I settled in Sunday afternoon to read the paper. It's one of my little luxuries over the weekend...settle down on the sofa in the winter and on the deck in the summer. I concentrate on reading the Sunday paper in my own way. And my own way is scanning the articles for things that catch my eye, often reading only portions of each piece.
But last Sunday, I ran across a story that I had to read from beginning to end. It was in Parade, the little newspaper magazine insert. The story was about the longest-serving mailman in the United States, RudyTempesta. Mr. Tempesta, who is 85 years old, has delivered mail for 65 years – 65 years! In fact, he's delivered the mail in Chapel HIll, North Carolina since 1959 - he been delivering the mail in the same city longer than many of us have been alive.
How many of you know your mail carrier by name or even by face? Probably not too many. But Mr.Tempesta's customers know him by name and he knows them as well. He's added postage to postage-due packages, he makes sure packages are protected when it's raining, if mail starts piling up he asks the police to check on the homeowner. How many of you could rely on your mail carrier to do this? Yet, in Mr. Tempesta's words, "That's what we mailmen do. We look after people." Mr. Tempesta doesn't just deliver mail. He looks after people. That's a darn good mission statement - and it has made Mr.Tempesta excited about going to work every day for 65 years.
Mr. Tempesta's mission is so vital to his identity that he doesn't even take think a moment about retiring, proclaiming, "I love to work." How many of you - how many of your employees – feel the same way?
Developing and adopting the right mission statement for your company can mean the difference between employees who "deliver mail" and employees to "look after people." The objective of a mission statement is to define why you exist as a company (not to make a profit, but why you exist for your customers). It's to inspire employees to a higher cause. It's to make them excited to get out of bed in the morning and go to work. Most people don't get inspired by "going to work," but they do get inspired by something bigger than that. Perhaps a dialysis machine developer prolongs the quality of people's lives, perhaps a teacher expands developing minds, perhaps a business owner provides opportunities to her employees. Each of those mission statements have a much difference excitement factor than simply "going to work," don't they?
Are your employees "delivering the mail" or "looking after people?" If they are just delivering the mail, you might want to rethink the mission of your company.
jkl
