Can you come in and talk about these?"

"I'd conclude they're useless," says Debra Comer, a psychologist and professor at the Zarb School of Business at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, who's researched bullying. In short, you're doing something, "but not achieving anything," says. Dr. Comer.

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.What may work is confronting the boss about why she's become so unpleasant. Challenging someone, especially a person who's been strongarming you and screaming at you, isn't as easy as firing off an email, but if you go directly to her at least you know she'll hear what you have to say. "It's pretty tough to tell a boss, 'You've been abusive,' " Dr. Comer says. But, it's better than complaining about her in a message she'll never get.

Before you go to talk to her, keep in mind there are two general reasons for why she may be tormenting you. You wrote that she wasn't always a tyrant. That means that some sort of stress at work or home could have changed her temperament. Remember how nice Ray Liotta was before the Goodfellas took him in? Since she hasn't always behaved like this, it means the boss is not a diehard bully. There could be hope for morphing her back.

"Some people are proud of being a bully. That's their way," Dr. Comer says. "But some people don't know. They don't understand the effect. If a boss has morphed into a bully, it might have been a gradual process, and by telling them, they could have an epiphany."

Work Therapy Email
Anxious that you're not doing a good job? Angry that your boss is taking credit for your work? Worried that a junior co-worker is going to leapfrog ahead of you? Write to worktherapy@wsj.com with your workplace stresses for tips on how to cope. Please indicate if you don't want to be identified.
.Or, if it's not about her, the boss could be beating up on you because of something you've done. It seems like she's singling you out, since, as you wrote, she's chosen to lash out at you instead of any of your coworkers. She could have become tougher on you because your work isn't as good as it used to be. "Retirement could lead to someone slowing down in a way they're not aware of," says Dr. Comer. "Maybe performance has been lacking, prompting criticism from the boss."

Either way, during the actual conversation, stay positive. The goal is to figure out how to work well together, no matter what's fueling her invectives. It's not to attack or insult her, which will only make her defensive and unresponsive. Helen Friedman, a St. Louis-based psychologist who specializes in dealing with difficult people, suggests saying something like: "I value working with you. You're my boss, and our relationship is important to me. But I've noticed a behavior change with you. You seem sharp with me and I don't think anyone deserves to be talked (to) that way."

"Usually if you go to the boss in a heartfelt way about wanting to work together, he or she will respond well," Dr. Friedman says. "If people feel cared for, they listen."

As for your desire to help out the coworkers you're leaving behind, it's too soon to be magnanimous. As long as you're still going to work each day, focus on enjoying your last few months, not fretting about how everyone else will manage after you're gone. If the boss morphs back into a pleasant leader because you had the courage to confront her, that will be a greater legacy than any stack of emails you leave human resources.

Write to Kayleen Schaefer at worktherapy@wsj.com