Your Mission

Years ago I worked with a CEO who had a Mission for his team.

He firmly believed in retaining customers, in loyalty programs. He believed that he could "force" a customer to become loyal. Seriously. He talked about it. Just get the right offer in front of the right customer at the right time. Throw some points at the customer. Let the customer redeem points when he told the customer it was the right time to redeem points. "It works for BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse!" Good for him ... free pizookies all around.

The Mission? "We're going to thrive by creating a large number of highly loyal customers, and we have the tools to do this outside of the merchandise we sell."

I mostly disagree with the guy, but he had a clear Mission for his team. 

• (IDEAS) * (TALENT + LEADERSHP + STORYTELLING) = MISSIONS

His team moved in lock step with his Mission. The guy did his job as a Leader. His Team was talented. His Leadership was good. His ideas were poor. His storytelling was non-existent. This meant his Mission, while clearly articulated, had minimal value.

He needed new customers.

It is possible to have a good Mission but a bad outcome.