So I bought a new sander - as the old one broke as soon as I needed it and sanding by hand is possibly the most mundane task in the world! But this bring me to my point. Having sanded and undercoated 11 door frames, banisters, stair strings and skirting board (trying not to get paint on the carpet!) I finally got round to the last bit – gloss paint. Undercoating was tricky, but at least it dries fairly quickly. Gloss is stickier and takes longer to fry. And we have a three year old. So I needed to get it done as quickly as possible whilst she was out to give the paint the best chance of drying before she returned. Cue Mission Impossible music.

It was whilst I was painting the 7th door frame that I finally got bored and found myself muttering that this was a never ending task. And then I found myself thinking “no I’m on a mission”. The missions was simple – to get the job done as quickly as possible to give the paint maximum drying time. And that simple realisation made me carry on working, with renewed purpose and motivation. There was no “mission statement” on the wall, no committees, no mention of shareholder value or stakeholders. Just a simple purpose. Having a clear mission made me focus on the job in hand and work harder! The end result? No finger marks in the paint. Apart from my own....

We always do work on developing mission with leaders and this example just proves the point. If you provide people with a clear reason to do what they are doing and keep them focussed on the end goal they will work towards it. Of course you need to reward them when they achieve the goal too.