What's Going To Be YOUR Legacy As A Leader?

‘It’s funny. I’ve just woken up to my last morning in this job…’said a friend of mine recently.

He’d spent many years in a number of jobs where he’d been a senior leader and he’d come to his last day in full time employment. His life was going to change in many ways; some small and some huge.

He was in a reflective mood when we spoke and was experiencing many mixed feelings about the new life that was opening out before him as well as the view that was about to be hitting the rear view mirror. He is not someone who is normally given to too much self-reflection and it struck me that even for those who appear confident, optimistic and full of positive intent there is a time when it hits us that we are leaving a legacy. We are handing over the baton to others. We have done what we have done and we cannot go back and do it differently.

There comes that day of reckoning, even if only in our own hearts, when we look back and ask ourselves what we have given to others.

What have we left for them? Have we built something good? Have we left solid foundations or have we left things in a worse state than when we found them and people breathing a sigh of relief at our departure? Legacy (n) ‘A gift from someone legging out of this vale of tears’, Ambrose Bierce. Not the way we want to be remembered perhaps……

Now I know what this friend has left as a legacy as I’d had the privilege of observing him closely at work for a good number of years. He was one of the very few people in this life I’d walk on hot coals for as an employer. And I was not the only one.

So, what was it about him that I observed as being a great leader of people?

1.He likes people. He really does. He worked hard to get to know everyone, not just those who worked for him directly or those who were ‘the great and the good’. No. He got to know EVERYONE, even if just a bit, whatever their role.

2.He always found people doing things right NOT doing things wrong. There is a subtle difference in that and it comes from a positive mindset. He recognised that sometimes, as a leader, the best thing he could give someone was a pat on the back for doing something right. They truly appreciated the recognition and encouragement from ‘the boss’. And a repeat saying of his was, ‘I work with their strengths and not their weaknesses’.

3.He was very clear on his focus and direction. Like a laser. He was clear-sighted and communicated to everyone what it was he wanted to achieve. And then he repeated it. And repeated it again. And again. You can never over-communicate the direction you want to head in to your people and they need to have regular updates on how well the business is moving in the right direction and how close they are to achieving goals along the way. It’s difficult to go in the right direction when you are flying blind.

4.He found out what resources people needed and then went all out to ensure that people had them so that they could achieve their objectives.

5.He was an optimist. He always thought his teams could do it even when people, as individuals, were doubtful of their abilities. He encouraged his people and always had positive words for them. He didn’t stop believing in them and because he believed in them, they came to believe it too.

6.He had bucket-loads of integrity. His very essence was one of honesty, reliability, sincerity and unselfishness. He understood that for people to follow him he had to maintain integrity otherwise people wouldn’t follow him. Whether this was innate with him or something he learnt I don’t know. What I do know was that people gave their all for him. They wanted to give him their best – because he did the same for them.

7.He showed huge commitment to his teams, to the tasks in hand and to the organisations for which he worked. He was unfailing in his commitment to others and that produced great results because people did not want to let him down.

8.He had loads of moral courage. Even though something might be unpopular, he had the ability and willingness to do what is right and fair. To speak truthfully. That isn’t an easy path to tread. By doing this he encouraged others to do the same; it prevented a blame culture as people began to feel easier with ‘telling the truth’ rather than what they thought someone wanted to hear.

9.He had a great sense of humour. He was very rarely in a foul or difficult mood; in fact, he would often try to find humour even in the darkest and most difficult situations to lighten the load. It could be ‘gallows humour’, at times. He was cheerful. And why? Because he knew NOBODY likes to follow or work with a grouch or someone who is a slave to their emotions and moody. No-one wants to walk on eggshells.

So, was this man a paragon of virtue? No, not at all. I also observed him getting things wrong occasionally. I observed him as he became frustrated at inequity. He was exasperated by people who were out for themselves and who played ‘politics’. And he had his personality trait blind-spots too. His determination could become stubbornness and then on to downright intransigence. Sometimes there could be no moving him or changing his mind. And his frustrations, mixed with his immense integrity could mean he was prepared to ‘do battle’ with those who he perceived to not be playing ‘the right game’. But battles have to be chosen wisely so it would sometimes be my role to play mentor/coach/advisor to help him to choose them…..

But these were forgivable ‘sins’ because overwhelmingly he was someone who made a HUGE difference, got things done and people loved working with him.

So. If you can imagine yourself coming to the last day of YOUR working life and looking back over all the previous years, be honest with yourself, what do you think YOUR legacy will be?

At Transforming Performance, we believe that there are 6 crucial areas to Leadership: focus and direction, mindset, engagement, skills, impact and systems.

Transforming Performance can help with our Accelerate Your Business? and Accelerate Solo? programmes. We work with Leaders to help them to recognise their impact upon those around them and to support them in changing to more positive and productive behaviours and impacts.

We can help. Give us a call on 01722 484155 or email us at [email protected].

‘3D Leadership – dynamically enhancing the results of your business’?

Jan Sargent is co-Director with Julie Hutchison of Transforming Performance, a consultancy which provides businesses with expert support in Leadership coaching, Team Development and Performance coaching, Executive coaching, Mentoring, Training and Behavioural Profiling and help in getting the best from you and your people. If you’d like to have a chat and a coffee to discuss how we can help you, we’d love to talk. Call us on:

01722 484155

07770 904179 & 07947 823842

[email protected] ; [email protected]

https://www.transformingperformance.co.uk

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Thank you for reading my post, I hope you enjoyed it

I have always believed in the importance of enjoying the work we do. Many of us spend longer with our work colleagues than we do with our partners, so we may as well enjoy it!

Whether you run your own business or you’re a leader looking to improve performance, you can achieve more whilst getting more time for you! I work with leaders and teams using my simple, productive and fun tools and techniques to maximise performance.

Here are some other recent posts I have written:

• 10 Super Simple Ways To Demotivate Your Team
• The Stiff Upper Lip
• Is a Family Business that Works as Rare as Santa and his Elves?
• The Fourth Industrial Revolution

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