What Drives Your Organization?

by Benj Miller | Jan 3, 2018

Some organizations are mission-driven, some are people-driven, some are results-driven, and some are values-driven. What drives you can define you, for better or for worse.

So which are you?

Most of us would like to say we are all four, but we have to keep in mind there are real ramifications for which way we lean.

To help illustrate that, here are the pros and cons of each:

Mission-Driven Organizations

• Pro: A mission-led organization can often do amazing things and rally a lot of people around one, strong mission.
• Con: It may cause burnout along the way by not valuing the people or values necessary to build a great organization.

People-Driven Organizations

• Pro: People-driven organizations are like boats in the wind. They tend to be a lot of fun…
• Con: …but they often don’t make efficient progress toward the mission or the results.

Results-Driven Organizations

• Pro: Results-driven organizations can motivate people to create results and get the work done. 
• Con: They tend to minimize the people, run over values, and forget to separate results from the mission. The mission tends to be the next quarter’s results.

Values-Driven Organizations

• Pro: Your organization’s values set the foundation and establish how you approach your mission, people, and results.

Take another look at the cons of each of the organizations mentioned above. These things can destroy your business. That’s why I encourage you to set a values-driven organization.

Values-driven companies can look a lot of different ways, depending on your values. Your values should be different because they should be unique to your organization, not the same as the organization next door. Your values will set how you approach your mission, people, and results, which will be exactly what you work and live by. So, what drives you?

Your values will set how you approach your mission, people, and results, which will be exactly what you work and live by.

Need some help defining your values? I’d love to talk. Reach out to me on LinkedIn.