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A Mission Bigger Than You Are For The New Year

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By Lindsey Tolino

Blake Mycoskie’s TOMS is an amazing business feat, no?

It’s a business set up with enough profit margin that a pair of shoes can be given away for each pair purchased. Even more notably, it’s a business that sells itself because customers have an immediate role in the mission through a simple purchase.

It’s amazing how much time and money people donate to organizations they want to support. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 62.2 million people volunteered through or for an organization from Sept 2012 to Sept 2013. Additionally, Americans gave away $335.17 billion in 2013, according to the National Philanthropic Trust.

Why would people give away this much time and money?

It may be as simple as this – for a chance to make a difference.

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Maybe people do it to feel better about themselves, maybe to become who they want to be, maybe they want to spend time with others who are volunteering, or maybe it’s guilt-motivated. But all of that pales in comparison with the motivation of feeling like you’re making a difference. We all have lofty thoughts and ideas of how we’d like to change the world, but we have limited resources and time. Consequently, we are happy to give to organizations that are changing the world in a way that we’d like to do.

We want to have a role in a mission that is greater than ourselves, that has an impact bigger than ourselves and that benefits more people than just ourselves.

What does this have to do with your business?

When you have a mission statement that your business can accomplish on its own and that benefits only your business, you create no space for customers to play a role in a greater mission. You limit their role to only profiting your business, rather than to being able to change the world with their dollars.

Selling great products with quality service is admirable. But if that is your mission, then it limits your business, your impact and your customers’ buy-in. An internal-profiting, able-to-accomplish-on-your-own-effort-mission is not really a mission, it’s a business goal.

However, if your grand mission is to change the ethical standards of developing world suppliers by the way you do business — how much more motivated are customers to support you?

A mission that is seemingly unattainable and requires support and action from multiple parties creates a clear role for customers to play. When it is clear that you need customers to accomplish your mission (like TOMS’ one for one – no shoes could be given unless they were purchased), customers can see their role and assume it. Where there is no obvious need for customers to get involved, they won’t.

I’m not telling you to create a manipulative business model with a mission that cons customers into buying in. It should be genuine. People can, and are often looking to, sniff out fake promises.

Yet, at the end of the day, do you really want your business to have been all about your own profit? Or do you want it to have made some bigger impact in the world? If it’s the latter, simply say that. Make it your mission. You can’t do it alone. When you create room for others to help, those who want the same world impact will buy in. They’ll support the business and market it with more credibility than you can. You’ll be in it together. Only then will you make a difference in the world beyond your own profit.

The upcoming new year is reminder that the future is a chance to make a change. If your business’s main mission is self-profit, 2015 holds the hope to make it about a bigger purpose.

Author’s Bio: Lindsey Tolino is a young creative who helps make businesses better. She serves business owners with her words at ToBusinessOwners.com. Follow her on Twitter @LindseyTolino or connect with her on Google+.

Image info: Royalty-free image by Ryan McGuire from http://www.gratisography.com/

Change As Influence: Get the Attention of Deniers, Followers, Dreamers, and Leaders

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(Updated in 2020)

10-Point Plan: Influential Leadership to Grow Business

Change Is Influence

Every now and then, something happens that pulls the rug out from under us …
The printing press is invented.

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Printing press from 1811. Photographed in Deutsches Museum Munich, Germany

 

A golden spike in a railroad track connects what had never been connected.

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A second “golden spike,” identical to the original used in the celebration of the transcontinental railroad in Promontory, Utah, is on display at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, California.

A stock market crash blows entire economies to smithereens!

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(The Depression) The Single Men’s Unemployed Association parading to Bathurst Street United Church. Toronto, Canada

Those same sorts of changes didn’t just happen then, they’re happening now.
Change is constant. If anything, the state of change is accelerating with our ability to connect and communicate with increasing reach and speed.

Change is the ultimate influence. When change happens, people respond.

Hiders, Followers, Dreamers, and Leaders

The quickest way to change someone’s is to behavior is to change their environment. Change the lighting, change seating, change the way you interact with them. Change causes us to reconsider what we took for granted. It can cause us to stop and evaluate the new circumstances. Our behavior is influence simply by encountering something unexpected.

How we’re influenced depends on our maturity, our world view, our expertise, our experience, and our belief in what we’re building. Our response to change reveals the traits of a hider, follower, dreamer, or leader. Here’s who we are and how to get our attention.

  • Deniers, Hiders and Whiners. When change interrupts and disrupts some folks try to pretend that nothing’s different. Some deny it. Some hide from it. Some whine but don’t do anything about it. They hunker down and do more of what they always did. They run their wagon trains across the country while their customers move to the safer, more comfortable rail cars that get to their destination much faster. They keep making huge books and printed inventory, while ignoring the faster, easier information available on the internet. While they’re hiding their profits drain out while their furniture and assets move to museums. It’s hard to find new ideas or growth inside a closed system that won’t pay attention.To get the attention of a denier, whiner, or hider, the first challenge is to show him or her the safe and predictable benefits of moving into a new world view.
  • Followers. Followers sometimes think they’re leaders, but their leadership is stuck on a set path. When they’re hit by an influential change — even a positive change — they choose to do more of what they’ve already been successful doing. Give the best person a promotion. Does she keep doing the job she left instead of the new one? Move a music teacher to a farm. Does he try to teach the pigs to sing?To get the attention of a follower, the first challenge is to show him or her the advantage of looking for new paths and partnering with people who’ve got more experience at testing and trying new things.
  • Dreamers. Dreamers often have ideas about change. Dreamers love ideas and no lack of imagination. They see opportunity in every occasion. Change inspires them. Some dreamers are lost in their dreams. Some fall in love with an idea just because they had it. Others are moved to action with out considering whether their idea has any traction. What they have in common is that they mistake the idea for a plan. As the Little Prince said, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”To get the attention of a dreamer, the first challenge is to show him or her the way the dream will benefit by learning from, planning with and including people who have built similar things. .
  • Leaders. Leaders carve their own path, but a true leader isn’t a loner. Leaders are learners. They reach out and reach up to build something they can’t build alone. Change is information and opportunity. Leaders understand deniers, hiders, whiners, fighters, followers, and dreamers because they recognize when they have had similar thoughts and feelings. They respect and honor the people who feel differently and choose words and actions that make change easier for them.To get the attention of a leader, the first challenge is him or her see the benefits of participating in what you’re building. Share your values and your vision. Then invite the leader to join in.

Change is influence. It’s our response that makes it an obstacle or an opportunity.

Change has always been a constant. If we make it part of our toolkit we can manage change to create influence in the positive direction. All it takes is valuing the values of the people we want to influence.

How do you get the attention of people who might not want to do what you need them to do?

Be Irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Toeing the Line

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“If you are asked to toe the line the you are expected to conform to the rules of the situation.” from James Briggs

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.

We all have certain roles and responsibilities we are committed to upholding. Some of these commitments are made by choice, others we as a result of that choice. (Ex: you chose to marry someone: choice; you have a relationship with their family as well: acquistion).

528447370_1ffc43878c_m Some of these choices mean supressing certain aspects of our personalities. Some choices we make definitely require us to toe the line and I’m okay with that.

When we have a blog we have responsibilities to ourselves to be true in our writing but then we start to find an audience and often that audience comes with expectations. Those expectations can be seen in the comments and in the reactions to certain content. It does seem tempting to just stick with what’s been working.

“Don’t fix it if it isn’t broken.”

But I wonder if we all toe the line a little too much.

Do you blog like you’re expected to in a “certain situation”, maybe according to what your readers expect? Do you write according to how you have always written? Do you write about the same things you have always written about?

When I meet someone offline that I read regularly online I’m always surprised by something about them. A crazy way they dress, an interest they have never expressed through their blog or an amazing sense of humor that I didn’t pick up in their writing.

I’d like to think I can write about all the things I am interested in and not hold anything back . I’d like to provide content a little outside the box from time to time. Something to get people thinking and hopefully provide some value. This could work as an advantage by attracting new readers and that’s always good! New conversation and opinions are always worthwhile.

The disadvantage may come from throwing off some of your regular readers and making them feel a little alienated. Hopefully we can think of ourselves as accepting and patient enough with those we read to allow them room to change, grow and try new things.

I’d like to think I’m adventurous enough. Are you?

from Kathryn Jennex aka @northernchick

photo darkmatter