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What do you stand for?

You know that feeling when you meet someone and within the first few minutes you just "click"? You share the same values and outlook on life, and you can't help but be drawn to them? Well, that's what authentic relationships are all about. When your core values are in alignment with those of the people around you, it creates a powerful connection.

Recently I conducted a strategic planning retreat with a board of directors for hospice. Working with community members who serve on a board is an insightful and meaningful experience. With this group, I knew from the start that we “clicked” thanks to our shared values.

My style is to always begin any engagement with a touchstone of mission and values. Being reminded of why your organization exists and the core values that lead the organization is crucial to every strategy and decision.

When you take a pause and ask, “what do we stand for?”, “what are our core...

Five Ways to Fight Mission Drift

Are you or your organization losing touch with your mission? Mission drift is all too common, even in organizations whose sense of mission should continually inform every choice made especially in hospice. Without clarity around our mission and full commitment to it, we can also lose sight of our purpose, and ultimately fail to serve the people or cause for which our organization was created. Once that happens, it’s as though we’re swimmers caught in a powerful riptide that pulls us further and further off course.
Photo by David Iskander

Mission drift doesn’t happen overnight. More often it’s a sort of death by 1,000 tiny cuts.  A bad executive hiring decision is made by the board or by upper management because we’re so blinded by the resume that we’re willing to ignore the new hire’s lack of understanding of or commitment to the mission. Our frontline workers may be handed a copy of our mission statement...

Mission, Purpose and Passion. 

The last of these is PASSION.  So if you Mission is your overarching architecture of the building, and the purpose is what you are doing inside that building, then PASSION is the electricity that runs it.

Mission and Purpose without PASSION is like having the logs in the fireplace and not having a match to get it started. 

PASSION is the energy that's needed to move your Mission forward, because when all three are present, and they are all in alignment ... it really is magic. 

Work becomes easy, obstacles melt away, challenges become opportunities, and work is something you do because it is your life, not because it is your job.

When I was working at the Health Services, I thought being a clinical nurse practitioner would be terrific.  My personal Mission of serving those in need was present, my Purpose of improving the health of those in served was being met, but I didn't have any PASSION.  There was no spark to ignite...

Come back with me to November 22, 1995.  I'm standing next to the bedside of one of the most beloved people in my life... my brother Michael, and he's dying. 

 It's painful to watch him wasting away.  The sense of helplessness is profound.  And yet he is surrounded by this wonderful group of people in this hospice facility who are making the experience of death one of dignity and grace instead of fear and despair. 

On that day in 1995, I had been a Hospice Administrator for over 10 years.  I could tell you the rules and regulations, the staffing patterns, and the budget.  Hospice was in my head.  It was my job.

But on that day... that day in 1995, standing next to my brothers bed, hospice came into my heart.  And I have never been the same.

In my three decades of working in hospice, all across the U.S., I've discovered there are certain things that separate good hospices from great hospices.  And it usually doesn't have...