You may know that “Setting The Azimuth” is one of The Big Six Leadership Principles® — how does it work in practice?
In the corporate world, we now use azimuth in a little broader context: Your mission, intent, values, and culture are all captured in writing as your company’s “azimuth.” It’s important that you don’t just have a strategic planning session or senior executive meeting where you hammer out these ideas only to put them on the shelf never to be seen again. These are living documents which your leaders need to revisit on a regular basis, and they serve as the engine of your organization.
Without the alignment of your azimuth, all you have is a collection of individuals who are more concerned with their individual or department agendas than the good of the organization. And, your people are most likely siloed, focusing primarily on their own work, in their departments, teams, and divisions.
The mission is the who, what, and why of your organization, which can usually be summed up in one or two sentences. “Who are we? What do we do? Why do we do it?” When you write the mission as a leadership team, it’s not directed or driven by one person or one leader. As you determine your mission, you start to align your organization, and that alignment is a powerful component of a Level 5 culture.
Here’s ours:
Level Five Associates Mission
Level Five Associates provides values-based leadership development, coaching, and strategic planning to build and sustain cultures of excellence.
Here’s another:
PepsiCo is one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world. We provide consumers around the world with delicious, affordable, convenient and complementary food and beverages. We are committed to investing in our people, our company and the communities where we operate to help position the company for long-term, sustainable growth.
This is a starting point to understand what mission is about. But it is only the beginning of how to apply “Setting The Azimuth” to your organization.
Enjoy the Journey!!
This blog is based on material from my book “We’re All In.” To learn about the other three aspects of “Setting The Azimuth,” (intent, values, and culture) you can get a copy of the book here:
You can get a downloadable copy of the first chapter for free here.
