Those who know me best know that I am not particularly skilled at directions. I have colleagues who seem to possess an innate ability to visit a city once and immediately have a cartographic sensibility for the place and can drive you anywhere. That’s not me. 

So it was something of a surprise to my wife when we were in Madrid a few years ago and I seemed capable of navigating the bustling city with little help or direction from my phone. We were on our way to visit the Royal Palace and Almudena Cathedral and she seemed stunned that I could get our group to our destination with surprising ease. 

No, I had not suddenly developed some new sixth sense--although I do seem to do better in cities for some reason. My directional clarity was due to the fact that the palace was visible from rather far away, nestled up on a hillside. As long as I kept it in view, our group had a pretty good chance of navigating the right direction through the right streets. But if we lost sight of our destination, it was highly likely we’d end up off track.

Organizations are not that different. They exist to fulfill an identified mission. Whatever it may be, every organization has one. It may or may not be clear, virtuous, or easy to explain. But every organization is motivated by some mission.

And yet, most organizations struggle to say on course with their mission. They tend to drift off course due to any number of factors and get encumbered with any number of competing priorities. Because of that, leaders have a particularly urgent responsibility to make sure that the mission is clearly defined and communicated throughout the organization, but also to build systems and cultures that resist mission drift or creep. 

Mission drift happens all the time. Very often it is gradual and imperceptible. Like the proverbial frog in the kettle, stakeholders within the organization can be the last ones to recognize it when it is happening. But the cost can be massive, sometimes even fatal.

There is a lot more that could be said on the subject, but here are three consequences that will come for any organization that succumbs to mission drift. 

You’ll Allocate Resources to the Wrong Things

Show me your organizational budget and I’ll tell you what your mission is. This is true for churches, to be sure. Your church may say it places a high value on missions and outreach. But if your budget reflects virtually no material investment in those priorities, then they really are not priorities. The same is true in other sectors, whether in non-profit organizations or in publicly traded companies. Your budget--and your profit and loss statement--tells a story about the reason your organization exists.

Too many organizations allocate resources--whether financial or human--to ventures that are good and well, but are not directly tied to the organizational mission. There may be any number of reasons for this. Most of the time, they do so because these ventures seem to be successful. They may be well-received, they may seem to help with morale, or they may give a sense of expansion or growth. But someone has to interrogate them and ask if they actually do advance the mission. Here’s one way to assess them: If an operation is not directly mission-driven, then it is auxiliary. That means that your organization cannot afford to sustain it unless it is a significant net revenue generator, contributing to the organization’s ability to prioritize those operations or ventures that are actually directly tied to your mission. If those auxiliary activities drain capital, then you cannot afford to keep them going.

If you’re a leader, take a hard look at your organization’s financial statements. Ask some hard questions. And be ready to shift resource allocations. You may actually need to invest more in certain areas. Look at your organizational chart and take honest measure of how you are investing in your organization’s most valuable asset: human capital. Are you getting stronger and better in your personnel who are best positioned to advance your organization’s mission?

Your Communication Will Be Off-Target

How organizations and leaders communicate will also tell you a lot about their clarity of mission. To begin with, how do managers communicate priorities and values internally to personnel? If I were to ask your employees what drives your organization forward, what would they tell me? Pastor, if I were to ask your church members what motivates your ministry and shapes your leadership, how would they answer? For most leaders, there is a gap between what we think we are communicating and what people are actually hearing or seeing. 

The surprising thing is that I know of no better way to motivate or mobilize team members than by keeping a focus on the organizational mission. Managers and leaders have to get “in the weeds” and deal with all sorts of daily challenges. But that can never negate the fact that they must make sure that their teams maintain a clear sense of mission and purpose, helping give clarity about direction and culture. If you’re wondering why your team morale seems to be flagging, check when the last time was you gave a crystal clear articulation of the reason your organization exists. If you have internal factions or teams marked by unhealthy conflict, when was the last time you brought clarity to the situation by reiterating your mission? Every leader has to make the organizational mission his or her mantra. You’ll sound like a broken record, but it has to be done. It also will have the beneficial side effect of keeping you on course and inoculating you from distractions.

But the same is also true of external messaging and marketing. We’d all be surprised if the auto dealer down the street suddenly starting running TV commercials for lawn care. They might have beautiful grass on their car lot, but if their messaging is about something other than their actual business, their mission, then they won’t be in business for very long. And yet, far too many organizations--especially non-profit ones--succumb to this kind of drift in messaging. To be pointed--your company, organization, or institution does not need to have a public statement on everything. In fact, it should not.

Here’s one little test. What would an audit of your social media presence tell about you as a leader or your organization? Is there an alignment of mission and communication? If so, don’t be surprised or frustrated that people seem confused. It’s not their fault. Get your communication back on target and you can correct the course.

A good baseball player knows the contours of the strike zone and does not go chasing after every wild pitch. Leaders have to have the same kind of discipline when it comes to communication. There will be all sorts of pressure on leaders to speak on whatever the issue du jour is. Whether from the media, from customers, from donors, or any other constituency, there is an understandable pressure there. But good leaders, like good batters, have the discipline and restraint to know which pitches they actually should swing at.

You’ll Frustrate Your Team Members

This may seem to be the least costly consequence of mission drift, but I can assure you it is not. In fact, it may be among the most severe. I know of few more effective ways to drive away talent than by allowing your organization to get embroiled in causes that are not tied to your mission. You will have a harder time recruiting, developing, and retaining talented personnel if your organization drifts in this way. Your teams will increasingly be at odds with each other and your innovation will suffer. 

The implications here are for more than just the CEO or a governing board of directors. Every manager has to be conscious of how mission drift undermines organizational culture and morale. This shapes how you build agendas for weekly staff meetings, how you initiate and advance strategic planning, how you assess personnel and promote team members, and all the other seemingly routine stuff of management.

If you want to make your organization a terrible place to work, there are two really effective ways. For one, you can build a culture where integrity and trust have no meaning. There’s no more surefire way to kill an organization. Effective and healthy leaders know this and remain vigilant to ensure that the right thing is done in the right way with consistency. But they also know that losing sight of the big picture, drifting from the mission, is almost as dangerous. Thankfully, it’s far easier to correct course and recover from mission drift. That’s not to say that it’s easy. But leaders can get things back on track far easier when there is an underlying trust and confidence in the integrity of the organization.

That’s the good news. It is never too late to right the ship and correct the course.