What Mission Are You On? By Reggie McNeal
Clarify Your Mission to Focus Your Leadership
Knowing your mission informs and energizes your leadership. Conversely, a leader does not know his or her mission, which opens them up to wasted energy and frustration at best, or worse, leading to a debilitating sense of purposelessness.
The Difference It Makes
People often define themselves regarding jobs, position descriptions, or roles. When asked what they are about in life, they respond with “I’m a ______ (fill in the blank with some line of work)” or “I work at _______ (some company or organization).”
On the other hand, great leaders answer this question by telling you what they intend to accomplish and their mission. “I am working to change _______ (some problem or process or approach to solving a challenging issue).” Others are even more specific, replying, “I’m investing my life in _________ to __________.” These leaders speak about contribution, significance, and changing the world.
These leaders don’t work for an organization; the organization works for them. Their job, role, and current assignment are the platforms from which they pursue their life mission. They do not hammer their mission into fitting their work assignment—just the opposite is true. No matter their job or role, they redefine their position to suit their mission.
The life mission of great leaders determines the content of their days, work, energies, and talents.
Discovering (Uncovering) Your Mission
Leaders who are driven by mission understand that their mission is not something they invent. Instead, they realize that their life mission is something they have discovered. The process resembles more of an uncovering, for it is a life assignment given to them by God that they bring into this world. Their job is to unpack this life treasure.
God has made great efforts to sow clues into the leaders’ lives to help foster this discovery process. Talent, passion, experiences, successes, personality traits, and opportunities provide helpful hints in this discovery process. These gifts and clues are interrelated. Together, they form a picture of the leader’s mission – the one that guides his or her life’s efforts, much the way an image on the box lid of a jigsaw puzzle helps the puzzle worker know what to look for and to see how the pieces of the puzzle fit together.
The ”Per” missions of Mission
Leaders who make the most significant impact are those liberated by purpose. They know why they are on the planet and are determinedly pursuing their life mission. Knowing their mission grants these leaders specific key permissions.
Meaning and significance. Missional leaders do not suffer from debilitating ambiguity about whether they are making a difference. They have developed an internal scorecard that informs them of what they want to accomplish. They know what efforts and results to celebrate in their lives and work.
Excellence. Leaders operating from a sense of mission care about what they do and how they do it. They pursue excellence, not for its own sake (which happens when its pursuit is born out of obsessive-compulsive or perfectionist pathologies) but for the sake of the mission that orders their lives. Pursuing excellence with this motive is not a burden but a privilege. These leaders feel profound gratitude for the opportunity to give their lives to the mission God has chosen for them.
Energy. The kind of energy generated by missional focus is more than just the ability to go hard and long. It is also a quality of presence that allows the leader to “be there.” It powers a level of intensity that can only be sustained by a commitment to a great mission. Missional clarity contributes to leadership resiliency, an essential quality leaders must cultivate for the long haul.
Intentionality. Leadership intentionality increases when a compelling sense of mission is in play. Decisions about relationships, time, talent, money, direction, and strategy are all more intentional when informed by a central life purpose. Great leaders pick the causes, seize the opportunities, and address the needs that align with their mission.
Missional clarity is not just about leadership for a leader; it’s also the path to abundant life!
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Reggie McNeal is a Christian thought leader. For over thirty years, he has dedicated himself to helping everyday people and other leaders pursue more intentional lives. His professional experience is wide-ranging, including serving as a denominational executive, congregational leader, leadership coach, and founding pastor of a new church. He has also lectured and taught as adjunct faculty for multiple seminaries, served as a church ministry consultant, and advised in the business sector.
Enjoy the entire Seven-Week Series – Practicing Greatness
- Self-Awareness and Why It’s Critical
- Self-Management is Critical to Success
- Self-Development in Your Ministry Plan
- What Mission Are You On?
- Make Better Decisions
- Who Do You Belong To?
- The Discipline of Aloneness
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