In this article, you’ll find the most useful tips for writing mission and vision statements, examples of mission and vision statements from leading global organizations, and free Word, PDF, and Google Docs templates to get you started.
Download Mission Statement Worksheet Template
The mission statement worksheet will help you gather the information, ideas, words, and phrases to generate a mission statement. You can share the template solely within your organization or with clients, customers, directors, suppliers, and others who can help shape your message.
Download Mission Statement Template
This mission statement template presents a series of who, what, why, and how questions to explore your organization’s function, clients, and purpose. It is available in Word and Google Docs formats, so you can easily save it to your Google Drive and share with relevant parties.
Vision Statement Worksheet" width="809" height="881" />
Download Vision Statement Worksheet Template
Print or share this vision statement worksheet to gather ideas from employees, clients, and other stakeholders about what your organization’s vision should be. This template includes space for users to draw or insert an image of their vision for the organization.
A mission statement is a quick, succinct, memorable way of communicating a business or nonprofit’s unique purpose, function, and day-to-day goals to employees, clients, and other stakeholders. Mission statements are usually part of the business plan and often form part of the executive summary. Functioning in such capacities, mission statements can become the summation of a business strategy.
A vision statement describes the ultimate goals and overarching purpose of a for-profit or nonprofit organization. A vision statement can serve as the cornerstone of strategic planning, providing an organization with direction and a general destination as well as defining its aspirations and values. Some say that the vision statement is what would remain if an organization could no longer produce a particular product or service.
Following are some examples of mission statements for for-profit companies:
Here are some examples of business vision statements:
Here are some examples of nonprofit vision statements:
Download our latest ebook to discover the top 10 helpful tips to establish and maintain company culture across your distributed teams.
A mission statement describes the purpose and day-to-day effort of an organization. A vision statement describes an organization’s ultimate goal or future outcome. But the two work in tandem: A vision statement expresses what you ultimately want to achieve; a mission statement articulates what you will do to get there.
Together, the mission and vision statements provide direction and destination. (You outline the actual specifics of how to achieve a mission or vision when discussing goals and objectives.) The terms mission statement and vision statement are sometimes used interchangeably. In addition, people sometimes substitute the word mantra for the term mission statement. However, strictly speaking, a mantra refers to a value-loaded slogan.
Senior managers usually craft mission and vision statements for an organization. Managers at other levels may prepare mission or vision statements for specific departments or programs.
Mission and vision statements chart a path for pursuing consistent quality and values (i.e., the things that will keep your core clients loyal over the years). A mission statement provides a guidepost for your employees, helping them to prioritize efforts, especially in times of crisis or indecision. A mission statement even gives them a way to promote your organization, including to future employees. A mission statement also becomes part of your branding and advertising, offering a quick, clear message for social media and other platforms. Therefore, it’s crucial to be precise in creating a message so that it isn’t vulnerable to interpretation. To craft an effective mission statement, you must view it as a living reference and not merely as a dusty printout on a cubicle wall.
Vision statements provide a common goal for all organization members and stakeholders. They supply a strategic framework for management and inspire employees, guiding them toward ethical operational decisions. Along with mission statements, vision statements also arm employees with a communication tool for reaching stakeholders outside the organization. But mission and vision statements aren’t just for the cafeteria and the boardroom — consider sharing them with clients and potential clients on social media, on packaging, on company swag, and elsewhere.
Opinions vary widely on whether you should ever change mission or vision statements. Because both of these statements define an organization’s purpose, goals, culture, ethics, and decision-making framework, some experts say they should never change — they believe that although goals may change as you achieve them, mission and vision statements (if written properly) should remain the same. Other sources suggest that a mission statement should cover a limited time (two to 10 years), but that a vision statement, capturing the values of an organization, should remain the same. Still, others feel that a vision statement should change because, ideally, a company should ultimately achieve its long-term goals. Of course, if your organization undergoes radical changes, you will, undoubtedly, want to update either or both statements.
A mission statement should include a description of what your organization does, who your clients are, how you fulfill the company’s purpose, and what that purpose is. Ideally, in 30 seconds or less, your readers should understand what the organization offers customers, clients, employees, managers, owners, and potentially even the community and the planet. The statement should also communicate how the company achieves this.
When crafting a mission statement, consider focusing on one or two key functions that can define the organization for employees, external stakeholders, and the public. A mission statement must be as short as possible while still being memorable and lucid in communicating your organization’s purpose. Some experts advise creating a two to six-word tagline, along with mission statements that are longer than 15 words. You may have a longer version for internal use and a shorter, customer-facing version. You may also have bullet points for each area of focus.
Once you’ve created a draft, ask yourself if it could apply to any business or non-profit or if it successfully captures your organization’s uniqueness. Define the essence of your organization and what makes it distinctive.
Anybody can throw a lofty sentiment into a statement and then forget about it, or speak in obscure technical terms. Avoid these pitfalls and communicate your organization’s uniqueness directly and clearly. Eliminate phrases such as the following from your copy, and focus on concrete descriptions and aspirations:
Look for other bloated, generic words and phrases that you can delete from your message.
Depending on the nature of your organization, you may start researching and drafting a mission statement on your own or with a small group of team members. Remember that if you begin on your own, the development process should not continue in isolation. You’ll get the best result if you both include at least a few stakeholders in the drafting and review process and get buy-in from all those concerned. Here are steps for creating an effective mission statement:
As one final step, consider noting every place that your mission statement is published. That way, if you have to update your message, you can disseminate it everywhere simultaneously and include an explanation as to why.
Vision statements should be short (usually no longer than two sentences), memorable, aspirational, and compelling. The average length ranges from 10 to 15 words (a vision statement of 30 words would be considered long). Aim for fewer than 20 words, and then see if you can pare down the statement even further.
A vision statement should describe your organization’s unique aspirations and should, therefore, be precise. It should also align with your values. Because a vision statement depicts the broad, long-term vision, it should present optimistic, but realistic expectations — that is, ones that your employees can reasonably work with. Above all, the values that you convey must be relatable for your employees, directors, investors, and customers. Here’s what to include in a vision statement:
What Makes Your Organization Unique? Define what differentiates your company from all other organizations and why that quality is crucial to both internal stakeholders and clients.
Just as you might collaborate to create a mission statement, consider working as a group to research and draft a vision statement. And, ask your internal and external stakeholders to review the draft statement before you commit to a final version. Here are the steps to creating a compelling vision statement:
Are you holding back from drafting a vision statement? This template gives you a sentence format, so you can simply add the words that best sum up your vision for your organization. But don’t write just one — use the template to write several iterations until you hone in on the words and ideas that work best.
Download Vision Statement Template
Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change.
The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed.
When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time. Try Smartsheet for free, today.
