You’ve heard me (drone, rant, speechify) about the need for vision, mission, and goals for every enterprise and every individual. And, I also believe in branding- but, that’s less important for small firms than delivering what is expected (or more) every time. We- that’s you, me, and everyone else need to make our efforts into a religion, a belief, an “ISM”- Integrity, Simplify, and Magnify.
Integrity, contrary to the popular belief, is not honesty. That’s way too simple. The dictionary says it is “an undivided or unbroken completeness with nothing wanting or moral soundness”. Those are lofty words- which arises because integrity is, in today’s world, considered to be a lofty goal, one rarely accomplished. That belief is wrong! And, here’s a definition (modified from Stephen Covey’s) we should always employ- and follow: Integrity is making reality conform to your words; it’s way more than honesty (where we make our words conform to reality). We have to see the world the way we want it to be and make sure everything we do makes that vision a reality. That’s how reality conforms to our words. And, it how our constituents understand and appreciate what we offer them.
Simplify your vision and your mission. It needs to be imparted to others in only a few words or images. If you can’t do that, then you have a muddled idea of what you want. If your message is clear to yourself- you maintain integrity. And, it’s easy for folks to become your torchbearers to communicate it to others.
Magnify your message and reinforce it with your actions. This will insure your message is clear to everyone. You want to activate as many “touch points” as possible. There is no way to know which one will be the “tipping point” to help your firm be the succcess you want- or your goal to be on a fast track to completion.
If you don’t believe that we need to have this kind of “old time religion”, examine your heroes or your favorite companies. Bet you see their “ism” shining through.
Go forth and prosletyze!
Great post. I love the ISM and especially the simplify. I’m still working on my magnify!
Come on, Sherri- you are an accountant. Simple arithmetic should be a breeze :-)!!!!
Amen! It is so true that we need to do the three points you mentioned so that we have that clear message to convey. Thank you for the reminders. It is an easy fix if we need to adjust.
We all need ’em, Veronica. Maybe your harmonica can keep us on key 🙂
I like what you have to say about integrity. It’s being true to yourself, your vision, your purpose, your values. It’s definitely way more than honesty . . . it’s honesty in the deepest sense. Great post!
Thanks, Leanne. We need to find a way to get this to be true for our government leaders. They may have the simple slogans- but they don’t match the values they actually demonstrate. And, they spend way too much time on the magnify part!
Well put, Roy. Without those 3 we won’t get far in business.
Even if we did, by some chance- would we be “happy”. The goal is to succeed to be happy! Thanks for your $0.02!
You are right! The business people I follow all have these qualities. I’m still working on the “magnify.” LOL
Glad you enjoyed it, Martha. Thanks for the comment.
I loved the integrity explanation…This is very interesting. I should visit your blog often 😉
Also…I had to Google prosletyze (Lol!)
Glad you did. Hope you do. (It gets lonely out here.) And, aren’t you glad you can follow and lead for your own religion?
Have a great day!