“The pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has not vision.”  - Helen Keller

Leadership, regardless of title, evidences many characteristics.  Perhaps the most important characteristic is having vision – the kind that Helen Keller speaks of in the above quote.

Having vision means having a picture of how your advancement efforts can better serve your organization in the future.  Perhaps it is a vision for the next year, or maybe even a vision for the next five or even ten years.

Your vision for the future may include goals such as raising more money, creating a compelling organizational brand, increasing staff productivity and size, or implementing a new donor database.  It’s the dream you have for the future, with the plan to make the dream a reality.

But here’s the problem.  I typically find advancement teams take far too little time to do this visioning work.  ”We have so much to do everyday, we just don’t have the time to sit around in meetings on this stuff,” is a common reason given as to why they don’t spend more time in visioning and planning.  When I hear such excuses, I know that the team has sight, but no vision.

This thinking only compounds the problem.  The less time we spend in visioning and planning, the less agreement we will have regarding the work on which we should be spending our time.  Therefore, we are more apt to respond to everything that comes along because there is no consensus on vision.

On the other hand, and very similar to Stephen Covey’s Important/Urgent Time Management Matrix, the more time spent in visioning and planning, the more agreement we will have regarding our goals.  Therefore, we are able to spend our time much more productively – and even turn away some ideas which would take us off the path of goal achievement.

So, how much time do I encourage my clients to spend in visioning and planning for the future?  At least 5-7 full days each year.  Those are days away from the office, with phones and email turned off, concentrating as a team on crafting a vision for the future, agreeing upon shared goals, discussing action plans, and assessing our performance.

This is fun work.  We should make this work interactive, engaging, playful, and meaningful.  We should make sure we celebrate and build upon our successes during these visioning days.  And we should aim to enjoy the people on our team.  When you spend 5-7 days each year doing this work, you may be surprised at how quickly team members begin to say, “We have so much to do in the future, we can’t miss one of our planning meetings!”

The mission statement, of course, provides the definition of what the organization does. In a real sense it is the statement that can answer the question, “for what purpose do we exist?” It is the organization’s reason for being.

The vision statement is also well understood. A vision statement should answer the question, “what do we wish to become?” It should be inspirational, it should stretch people, and it should give direction and form to the future plans of the organization.

But there is a third member of the planning triumvirate which gets considerably less attention – the values statement.

What does a values statement do for an organization?  Simply put, values describe how people in the organization should behave.  Value statements answer the question, “How do we go about our work?”  Values are the qualities, characteristics, and behaviors that the organization holds in high regard.

Below are examples of value statements that I’ve found in advancement shops:

• Integrity – a candid and caring disposition in all interactions;
• Quality – doing all we do well;
• Humor – taking our work seriously, but ourselves less so;
• Stewardship – efficiency and appropriateness in the use of gift income;
• Innovation – creatively responding to all opportunities;
• Relationships – evidencing a concern for others consistently.

Most would agree that having such behavioral guideposts is important.  But, with mission and vision tied so closely to the strategic planning process (and to campaign case statements designed to attract donor dollars), value statements have garnered less attention – similar to the proverbial third wheel.  In fact, many organizations haven’t created value statements at all.

Regardless of whether your organization has a value statement, let me strongly encourage you, as an advancement leader, to create and utilize a values statement with your team.  Here are 3 reasons why:

1. A statement of values helps to create a fun, positive place to work. Don’t just create a statement of values and then let it collect dust.  Have fun with them and find ways to highlight them so that they can drive behavior and culture.  For instance, create annual “value awards” – we had the “Devy’s” (for “Development”) at one place I worked which were a fun way to reward team members who did something which typified our values.
2. Regularly reflecting on a statement of values provides us with opportunities to see the best in others.  To make sure that our team regularly reflected on our values, I would start our annual planning sessions with time to reflect on the values themselves and to write down examples of how, over the past year, someone on the team had been an exemplar of the values.
3. A statement of values helps us attract and retain the best possible team members.  By operating with a set of living values, you will ensure that your team will be attractive place for future employees.  People are naturally drawn to positive people and cultures.  And when you interview new employee prospects, show them the values and ask for their feedback.

While many donors express an interest in mission and vision, don’t forget that another important constituency – your staff – are interested in your values.  And assembling a strong and positive team is the first and most important step to doing great advancement work for your organization.