Friday Thoughts on Legacy of a Leader

This happens to me all the time while reading blogs. Reading diverse ideas written by different individuals on a same subject (on a same day at times). The topic then occupies my mind space. Sometimes I comment on those posts and most of the times, the subject goes hiding in some corner of my brain.

I read two posts yesterday on leaving your legacy, both of which got me thinking.

Mary Jo Asmus shared this wonderful quote (and some thought-provoking questions) in her post “Thought-full Thursday – Legacy” –

“If you are a leader – of a company, a department, a division, or any group of individuals- you will leave a leadership legacy. It won’t be a record of how you behaved or a report card of your company’s performance (although that is how it might be summed up by the press). Instead, your legacy will be revealed in how your colleagues, employees, and others think and behave as a result of the time they spent working with you.”  Robert M. Galford and Regina Fazio Maruca, in Your Leadership Legacy

I wrote my view about leaving your legacy as a comment on Mary Jo’s post. Here it goes –

In an organizational context, a leader’s legacy is the culture he/she builds – leaders may go, but the culture, the belief system, processes and the ways of working stays there for long.

In a personal context, leader’s lasting legacy is his/her contribution in developing other human beings (by building great organizations, writing books, blog, knowledge sharing, value addition, one-to-one people development, behavior and building memorable moments in lives of others). There is no greater satisfaction than to see others growing with you.

Tom Peters asks the same question, “What will your legacy be from today?" in his video series on his new book “The Little Big Things”. You can watch the video or download the PDF transcript. In his talk, Tom says –

But every day does have a legacy; every day can be a masterpiece. The notion is, we build our track record—whether we are president of the United States or whether we are somebody who’s cleaning up tables at a little restaurant—we build it one day at a time.

Amen to that! Think about what your legacy would be – and then, act on it by focusing on each day and making the most of it.

Have a FANTASTIC Friday and an enjoyable weekend ahead!