Encyclopedia of Leadership

2.3

DIRECTIONAL STATEMENTS:

THREELEVELS OF CLARITY

Inspired by Alan Wilkins.

A key responsibility and ongoing challenge for leaders involves defining a clear direction for

their workgroup, department, or organization, and aligning action with this organizational

direction. Yet there remains considerable confusion as to how this is best achieved. The Babel

of terms is bewildering—mission, purpose, strategy, values, beliefs, goals, objectives, vision, to

mention but a few.

Workgroups or organizations often go to considerable effort to produce a set of direction-

al statements, only to find that they lack practical impact, or even worse, that they have

become a source of scorn (witness the popularity of Dilbertcartoons!). This tool will help you:

✔ Determine the directional statements that will provide focus and energy for your work-

group.

✔ Develop directional statements that are congruent with your organization’s mission,

and that lead to commitment and results on behalf of your clients.

✔ Help everyone understand the words, logic, and meaning of your directional state-

ments.

Three levels of directional thinking and statements are shown in the table:

1. High-level statementsencapsulate an overall reason for being, key values, and long-term
   direction. Like a constitution, these big-picture statements are expected to inspire and
   endure over a long time. They need to be concise, yet packed with meaning and capa-
   ble of capturing people’s interest within a few minutes. These statements guide long-
   term direction.


2. Mid-level statementsdetermine direction and priorities for a shorter time frame—a few
   months to a few years. Like a rudder on a ship, these statements guide immediate direc-
   tion.


3. Action-level statements—the “how to’s”—determine how you will actually go about
   accomplishing the goals set out in the mid- and high-level statements. These state-
   ments guide action and follow-through.

48 SECTION 2 TOOLS FORBIG-PICTURETHINKING