Crafting the Best Mantra for Your Internal Audience
By: Kimberly Grant
Like many people, I have a job that requires 40 hours of my time each week. I work in a place where we build up the minds of the community and send them to the real world where they apply their knowledge. I work in a place where I act as a counselor, advisor, and a pseudo mentor. Yes, I work in academia.
Not just any academia. I work in higher education, which is a bit above general education. The work that I do is but a small part of an overall concept of giving back to the community and generating the global citizenry of Miami-Dade County.
In order to uphold that standard, my organization has a mission statement, a slogan, and a mantra. For intents and purposes, I will give you a quick definition of all three. A mission statement is a formal statement of a company’s objectives and values as a stated purpose for its existence. A slogan is a short, memorable phrase used in advertising. Lastly, a mantra is a phrase that communicates the heart and soul of an organization (and its brand image) to its employees.
Without getting too wordy, my organization’s mission statement consists of embracing its responsibilities to serve as an economic, cultural, and civic leader within the diverse global community. Its slogan is “Opportunity changes everything.” And, its mantra is “students first.”
Let’s focus in on the mantra, because it is the internal criteria in which my colleagues and I use to address the needs of our students. We are the salesforce that sells the product/service of education to current and prospective clients (or students). Keeping our organization’s mantra in mind is a part of our work life. Therefore, the organization’s mantra is made up of its brand image and informs how we interact with our clients. It is so important; more important than the slogan.
The slogan is more of a gimmick to capture the prospective audience’s attention. But a mantra helps me and my colleagues keep our sights set on the organization’s overall brand and reminds each of us why we come to work; no matter the conditions. Our mantra is about the students (or our customers). When the students succeed, the organization succeeds.
