Does your organization have a mission statement that is listed on your website, hanging in a pretty frame in your reception area, or sitting in a drawer somewhere? If you wonder why you spent so much time, money, and aggravation to develop a mission statement that really is not relevant to the work you do every day, you need to read Goodbye Mission Statement; Hello Purpose: How to Harness Purpose as Your Most Powerful Management Tool.
In this groundbreaking book, Cate Cardwell asks us to step out of the box and take a leap of faith that might seem drastic for executives who were taught, "You have to have a mission statement, and you have to plaster it everywhere you can!"
Goodbye Mission Statement; Hello Purpose forces you to look at the what, where, how, who, and why of what you do and to focus on your organizatin's real purpose! And, to use this purpose to guide all your management decisions.
This radical book will lead you through:
- Understanding mission versus vision versus values versus purpose
- Defining the components of organizational purpose
- Applying organizational purpose to your organization
This book just might make you change the way you do business. And you will be glad you did!
Cate provides a thought-provoking examination of some well-known company's mission statements and gives examples of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Her real-life examples form the business and nonprofit world make this book a must-read for entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, and business executives.
About the Author
Cate Cardwell loves the premise of management. The expectation that a lone person would take on responsibility for corralling the talent, energy, and good will of even a single dynamic, unpredictable employee--one with unique abilities, interests, ambitions, motivators, and outside life--let alone groups of them, is quite the challenge! And she embraces this challenge with joy, humor, and practical solutions.
Thirty-some years of managing in a wide variety of industries has persuaded Cate that any organization can be set up so that it pretty much manages itself--not in spite of, but because of those unique employees. Further, she has observed how the setting-up process itself unites organizational members through common purpose and joint effort. The result is a workplace that stimulates, engages, satisfies, and uses its leaders and staff members well.
As head of her consulting firm, WonderOrganizations, Cate teaches clients how to become effective, confident, fearless managers. She envisions a world in which employed people everywhere wake up each day looking forward to going to work.
Cate has an MA in communication and organization development from Bowling Green State University.
