Making a Difference with a Personal Mission Statement

I started my career in sales like many others: doing whatever it took to make the sell and counting commission dollars along the way. I had a mentor that suggested not to count commissions, but to count quantity of production. He also advised to take the word sell out of my vocabulary and replace it with the word help. It took me a while to grasp this approach and it wasn’t until I had another mentor whom suggested developing a personal mission statement. Her personal mission statement was “To Improve the Quality of Life for the People I Serve”. I liked her personal mission statement so much that with her permission I adopted and made it my own.

This personal mission statement governs every interaction with the people that I serve. Who do I serve? My direct reports, my boss, other departments within our organization, our customers, and our agents that sale our products, my family, the youth sports teams I coach, my church, my friends and the list goes on. Identifying who I serve was just part of the equation, but how do you improve their quality of life? What I do is try to be one’s advocate, looking out for others best interest, making every interaction as positive as it can be, doing what is asked and helping them grow. Sometimes my products are not the best match for a client. If I am an advocate for that person then I need to make honest recommendations. Admit mistakes and don’t hide them. Take a genuine interest in others and watch how you can make a difference.

Once I adopted this personal mission statement and started living it out, my life changed. Sales grew and relationships deepened. I have another friend who has a personal mission statement that I love: “Helping Others Grow" She uses this similar to the way I use mine. As a VP of Sales, this governs her interaction with her staff, family and in her church. It’s a wonderful way to live – “helping others grow”

Email me your favorite personal mission statements and I will post them in the future.

Remember Great Days don’t just happen they are made. Make it a Great Day!