Welcome to IGW Insights Issue 3!
It’s the end of February, so we are one-sixth of the way through 2024. One month from now we’ll be wrapping up Q1. What can we do today to help our teams work smarter and increase the probability that they’ll meet or exceed their Q1 commitments?
One thing we can do is prioritize communicating why their work is important. This IGW Insights issue focuses on how clarity of mission achieves that goal.
Issue 3 includes:
- A brief note from me, your faithful Founder and CEO, on the topic of mission
- Some recommended reading and listening, and
- A journaling exercise on your company’s gifts
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DW Leadership Note
Mission is an idea that gets short shrift. Leaders want to talk about execution, accountability, profit. All important things.
But when it comes to mission, they risk mistaking it for cheerleading.
Cheerleading as a means of providing moments of uplift and excitement has its place. But what I’m talking about is communication of mission as a means of generating alignment amongst your team. Alignment is when everybody in the organization understands the destination so they can best contribute to the journey. Without alignment, execution becomes arbitrary and accountability doesn’t even begin (more on that in Issue 4 – stay tuned!).
But at the most profound level, is this all we want from our people? Is “Compliance! Accountability! Profit!” the rallying cry you imagine delivering to your teams at the annual strategy offsite?
Maybe you’re a founder/CEO, maybe you bought a business that you run, maybe you’re a senior leader in an established business. I believe what you really want from your people is investment. Sacrifice.
Execution and accountability are table stakes–permission to play. Investment and sacrifice are what drive people to play a bigger game.
Once I heard a sales executive say, boastfully, “Sales is where the money comes from.” As if to imply that all of the other functions serve sales.
A client service exec responded by saying, “Client service is where the reputation comes from.”
I’d like to think that if the CEO had been there, he would have said, “Mission is where the investment and sacrifice come from.”
At IGW we define leadership as the uniquely human energy that unlocks the will inside of others to actualize a worthy outcome. Mission is the emotional fuel that drives that will.
It’s what drives people to sacrifice in the service of execution, to take ownership in the service of accountability, both of which, market forces and acts of God being equal, increase the odds of best-in-class profitability. Read more on my blog.
Recommended Reading and Listening
I love The Marginalian (which used to be called Brainpickings). Here is a short but powerful (on many levels) piece referencing an essay by the late, great David Foster Wallace on leadership. It connects to this issue’s theme of mission, but is oh so much more.
My friend Laurie introduced me to the poetry of Mary Oliver, oh I’d say about 25 years ago. It has been a gift that keeps on giving. Mary Oliver rarely gave interviews because she was too busy wandering the natural world and writing poetry. But this interview she gave to Krista Tippet on the On Being podcast enveloped me and is worth a minimum of two listens.
Journaling Exercise
Ok, this one is going to be short. Two journaling prompts for you today:
- What is the gift our company gives to the world?
- What is the gift our company gives to clients/customers?
Set a timer for as long as you can stand it, and just keep that pen moving across the paper until that timer goes dingy-ding.
If you’re feelin’ frisky, scan your journal pages and email them to me, and I’ll scan/send you mine. That’s right folks, I smoke my own dope.
Onward and upward,
Dan Weiss, CEO
