Big companies can afford to do four-day retreats in the mountains to do trust falls, sing Kumbaya, and pay outrageously-priced consultants to come up with impressively meaningless mission statements. You don’t have this luxury. You’re fighting a war with about as much hope of winning as your grandpa beating Deep Blue at chess. You can’t afford a meaningless mission statement. You need a rallying war cry that will inspire the troops to follow you on your kamikaze march. You need something actionable. You need what Guy Kawasaki calls a “mantra.” A mantra is a three- to four-word phrase that captures the heart and soul of what you’re trying to accomplish. It needs to be inspirational, aspirational, and attainable – inspirational in that it moves and motivates your team to action, aspirational in that it’s a meaningful and worthwhile goal, and attainable in that it’s realistic and achievable. Forget the $50,000 mission statement. Spend an hour and come up with a mantra that inspires your company and makes things happen.
