Serial entrepreneur Richard Branson wrote this intriguing article for Entrepreneur.com discussing the importance of having a mission statement that works when launching a startup.   It’s a great article that I share often with college students I mentor to help motivate them in creating organizations and businesses as leaders upon graduation.  Your mission statement tells potential clients, community members, and consumers about the vision of the organization.  A statement that “works” is memorable, measurable, and is action-oriented.  While many leaders think their organization’s mission statement is working to grab the attention of their target audience, it may just be another feel good, overtly idealistic description of what they hope the organization will become, not actually what it is presently.  Branson singles out this mistake, along with 3 other notable ones:

1.  Your organization can no longer live up to it’s vision.  This is typical of companies and groups that have a breach of integrity.  They fail to fulfill the goals they set out to do.

2.   It’s either vague or too long, not “just right”.  While an organization may be trying to illustrate several different points of interests in a statement, longer ones can bring about confusion.

3.   Your competition is saying the same thing (and does a better job at doing it). Branson sums up the article with one simple form of advice: “brevity is key”.  He recommends applying a twitter-like 140 character template in explaining your organization’s purpose and expectations, which should read like a motto worth repeating.

To learn more on how to draft a mission statement, visit my blog post, What, Why, Who, and How: 4 Questions to Answer in Writing an Effective Mission Statement