Are You Living Your Leadership Legacy? Here’s Your 4-Part Legacy Checklist

How often do you think about how you want your leadership to be remembered? Consider this scene … you’re a mid-career manager who recently moved on from a successful leadership role where you had significant responsibility. Maybe you got promoted to another division or left the company for a bigger opportunity or decided to start your own venture. You’re now a fly on the wall listening to your former work team talk about your leadership. What are they saying? More importantly, what do you want them to say?

Think of that scene playing out throughout your career. Because it does. It’s like you’re leaving reputational crumbs along your leadership path ultimately to reach one eventual destination, your legacy. So often, we delay thinking about our leadership legacy until late in our career, and then it’s a mad dash to the finish line. But here’s the thing; your legacy is not only about your exit. It is built over time as you climb the leadership ladder. Wouldn’t you rather shape it today to ensure that it’s a truth tomorrow? That will require you to be purposeful.

Legacy, especially within a leadership context, is what you inspire people and organizations to do. All the ambitious professionals we know want to make their mark. That’s what legacy is. It’s the long-lasting and meaningful consequence to your leadership. So, how do you preserve your impact and influence, so it sticks around long after you don’t? The key is gaining clarity on what you want your legacy to be and then living it every day. Not only will this ensure that you finish well, it will give you purpose and help to shape goals and priorities along the way.

Here’s your 4-part leadership legacy checklist.

Define your leadership legacy. This is as simple as writing down exactly how you want people to describe you at that point in the future when you’re ready to walk away. What are your key attributes? What impact have you had on their lives, the organization, the industry, the world? How do you make people feel? What are your values and are they evident by how you live and operate? Remember, this is your leadership destination. You may not be there yet. That’s what the next three steps will help you with.

Model your leadership legacy. Once you define your legacy, then it’s important that you honestly assess where you are today. How close (or distant) are you from actually modeling that ideal. Self-awareness is foundational to effective leadership. This step will put that to the test. Share your legacy ambition and description with a few trusted team members who know you well and will provide honest input. Ask these loving critics what gaps exist with your current behavior, achievement and reputation? Solicit suggestions for steps you can take to make headway toward the goal. You’re playing long ball here so progress will come over time as you are focused and deliberate in your actions.

Align your leadership legacy. Now that you are working a plan, it’s important to understand if your goals and priorities are contributing to your legacy narrative in the way you intend. Are you hitting the mark, or are there things you need to adjust in the spirit of continuous improvement? Here’s where you want to establish feedback loops with those trusted team members. Regular check-ins to gauge how you’re doing, with modifications as necessary, will help you align your actions with the target and accelerate your progress. 

Engage others in your leadership legacy. The final step is to inspire others who readily buy into and share your vision. Who are your advocates? Those that carry your message and uphold your values? How can you influence them to in turn influence others? At the end of the day, it’s the people who will determine if your legacy lives on. Those whose fingerprints are part of its making are your guarantee. Afterall, they’re building their own legacy in the process.

Now that you have completed all four steps you should have a clear picture of where you’re going and a like-minded team who is on the journey with you. You’ve reached a steady state where the effort to converge your real self with your ideal self is now marginal. You are now living your leadership legacy. It’s who you are. Stay vigilant. Surround yourself with others who will hold you accountable. Check yourself to make sure you’re on the straight path. And most of all enjoy the journey! Your leadership legacy is the ultimate gift, both to yourself and to those you lead.