Dagmara Asbreuk (00:00.204)
Welcome to another episode of Extraordinary Leadership Podcast. My name is Dagbara Aspryk, I'm your host. I'm the Founder and CEO of Extraordinary Leadership and Executive and Transformational Coach. And today I want to bring to you a topic that is important for every executive. And it's essentially also the driver, one of the foundational drivers for your organizational excellence. And it is...
alignment, alignment to a shared purpose and direction within your organization. And this topic is important for you if you are a new in your role. Maybe you just started a new executive role in another organization. And of course, as a leader, you have a mission and you have a change to lead.
Or you are in a current organization and you are taking a new functional organization or a new role within, or you basically want to sparkle and shape another direction within your organization and bring that next level of collaboration, engagement and unity at the end and passion into creating something great.
And I'm very passionate about this topic of aligning an organization towards a shared vision, mission and identity, ultimately creating culture. Because I've been also involved in several of those initiatives and transformations myself. And not all of them has been really successful. So, you know, when I was preparing for this podcast, I came across interesting statistics.
And statistics that are really helping you to understand how important is this process of aligning a leadership team, especially on the whole organization towards shared vision, mission, and identity. Before we even talk about, you know, strategy and goals, which needs to be in alignment with these three fundamentals. And, you know, when I was reviewing the statistics that I want to share with you, I
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Just ask myself how many times have I been in this process of vision, mission and identity of organization. I am wondering how many leaders and organizations really put a strong emphasis and time and efforts into creating it. I believe that there is still a room for improvement.
looking at my own experiences in the past, as well as talking and working with leaders today. So in this episode, I want to focus on, know, why is important and how do we steer this alignment effectively? So let me share with you a couple of these statistics now. Corporate Leadership Council has published research showing that organizations with a clear vision and mission outperform by
30 % their competitors in financial metrics. So there is a clear impact on finances and performance. Gallup stated that organization with clear vision and mission statements have higher levels of employee engagement. Companies with engaged employees experience 17 % higher productivity and 21 % higher profitability. And according to Harvard Business Review,
Organizations with strong sense of mission and identity are better equipped to handle crisis and market disruption. And research from Forbes indicates that businesses with well -articulated mission and vision see 50 % higher customer retention.
I can go on and go on, but what does statistics really reveal to us? A well aligned and effective vision, mission, and identity of the organization is fuel to so many parameters that we want to accomplish with our businesses, isn't it? It's about retention. It's about engagement. It's about profitability. It's about productivity. It's about performance.
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Isn't that what we all want leading our organizations? So the question is how effectively we steer this process and how much time and energy we bring to this process of aligning our organization and of course aligning our leadership team to a shared purpose, a shared vision, mission, and creating of course aligned identities. And you know, how do we...
shift from this classical approach of vision and mission statements and it's all identity work of the organization. It's just nice thing on the wall that are just hanging there in our meeting rooms or somewhere in the reception of our companies and nobody ever looks at them. Have you been in an organization like that? I have experienced that. I have definitely experienced that, that there is this disconnect.
between what is written on the wall and what is really lived by in the organization. And of course, this disconnect starts with not a strong alignment in organization and especially in a leadership team towards shared vision, mission, purpose, and way of work and way of thinking and shared values, which are
forming the identity and culture of organization. So how about spending a little bit of time about that important topic in this podcast to give you a moment of reflection and checking in with yourself, know, where am I within my organization in this process? In my recent session with a client who is leading fantastically change and positioning his organization, a bigger corporate structure to really
a value added organization that is courageous, that is a complete business partner that is delivering not only performance, but making a difference. He has noticed that it's about emotional connection. And this is what is it about in this process. It's about a feeling because vision mission or even identity is never
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about logical thinking is actually about a feeling, how these things make us feel. Because only when we feel excited, feel inspired, feel passionate, we are going to be fully on showing ourselves, giving our best in being motivated. So in shaping that alignment and clarity and commitment at the same time to the shared vision mission and
identity of the organization, we are talking about doing that on a deeper emotional level. We are talking about creating really a sense of unity, sense of a stronger bond about becoming one as an organization. And of course, if you want to create a bond, if you want to create that emotional bond in the mission, vision and identity, you need to
be inclusive in this process. You need to involve people in this process rather than create it by yourself. And exactly for that reason, this process cannot be just a solo act. This process cannot be just writing few sentences on the wall by yourself or putting it on a nice presentation slide and presenting it to others. Creating a shared
vision, mission, and identity. It's a very inclusive process. The word shared, I think already speaks by itself, includes people in this process for getting their input and their observations, making them part of this journey of becoming a great organization. it's also when you're going to discover whether the values, what are the needs of your people that you lead.
Let us walk through the process, the process of aligning vision, mission and identity in your organization. And before we talk about how we do it, let's unpack what is the difference between vision, mission and identity. Well, the way I like to see the vision is all about definition of what you're doing and why and in which way. it's ultimately.
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of the role of the organization and why the organization exists was the added value of this organization. So a couple of examples here. For example, Tesla mission statement to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy or LinkedIn to connect the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful.
Those are examples of a mission statement, which, you know, a body basically would and why. Clearly you can hear it in one sentence. And this is of course, an example of a mission statement of a whole organization, but it's exactly the same. you're leading a function in a corporate structure, yes, that's also where you want to define the mission statement for that organization. Now, what's the vision?
The vision is the longer term inspiring reality that your organization is striving to create. And this is ultimately the result of your impact, the impact that you are making. It's not a goal, it's something bigger. Ultimately goals are milestones of realizing and leading you towards that.
realization of the vision. Let's look at some examples. LinkedIn, vision statements to create economic opportunity for every member of a global workforce. Tesla, vision statement to create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world's transition to electric vehicles. Or Spotify to be the world's largest and most loved music platform.
So not is also that not they don't have a timeframe, like in a goals, tend to put time, right? But innovation, of course, not it's something that is timeless. It's an aspirational, inspirational outcome result or reality that your organization with your mission strive through contribute to in the world or towards the clients. And the third identity is the DNA of the culture. It's the values.
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the beliefs and the behaviors, the way of showing up and the way of doing the unique way of doing that your organization is creating that impact, realizing its mission and realizing or coming towards or driving towards the vision. So here, of course, very important is knowing and eliciting and creating the shared values, but as well as the image of
identity of that organization, which includes the belief system of what we believe in this organization and how do we see ourselves in this organization. We see ourselves as positive changemakers, or we see ourselves as firemen. It's a different narrative. It's a play of words here. Also creating that narrative, that song of your organization, if you like.
is going to that shapes that identity of the organization is going extremely to define the way people feel about themselves, about being part of this organization, the way people experience living and contributing in this organization that will define the culture, the tone. And of course that will also define how people believe, how people behave, how they take decisions, how they show up. And ultimately,
All of them three, you want to be ingrained in the way you work and filter if your decision -making and obviously in your performance evaluation process. So that's not something that you do one time. And that brings me even to example of one of my clients who has created a song, literally a song with really music in a background and words that resonated with that mission vision and identity.
of that organization, which is so empowering and innovative as well in a way to transpire that spirit and unity and direction and dynamic and culture of this organization that he leads and belonging, feeling belonging in a culture. So having that is super important for attraction of the right talents because at the end you want to have people that resonate and align with that.
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mission, vision and identity and culture of the organization. Now, when do you do that process? I would say when really depends on the level of a trust that you are having in the organization. And if you are new in the organization or you already been in the organization, so I would say if you are really, really, really new in the organization,
like thinking about my clients two years ago when we started to work together, he was relatively new in the organization. So in order to start this process of alignment and shaping the direction and vision and mission, he took first time to build his relationships and trust and of course understand the organization and culture that he's actually
entering into and what is really that he can create in this environment and how he can create that. If you are, for example, in an existing organization and you want to drive a change, like I remember myself, I was leading a regional change of the organization and we wanted to be more unified in the region between different locations in that organization.
So that I was new, I had built already my relationships by then. So my focus was first on initiating, of course, the vision and initiating the idea even, and looking first for some stakeholders and allies into leading that organizational change with whom I can co -create the idea, make it bigger, and then involve more parties into shaping.
that mission, vision, and identity of that organization. You want really to place a focus for this process and give it attention and give it respectful time that can last between a couple of months to even in some organization, maybe a year, depending how complex is the structure of this organization, where it's your starting point as well. So what are the ingredients that make this
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process effective and successful and enable you as an executive to walk out with something tangible, with something that people are really committed towards to, aligned, and that there is this level of trust that it will happen. And it's embedded in a culture, it's embedded in the processes and embedded into everyday's life.
So one of the things that you want to ensure is of course being inclusive in it. So inviting people to be part of this journey of creating and co -creating that vision, mission and identity together. And that is really so, so much important because this is when you are bringing them into this process.
actually earning their trust as well in this way. You are inviting them to shape it together. So you are increasing already their motivation into living and being that later on. And you gain valuable input and ideas. So you're kind of painting that canvas together. So you're fostering already by this process, the unity and oneness and connection in the organization that you lead.
It will depend how big is your organization, how you can include the people and steer this inclusion in this process. So for example, if you are leading an organization that is spanning more than hundred people, you may want to include, you know, service that allows you to get an input from everybody, or you may want to choose different leaders that report to you, different functional leaders.
as catalyst of gathering that input and information and bringing that to a leadership team and then continuing the conversation there. if you are leading a smaller organization, of course, you can include everybody in a smaller round of workshops and reunions or events that you can facilitate or even invite other facilitators to help you. And of course, if you are
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CEO of a large multi -thousand people organization, you definitely want to utilize your leadership team and your different functional leaders and their organizations into cascading this process down and getting the input also through surveys, through different ways of engagement from people because at the end, you want to have the input from bottom up as well to this process and not only a top -down approach of mandating
the vision and mission and identity of the organization. So as much as you can in this process, including people, even in that big size of organization in gaining valuable input into that is so, so crucial. The way that I remember we did it last time in my last organization was really having a workshop, was having a workshop, which we actually hosted virtually, spread during a couple of days.
Another important point is creating that alignment and that cohesion on those important points inside your leadership team. Your leadership team is number one team in the organization, again, either a whole organization or a functional organization. That's the cockpit of the business. That's the leadership team that is driving the business. You want to ensure that alignment to these aspects is happening really
first of all, on the leadership team level. Another important point here when we talk about inclusive is you also want to invite peers and other stakeholders outside of your organization. If you're leading a functional organization, of course, and if you're leading a whole organization, then we talk about shareholders, other people than your organization itself, because you want to gather this valuable input.
on what are their expectations, where they see that you can add more value and where they see your strengths as an organization. So that's a critical feedback loop that you can gain from that as well as in this process, of course, you match the expectations of those to whom you report and with whom you work. I'm an advocate of starting this process with a leadership team and the benefit that you have is you already
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create this first level of bonds together when you meet and first reflective session and first alignment with the leadership team is like a first catalyst of a change already and a beacon for the next steps, an opportunity for including the remaining parts and remaining members in the organization and leading them as well the opportunity to lead by example and steer this
input and later alignment process also within their teams and be respected as leaders of their teams as well. So I find this a very empowering process when executives do it with leadership teams. I know that in some instances where the organization is small, it's very interesting to do it with the whole organization and it might have its value as well. Again, it depends on the culture of this organization. And I think the final
The today to mention about this process is this conclusion of this alignment and this period of this conclusion. How do you want to finish this alignment process? So imagine that you will have some rounds of discussions with your teams and rounds of discussions with the stakeholders outside of your organization. What do you do with all this input that you're gathering along the way? How do you finalize this process?
And they are kind of, would say, two, three elements to that. First, that's with you because you as a leader of that organization want to have your own sense of what is that vision, that mission, and that identity that you want to form and shape in this organization. And of course, here, a very critical point that I help leaders with is to sink into their
intuition and into, call it this heart connection, emotional connection with the vision, mission and identity. Because ultimately it's not about beautiful words on the wall. It's about being specific. It's about utilizing words that transpire emotions. And it is about
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feeling into that. So the very first person that needs to be excited and on board for that is you, the person that is leading that organization. So tuning in to how you feel that vision, mission and identity of that organization is really the very first step. And sometimes I see leaders face challenges with that because quite a lot of smart and intelligent leaders and great leaders
are so much in their minds that, know, sinking to the heart is a challenge. And I also been there. being connected with that and transpiring that connection and communicating emotionally, actually, that message has definitely evolved even for me, the way I speak now and the way I spoke that time. So that is kind of a first step, developing this emotional ability to connect with that and feel into that vision.
and mission and identity and feel how it actually inspires you because that's first of all, you need to be personally inspired and passionate about it. The second, it is about when people are walking out with commitment, with a verbal commitment and declaration to that vision and mission and identity. And of course, attach values.
behaviors and beliefs behind it. It is when people really verbalize it and in which way they verbalize it. Again, here emotional communication comes into place. You can clearly notice if somebody is emotionally committed or not. So you want to see that passion and commitment emotionally. Do you want to feel that we really are on it and in it and for it? And that is why we're going to give our best.
into realizing that. And so is also your ability in that alignment, final alignment session to notice if there are any tensions, resistance or unspoken things that are being flushed out in that conversation, surface you were like in that conversation and embraced with interest, with curiosity, without the judgment, with curiosity and empathy and understanding them.
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At the same time, finding the way of how you can improve, you can elevate that mission vision and identity to the next level. So always remember people that are there are your co -creators. So involving them and asking them how would they see the evolution is a key fundamental aspect here.
Another thing, of course, in that conversation will be how do you set the tone, how you manage your emotions in this conversation, how you manage the energy in the room. All those are really critical factors into steering the whole alignment process. And especially this final session where you are aligning the organization, especially your leadership team towards the shared vision, mission and identity.
and walking out with clarity to what you also agreed on and defined behaviors, actions, decisions, way of doing in this organization and how this new mission, vision and identity is going to be embedded into the processes. For example, such as performance process or in the decisions that you're going to make, because ultimately that's the compass.
And of course, the final step is communicating that to the rest of the organization, through the channels that probably exist in your organization. This vision, this mission, this identity and letting your organization not as a different towards the internal and external customers. It's about showing it up as about living that vision, mission and identity. It's about being, it's about embodying that in.
action, in attitude, in behaviors and walking the talk, which you ultimately want to keep your leaders accountable for and any other members in your organization. Because each of these people have its incremental role and contribution to shaping this culture and co -creating this culture. And also they need to know it, how important they are in this process and into shaping this.
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and creating this new reality to get. Now, if you wonder what's vision, mission, identity of external leadership, then I want to share with you this. The mission of external leadership is to empower executives to tap and to lead from the absolute greatest state of their potential so that they can really transform their organization or evolve the organization to the next level of
collaboration, impact, performance, and of course enable the organization to thrive and unleash human potential. The vision of Extraordinary Leadership is to be a global leader, paving a new way in leadership, transforming leadership, and ultimately unleashing human potential in organizations and enabling leaders and the organization.
to thrive. And the identity is about connection, growth, authenticity, empowerment, and of course, impact. And external leadership is on a bold mission to transform leadership with innovative ways, with embodiment processes, with transformative processes that really focus on root of human behaviors. And with that,
We are bringing the extraordinary results beyond imagination to our clients and making a world absolutely better place and contributing to driving an organizational and personal level. If that speaks to you and you would like to find out more on how I can make a difference in your leadership and in your organization and help you to steer this alignment process towards the shared mission, vision and
identity of your organization. Please do reach out. If you enjoyed this podcast, please do subscribe to the channel if you haven't done yet, share it with others, subscribe to Extraordinary Leadership Newsletter as well, where I share more insights to transform your leadership in organizations. So thank you very much for watching me here and until next time, be the change that you want to see.
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