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STEP TWO: MAKE SURE EVERY EMPLOYEE UNDERSTANDS THE MISSION

Once you have a clear definition of your business's mission, you have to communicate it to your employees. But effective communication is rarely easy.  There are many ways that people can misunderstand or misinterpret your message. Here are some things you can do to get your message across.

1.  Prepare a written  statement of your business mission and distribute it to your employees. Try to limit your statement to a few carefully worded sentences - or, at most, a paragraph or two. Your challenge here is to write a short statement that incorporates everything you have learned about your customers, their needs, and what your business must do to satisfy their needs. There is no shortcut to writing this document.  You just write it, review it, and revise it again. But take your lime. It has to be perfect, or at least as close to perfect as you can get.

2. Develop a motto and post it everywhere. Ford's motto is: "Quality Is Job One." What's "Job One" in your business"?  What are the few words that symbolize all you are trying to say in the statement or your business mission? One of the best mottos we have seen was used by one of our clients in the direct mail business. Their motto was just two words - "Service First." But those two words spoke volumes. Signs were posted everywhere, plaques were on desks, and employees even wore T-shirts - all emblazoned with the words "Service First" as a constant reminder.

3.  Live the mission. Written and spoken words are one way to communicate your mission, but your actions are much more important than your words. The surest way to make employees understand your mission is to live it. How do you spend your time?  How do you treat customers? If you laugh at a joke about a "stupid" customer, you send one message.  If you drop what you are doing to respond immediately to a customer's "stupid" and "unreasonable" request, you send a completely different message.  Pay attention not just to what you tell your employees, but to how you behave. Does your behavior match your words?

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