The Program

28The Mission

THE FIRST STANDARD to which a leader is held is mission accomplishment. It is an expectation that this is accomplished legally and with high personal and team standards of behavior. As discussed previously, consistently meeting (and exceeding) our organization’s standards that reinforce our Core Values should ensure long-term consistent performance. The opposite is also true. A disregard for our Core Values and the standards and consequences that reinforce them ensures a decrease in our organization’s ability to accomplish its mission.

Furthermore, if behaviors are immoral or illegal, they will eventually result in any leader’s eventual downfall, and typically also that of the team they lead. There are numerous high-profile examples of exactly this occurring in collegiate and professional sports as well as in corporate America.

We must stay focused on our behaviors, but as leaders (and teammates) we must also always be aware of our performance, of what we are here to do, of our mission. Leaders who are unable to lead their teams consistently to mission accomplishment are failing as leaders. We must accomplish the mission. If we are going to do so, we must first define it.

Part 1: Define It

How do we define our mission? The mission is our end state. It is where we want to go and what we want to achieve as an organization. The time period for that mission can be as short, or as long, as you need to accomplish it. A team could have a mission to win a particular ...