How to Galvanize Your Team Around Your Company Mission

This article was written by Tyler Holmes and originally appeared here for Built In LA.

A company’s mission is more than an inspirational phrase to hang in the office break room or insert at the bottom of an employee new hire packet. Mission statements are the heart line of an organization, and the prime purpose that motivates teams to deliver their best work each and every day.

However, in order for an overarching goal to truly permeate company culture, leaders must also bring the mission to life in their own daily routines, in all-hands meetings, in client conversations, and employee one-on-ones. The purpose has to be attainable, practical and drive teams to want to constantly improve – both for the clients they serve and themselves.

Supporting a mission comes in many different forms and results in an abundance of outcomes. While any two are rarely the same, the drive always stems from bringing people together to make a difference in the world around them.

Built In LA sat down with our Director of Sustainability and Social Impact, Dana Trans, to learn more about translating a mission into direct action and how uniting a team with a purpose brings about the strongest results possible.

Q: As a team leader, how do you translate Inspire’s mission into specific actions or goals for both the company and individual teams?

A: At Inspire, we’re on a mission to accelerate a net-zero carbon future. We do that by offering a seamless, clean energy experience to homes across the country. As our Director of Sustainability and Social Impact, I work with stakeholders to establish a clear narrative around key focus areas such as business emissions, renewable energy generation and social impact for driving our mission forward. From there, I dive into creating a strategic framework based on those focus areas which outline goals, key results and clear cross-functional team accountability.

We consistently reference the strategic framework narrative in so many touchpoints of the employee experience. Every new team member goes through a Mission & Impact training on day one to ensure they understand how we make an impact right from the start.

At our company-wide, all-hands meetings, I host a ‘Mission Moment’ segment that allows employees to engage with our mission through current events or impact-related business updates. Through education and repetition, Inspire grounds its employees on the steps to achieve our mission and what it will take to get there.

Q: What aspect of your company culture or values most reflects Inspire’s mission?

A: To ensure that all decisions we make are on mission, Inspire has a set of ‘guiding principles,’ or four simple concepts that we’re encouraged to consider when making a decision. Employees are empowered to make sure their actions and decisions are on mission, focused on the consumer, stunningly simple and drive solutions. The framework keeps our team on track and allows us all to ensure the business areas we contribute to are charging toward a net-zero carbon future.

When looking to build a new social impact platform, for example, I leveraged our guiding principles to help ensure that it was designed to accelerate our mission. Through the social impact platform, we aim to provide clean energy access to marginalized communities, build social impact into our core product offering, scale brand awareness, and also create fully ownable content for our employees and consumers to engage with.

Q: What role do your team members play in building, strengthening or celebrating Inspire’s mission, and why?

A: Changing how consumers access clean energy and accelerating a net-zero carbon future cannot be done in a silo. To fulfill our mission, we must work collaboratively to engage stakeholders to accelerate the clean energy transition. Every team member has a role to play in engaging business stakeholders and driving the collective action needed to bring our mission to life.

Our people team engages our employees and community through hands-on volunteer opportunities at home and abroad. The technology team builds better product experiences for our members. Our sales team makes clean energy accessible to consumers to build that member base. And the list goes on! No matter what position you hold at Inspire, you play an active role in accelerating our mission.

Are you ready to empower customers to choose clean energy and help create a greener future? Join our team! We're a Certified Great Place To Work, always looking for talented individuals who are ready to make an impact.