As a leader who is preparing for the future, one significant consideration is your leadership legacy. Whether you recognize it or not, if you are in a position of influence, you are creating legacy as you live your life. Will you intentionally create your legacy or simply leave it up to chance?
Have you ever considered what kind of legacy you want to leave your team or your organization? As Stephen Covey put it in his second of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: “Begin with the End in Mind.”
Starting with the end in mind, you should make a plan, as you prepare for the future. A big component of that plan is to determine your legacy. For me, my personal mission is “to improve leadership wherever I go.” As a result, I want to leave a legacy of leaders prepared for their roles and taking the organization to new heights…after I leave the organization.
A few years back, I led a panel discussion on leadership for our Project Leadership Program, and the facilitator, Dr. Jose Bolton (who now serves as Dean of Equal Employment Opportunity Education at the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute) gave me a copy of Your Leadership Legacy by Marta Brooks, Julie Stark, and Sarah Caverhill.
Click here to learn what they had to say.