If you ask members of your team to describe the mission and values they witness being lived out in your organization day after day, would the results differ from what’s written on the plaque or in the handbook? Do they know how their daily work furthers the mission and embodies the values?  Would they give you blank stares or an earful? Try taking your team’s pulse by asking the question.  Give them complete freedom to respond candidly without repercussions. The results could be really encouraging or make you sick.  You won’t know until you ask.  Regardless of how it turns out, you’ll know where you stand.  You’ll know whether your team is cohesively pursuing the desired mission, embodying the values and relating their work respectively or whether your actions fail to match up to your words.  If the latter, your customers are probably experiencing the same, so there’s even more urgency…