What’s Your Battle Cry for 2025?
“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” – Andrew Carnegie
It’s already October, which means we are nearing the end of 2024. What does this mean for businesses? Planning for 2025, of course! One thing that Staff Shop believes in is setting the intentions of the new year with a battle cry.
What’s a Battle Cry?
Traditionally, a battle cry was a word or slogan shouted out in war to rally the troops. Today, businesses and individuals use them in a similar way. They are sometimes called rally cries, as they are less about intimidating enemies these days and more about exciting your team to accomplish a common goal.
There are examples of battle cries in Ancient Greece and Rome, as well as the middle ages. There are some from more recent history that you might even be familiar with, such as “No Taxation without Representation,” and “Liberty or Death” from the American Revolution. These phrases ended up sewn onto banners and shirts. The point is that having a unifying phrase or word to inspire and unite a team has been around a very long time.
Modern battle cries and rally cries are used in a similar way, they rally the troops to complete a common goal.
How Today’s Leaders Use Battle Cries
According to a Forbes article, “Maximizing Your Company’s Rallying Call To Unify And Motivate,” rallying calls or battle cries strike at the heart of an organization. “…it kickstarts momentum, fuels inspiration and motivation and strengthens cohesiveness for vision, values and actions to thrive in people, teams and organizations.”
That’s pretty powerful stuff. But you have to be very deliberate in your choices when coming up with a slogan or saying that will inspire and unify your team. In that same Forbes article, they outline five questions you should ask yourself to help you narrow your vision. We will paraphrase them now:
- Why does our business exist? Who are we and why are we here?
- What are our behavioural values?
- What is our business? Where does our expertise lie?
- How will we accomplish our goals?
- What is our focus right now? (today to six months from now)
The answers to these questions should help you formulate what your priorities are for 2025 and guide you towards the perfect battle cry to lead your organization into the new year.
Staff Shop’s Battle Cries
For 2024, the concept of “One Firm” or “OneLove” was our battle cry. It’s about playing as one team – a cohesive unit. You can have a team of amazing players, but if you don’t know how to play together, with a differentiating playbook, you will fail.
Staff Shop took the idea of OneLove and used it in various ways this year. We even called our corporate retreat to Costa Rica “OneLove.” It was part of everything we did throughout the year.
OneLove is the Staff Shop version of One Firm – a unique way of doing business. We work together – guided by faith, fueled by passion and inspired by freedom. As our CEO and Founder, Jennifer Ménard-Shand puts it, “love always wins.”
Drum roll for Staff Shop’s 2025 Battle Cry…ANSWER THE CALL. More on that in future blogs 😉
What Are Your Goals for 2025?
Think about your goals for the coming year. Think about your values. This doesn’t even have to be about business. It could be personal. Personal battle cries are completely acceptable. Who are you as a person and what do you want to accomplish in 2025? It could be professional, or something more personal to you outside of work.
It can be a good exercise to set your intentions for the year. It’s more than New Year’s resolutions. It’s your slogan, your motto, your North Star.
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Do you have a battle cry for 2025? Did you have one for this year, too? Share your story with us on how it helped you stay motivated and unified.
And as always, Join Us or Hire Us!
Staff Shop is a leadership factory, breeding servant leaders who are practicing OneLove and answering the call.
“Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.”– Winston Churchill