#18 - Leadership legacy!
3 Jul 24
Many leaders would like to leave their mark on an organisation or their people once they depart.
But it takes a consistent level of commitment and adherence to a few key activities to guarantee this outcome.
The initial aim is to leave your part of the business in a better state than you found it. The ultimate aim is to make yourself redundant, such that things continue as normal once you depart.
Once you have reached this state, your leadership legacy is secured!
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#18 - Leadership legacy!
What?
I think it may be true to say that most people would love to be able to look back on their life, and see that they have had a long-lasting impact somewhere or to someone.
It's almost part of our DNA to want to be in a position to reflect on a life well-lived, when we are old and grey.
To have been a footprint, rather than a footnote at some place, at some point in time.
This is all part of leaving behind a legacy, once you depart from your place of work.
Why?
The cynic would say that this is the narcissist in all of us being laid bare.
For some this is undoubtedly true. However, I would also argue that there are also much deeper reasons for wanting to leave a mark.
These vary from person to person and only you, as the leader, will know what motivates you to do the best you can for the people you are privileged to lead.
And let's remember that leadership is a privilege - something that we should not forget.
How?
So how does a leader leave a legacy?
There are a number of things that can be done to work towards this. I say work towards, because it is definitely not a given.
The leader that is able to achieve this is fortunate indeed.
These are:
- Create the optimum conditions for everyone in the team to flourish, feel valued and feel that they are adding value. The right environment is key,
- Embed coaching into the organisation so that all can benefit from it. Encourage everyone to continually reflect on their performance,
- Make it your continual, enduring mission to grow new leaders. This should be done on a daily basis,
- Ensure everyone is multi-skilled. This builds sufficient resilience into the team to allow shock events to be absorbed with no effect on output,
- Encourage everyone to push outside their comfort zones and embrace an open mindset,
- Have a detailed Supercession Plan which is regularly reviewed. Do not allow the team to become 'one brick thick' in any area,
- Encourage everyone to think at the next level up, and across the business,
- Ensure regular targeted training interventions are conducted. Embed through-life learning and leadership development as a business-as-usual activity,
- Take every opportunity to share best practice and Learning from Experience (LfE),
- Make yourself redundant and disposable!
When the above are sufficiently embedded into the team culture, you should be able to leave the organisation.
The mark of your success will be that nobody notices you are gone, because everything will run as normal.
In Summary
I hope that you enjoyed reading this newsletter and that it has given you food for thought.
Leaving a leadership legacy is no easy task. It's not about personal ego or narcissism. It's about setting up a team to operate at its optimum performance without you having to be there. Get the balance right, and it becomes self-sustaining. You can then leave, and not be missed!
Have a great week!
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- Resources - Reading is an essential component to developing your own authentic leadership style. Check out my resources page for really inspiring books which I have found invaluable within my own leadership journey,
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