A mission statement identifies the major purpose that your team fulfills when providing products and services to customers.

Your mission statement should:

• Include the reason for your team
• Identify your team's unique 'value added'
• Reflect your teams's core business activity
• Provide a focus for your team
• Identify the team purpose

Step One -- Develop your team mission statement by identifying:

• Stakeholders - Those people who are directly affected by the team's successes and failures. Stakeholders could be employees, internal customers, organizational customers, external customers.
• Products and Services - Items that your team produces for its customers. Products and services might include consulting, training, products or services for individual use, products or services for business use.
• Value Added - The key advantage your team provides over the competition. Why would a customer come to your team for service? What makes your team special?

Step Two -- Construct A First Draft

The [your team name] meets the [your products and services] needs of [stakeholders] by [value added].

Step Three -- Refine the Team Mission Statement

Is it too wordy? Is it brief and to the point? Will team members remember it? Would it make sense to your stakeholders? Is it a true mission statement and not a goal? Does it inspire your team? Does it describe your team focus and effort? Is it unique?

Step Four -- Make It Visible

Post the mission statement for easy review by all team members and customers.

Step Five -- Live it!

This step will be easy if you've involved your entire team in the process. Use it as a guide for everything the team does. Bounce team goals and activities against it to ensure you are doing the right thing.

Denise O'Berry helps small business owners take action to grow their business. To find out more, visit http://www.deniseoberry.com or you can follow Denise on twiiter @deniseoberry