Values, Missions and Visions … Oh My!

Like the master to his student in your favorite kung-fu movie, Team TRIO is here to impart our sage marketing advice. Hold your breath. Focus up. And look inside yourself. When it comes to true strength in business, the foundation for success can only come from within.

We’re here to guide you through values, mission and visions, and why creating a clear and robust understanding of your operations is essential for longevity.

Finding Value in Values

“If you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything!” The adage may be old, but, just like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, you can never go wrong when it comes to the classics.

Simply put, the values of your business are your company’s beliefs. They’re the first step in identifying the overall focus, direction and behaviors of all you do. They are also what makes you unique! Others may do what you do, but their reasons for doing so may differ. Are you a boundary pusher in your industry? A force for good? An advocate for social justice? Values outline who and what you are (and are not) beyond the product and service you offer. These guiding principles should inspire your teammates and bring out the best in your employees.

Be specific when developing your core values. These guidelines should be memorable and evoke action! They’re called CORE values because they should be visible in everything you do.

Benefits to be gained from establishing core values can include:

• A strong, positive work culture
• A clear code team members can operate under
• Parameters to guide decision-making
• Creating a workplace vision for potential candidates
• Establish expectations for customer relations

When later developing your mission and vision statements, use your core values as the base! To execute your mission and make it to your vision, your values are the map that will lead you there.

Pro Tip: Limit yourself to five or six core values, and do not choose them haphazardly! These beliefs are your business’s ultimate guiding light, with decisions based on them. You will hire and fire by them. Team members will live and breathe them, so it is important to bring on collaborators who truly share those ideals, not ones who can simply memorize and recall them.

Download TRIO’s Values Worksheet to help you create a new mission or evaluate your own.

A Plan On a Mission

Do you understand the assignment? From interns and assistants to directors and beyond, creating a clear mission statement is how to make sure everyone inside (and outside) your company stays on the same page.

Your mission is your purpose. It should explain to clients what your company does and stands for. It’s a roadmap to your vision. When drafting your mission, be present and honest. The most successful statements combine your business’s physical, emotional and logical elements for a 360-degree view of your brand.

This is also an excellent opportunity to address the competitor-shaped elephant in the room. Customers always have other options – why do you stand out from the pack?

Benefits of a successful mission statement can include:

• A clear goal for daily operations
• An understanding of services
• Establishment of identity in the marketplace
• Inspiration for helpful change
• A framework for future goals

Pro Tip: Mission statements should be similar to the lifespan of plants in my apartment – shockingly brief. Your mission should be around three sentences and no more than 100 words.

Download TRIO’s Mission Worksheet to help you create a new mission or evaluate your own.

A True Vision-ary

Knowing what you’re doing is important to daily success, but you can’t always live in the present. You must think about the future too! With your mission prepared, it’s time to contemplate your vision.

When creating your vision statement, think about your aspirations. Where do you want to see your company in five or 10 years? How are you hoping to evolve? What greater impact do you want your mission to have on your clients or industry?

Your vision is all about taking your mission and applying it to the great, grand, overall bigger picture. Keeping your statement short, sweet and jargon-free is a must to help give clear guidance to employees/volunteers and stakeholders a concrete understanding of your purpose.

Benefits of having a vision statement can include:

• An aid for decision making
• A legacy for your business that outlasts you
• Insight into the “Big Picture”
• Governing principles
• Inspiration for strategic leadership

Pro Tip: Be ambitious…but realistic! Your vision statement is essentially the attainable dream for your organization. Feel free to dream big, but make sure that dream’s achievable at some point down the line.

Download TRIO’s Vision Worksheet to help you create a new mission or evaluate your own.

Now, bring it all together!

When separate, these three pieces have something to offer on the road to success. But, while a single puzzle piece may be intriguing to examine, the picture they create when joined is what brings it all together. When combined, a well-crafted set of core values, mission statement and vision can create cohesion to propel you toward your goal at lightning speed.

We’re putting our marketing money where our mouth is to show how these pieces complement one another. In order, here are TRIO’s values, mission and vision.

TRIO is Humbly Confident:

We respect and fiercely protect our own brand and our clients, embracing every challenge with a “we” is greater than “me” mentality.

TRIO is Deliberately Excellent:

We believe that excellence is never an accident and is always the result of high intention, sincere effort and intelligent execution, just like Aristotle.

TRIO is Relationship Obsessed:

We inspire those around us and are loyal champions for our teammates, clients and partners.

TRIO is Passionate & Grateful:

We love that our work lights our fire and consider it a “get to do,” not a “have to do.”

TRIO is Making Our Mark:

We approach every situation with a growth mindset and view it as an opportunity to work hard, enjoy life and make a difference.”

With support from our team whose values are aligned, we make deliberate and considered actions to achieve our MISSION…to offer marketing communication services that exceed client expectations, reflect creative excellence and generate results.

We do this to see our VISION…that all businesses can grow, innovate and thrive with the help of creative marketing.

If you’re looking to take your business to the next level with a vision, mission and value set that packs a punch, Team TRIO is in your corner! Contact us today to learn about all our agency has to offer.