Developing your leadership legacy
Have you thought about how you want to be remembered when you leave your current leadership role? What do you want people to remember you for? Is it your actions and achievements, or for the kindness you showed others every single day? What you leave behind when you leave a role or organisation is your legacy. As a leader, thinking about the legacy you want to leave helps shape your leadership style and approach. When your actions and decisions are aligned to your values, you feel more confident that they are the right choices. Being clear on what you want to leave behind is a crucial element of exceptional leadership.
Define your leadership style
Defining the kind of leader you want to be is a great starting point to begin your journey to building your personal leadership legacy. In our Exceptional Leadership Makes Sense development programme, we begin by looking at the characteristics of some great leaders and share our thoughts on which of these traits we would like to become part of our own legacy. Words like ‘trusted’, ‘respected’, ‘pioneering’ and ‘kindness’ are regular features.
As I write this post, the CEO of a US company has been caught on camera having an affair with a senior colleague. I’m sure it was never his intention for this to become his legacy, but to many employees in his business, this is what he will now be remembered for. Any trust and respect he has built up over the years has been shattered within seconds. Our actions and behaviours shape the way people see us. We are all a product of the choices we make every single day.
What shapes a leadership legacy?
Creating a leadership legacy is not easy. You need to be ultra clear on the legacy you want to create and the values and behaviours you will strive to demonstrate every day to achieve this. You have to behave like the leader you want to be with every person you interact with, day in, day out. Legacy is all about being remembered for good reasons. What reasons will define your personal lasting impact?
Here are some of the things I’ve seen define a leadership legacy…
Strong personal values
Promoting a thriving, healthy business culture
Influencing change and creating impact
Showing kindness and respect to others
Building and developing teams
Creating opportunities for growth
Achieving positive business results
Empowering others to reach their full potential
Contributing to the community
Two young leaders creating their legacy on and off the court
Like many of you, I got sucked into watching the coverage of the Wimbledon tennis championships. I’m not a regular follower of tennis, so when watching the men’s final with a friend, I asked her who we were supporting to win.
She explained that they were both exceptional young players, great people and respected by everyone in the tennis community. As I watched the pre-match interviews, I realised she was right. It was clear from the conversation how much respect they had for each other. This was again clear at the end of the match as they congratulated one another and thanked their teams, families and the tournament organisers.
Later in the week, I discussed this with another friend who summed it up perfectly with “they are both gentlemen”.
This, to me, is a mark of both players building a positive legacy. They are both highly skilled, super talented leaders in their sport, and above all they are kind and humble. If I never heard from either of them ever again, this is what how I will remember them.
But neither player was born this way. They train and work hard to be the best at what they do. They have support from expert mentors, physios, coaches and wellbeing experts. They are investing in building their legacy.
This is exactly what the Zest for Life Exceptional Leadership Makes Sense development programme aims to deliver. If you are an aspiring, current or experienced leader and love the idea of developing your personal legacy, take a look at what else our 6-day programme has to offer. The next cohort begins in September. The programme never fails to deliver results and I guarantee you will have fun and emerge a stronger, more confident leader.
Ready to commit? Book your place here
What kind of leader do you want to be?
When I deliver this same training to groups of leaders, it quickly becomes evident when leaders have not considered the possibility of changing the way they lead. The only way to benefit from any training is to go into it with an open mind and come out of it with the intention of putting your learning into action.
Attending a programme or reading a management or leadership development book is only worthwhile if you commit to making changes as a result. Investing time in training and development is step one. Putting your learning into action and making positive changes is step two. Being the leader you want to be and this becoming your legacy is the final hurdle. If you’d like to discuss taking steps to develop your leadership legacy, book a chat with Sally.
It’s never too early or too late to shape the leadership approach, vision and values that will define the legacy you leave behind.