When the New Year is upon us most smart business people take
inventory and make plans for the coming year. Most of these
actions focus on external items, like deciding on how many
widgets you are going to make and sell, or how many new clients
you hope to acquire by the end of the first quarter. While this
type of inventory and planning is necessary, it is important as a
business leader that you take time to inventory and plan for your
own development as a leader, and this involves both reflection
and introspection.
A good place to start is simply by asking yourself the question:
what do you want people to say about your impact as a leader 10,
20 or 30 years from now? Or what would you like your leadership
legacy to be? Even better: write down your responses to both of
these questions. What comes out on paper may surprise you.
Cartoonist Johnny Hart once noted that a legacy is "something
that one should be able to hand down, without having to trump
up." It is not a strategic plan that can be nicely quantified and
measured. Rather, it is the sum of all of the outcomes resulting
from our behavior that others continue to remember about us.
That's the key here - it's what others continue to remember about
us, not how we remember ourselves. Put another way, it is the
cumulative record of how others think we measure up to the person
that we had intended to be or that they expect us to be.
Take a moment to think of some of the current or former public or
corporate leaders that have been in the news during the past
year: The Apprentice's, Donald Trump; The Oprah Winfrey Show's,
Oprah Winfrey; South Dakota's former Senator, Tom Daschle; LA
Laker's Guard, Kobe Bryant; Martha Stewart Omnimedia, Martha
Stewart; Secretary of State, Condolezzaa Rice; and U.S.
President, George W. Bush. For most of us, it is probably very
easy to articulate their leadership legacy - the good, the bad,
and the ugly.
So, what can you do as a leader to insure that your legacy is the
one that you want to be remembered for? First, successful leaders
have a strong sense of their personal values beyond their
business values. They have a personal mission and vision for
their life as well as their business. And, as you probably
guessed, the most successful leaders are those who have found a
way to combine the two proactively.
Second, successful leaders have passion. Find what you are
passionate about in life and then find a way to incorporate this
into your life in some way every single day. To me, passion can
be defined as the current that propels us forward to fulfill a
purpose or a goal. It is often the source of the creativity,
energy, rejuvenation, and inspiration, that all leaders rely on
everyday in order to be effective. For me, that passion revolves
around helping others be successful leaders.
And finally, successful leaders take time every day for personal
reflection and renewal. Reflection is critical because self-
reflection is the greatest source that we have for tapping into
our own self-knowledge. And, it is by tapping into our own self-
knowledge that we grow both personally and professionally,
helping us to become the authentic leaders we hope to be.
If you hope to obtain greater self-knowledge, the only way to do
that is to find time for silence. In today's 24/7 media-bombarded
world, there are fewer and fewer opportunities that present
themselves naturally for reflection. That's why it is critical
that you schedule time for reflection as frequently as you can.
Daily would be best but weekly and monthly can work too.
You don't always have control about what people will remember as
your leadership legacy. However, there are things that you can
do to ensure that you are remembered the way you want to be
remembered. Identifying what you would like your leadership
legacy to be is a good first step. Combine that with a strong
sense of your personal values and your passion, and, take time
for personal reflection and renewal, and you will be well on your
way to achieving a lasting legacy that you can be proud of.
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