Steve Bilt is the CEO of Smile Brands, a company with 5,000 employees that provides business support services to over 425 dental offices. Smile Brands has been on Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work list three times and Steve is one of the top CEOs on Glassdoor. Steve was recognized as People Focused CEO of the Year and Healthcare CEO of the Year by American Business Awards. He is also a top rated US Large Company CEO on Glassdoor, Comparably and CEOWORLD Magazine.  Steve was on the founding management team of Smile Brands in 1998. He started as the company’s CFO before becoming the CEO a year and a half later. As the CEO he worked hard to build close relationships with the dentists so that he knew what kind of support they really needed. That is what has set Smile Brands apart from other companies, because it allowed Steve to tailor the business model in a way that works at scale with a lot of dentists.  Several other companies who were trying to provide similar services ended up failing, and Smile Brands was able to acquire a few of those companies. From 2003 to 2004 Smile Brands went from 45 locations to over 300 locations.  Smiles for everyone The mission of Smile Brands is really built on three words--Smiles for Everyone. It is the purpose behind everything they do. Steve really wanted to make sure that every party involved in Smile Brands got a fair deal and was happy with the result. So everyone at Smile Brands is focused on making sure patients, employees, vendors, the community, and the investors all get a fair deal, it is always a win-win for everyone.  Giving an example of this mission Steve says, “I was just on the phone today with someone saying, you know, I'm sensing by your body language, that you feel like this isn’t a good deal for you. It's a good deal for us, but if you don't, you shouldn't do this. That's Smiles for Everyone. The guy was like, wow, that is great to hear. And let me clear that up. And as we had a great conversation with that basis, we think that way with all of our employees, our patients and everyone that becomes part of your DNA as a culture.” At one point Steve left the company. He had been the CEO for a while and it was suggested to him that he retire. At the time he took the hint and left. After he left the company the leadership decided to try to move to a more execution oriented model, which was very different from Steve’s purpose driven style with focus on direct interaction with the dentists.  The mission statement went from Smiles for Everyone to Give providers and their dental teams the freedom to put patients first so that they can become the most preferred dental office in their community. And while it’s not a bad statement, it really did not resonate with the Smile Brands team. Moving from focusing on purpose to focusing on metrics really caused the company to lose its soul and its art.  Steve was actually away for 2 ½ years and he missed the business a lot. But in 2016 he was given back the role of CEO. And as he went around to different locations to meet with employees he realized how much they had been waiting to go back to Smiles for Everyone. In fact he had originally had bracelets made with the phrase on it for everyone to wear. And when he returned he found people pulling the bracelets out of their drawers saying they had been saving them for the day he returned.  Creating a mission that resonates with employees Anyone can come up with a mission statement or a company purpose that sounds good. But it can’t be something that just lives on a wall or in the company handbook. It has to be something that is infused into every aspect of the business.  Steve believes it needs to be something short and catchy that people can remember. It needs to be something that you can evaluate and check in on to see how well the company is living up to it. It has to be something that is living and breathing inside your company. For example, with the mission Smiles for Everyone, Steve says he use