Many leaders create directives, vision statements, mission statements, and values. Properly designed, these leadership artifacts can act as a force multiplier in an organization, enabling better prioritization and faster decisions.

For maximum impact on your company’s culture, performance, and engagement, visions, missions, and values need to be crystal clear, inspiring, easy to remember, and easy to share.

Your vision should be something that people can easily visualize; how many of us have read vision statements that don’t create a clear mental picture?

Your mission should be something that creates intense emotion; how many mission statements are flat and generic?

Your values should become obvious in your organization and part of your everyday language and actions; Enron had integrity chiseled into their lobby wall.

Importantly, your vision, mission, and values should be brought to life with frequent, fresh, authentic emotional stories about the impact your organization has on others and the world.

Terms - vision, mission, values - are critical, but not enough.

Some leaders go farther by investing in training for their people. The training aims to help people demonstrate values, achieve the vision, accomplish the mission, etc. Training sometimes involves a subscription to a content library, sometimes it’s a workshop, sometimes it’s only for leaders and managers.

Training can be a great investment, especially if you apply your training immediately. Unfortunately, training is often quickly forgotten and left in the classroom, whether it’s virtual or real-life. (Aside: This is why micro-learning can be extremely effective. Learn one high-leverage practice, apply it, repeat.)

Terms are the table-stakes starting point. People often forget training. This is why leaders and managers need to provide their people with great tools.

Great tools are designed with immediate application in mind.

Great tools embed the learning into the design of the tool itself.

Great tools instantly upgrade performance. (Checklists are one of my favorite examples.)

Great tools increase leverage.

Great tools become indispensable.

So, leaders and managers, are you giving your people the tools they need to accomplish your mission, realize your vision, and demonstrate your values? Or are you satisfied with a value stating “be innovative” and encouraging your people to read a book by someone at IDEO? More on great tools tomorrow…