The leadership legacy is currently the central topic when organizational sustainability and long-term existence are on the line. It extends past the fleeting impact of the length that the leader stays, tapping into the long-term impact that they convey in culture, performance, and guidance of an organization. It is not a legacy of short-term or economic success; it is a legacy of shared values, unleashed potential, creativity, and ingrained determination in business life. It is the awareness of the advanced set of inputs which create this long-term impact which is required for tomorrow’s business and managers who wish to be healthily long-term. One of the most positive aspects of the best leaders is their principles and values that drive them.
Those leaders who practice integrity, high morals, and transparency always provide the example of a culture of trust pervading the entire organization. Their actions, and not words, lead the way of acceptable actions. By choosing the ethical choice even in tough ones, leaders create a real and accountable culture. A manager who places self-interest ahead of the team’s common good, or who knows better but does nothing to curb unethical practice, creates a toxic legacy that can subvert trust, morale, and ultimately the company’s reputation and long-term performance. An example of a failure unfolding in such a company is the failure at Enron. A just completely broken down ethical leadership legacy is just something that makes all of this so tangible. The succession plan and the talent plan actually make up a good majority of the whole leadership legacy, too. A great leader knows that his or her most lasting legacy is usually making other people successful and developing the next generation of leaders.
This translates to potential creation, providing experienced individuals, providing them with mentorship, and developing formalized succession pipelines. Leaders holding on too long or who refuse to invest in people produce a leadership gap, a talent gap job, and an organization that cannot look ahead. Leaders like Jack Welch, while some of the years he was with GE had a strained feel to it, are credited with building a talent pipeline that extended well beyond the time when he’d left the company. Legacy is not what they’ve accomplished, but whom they’ve enabled. Innovation and flexibility are also inherent qualities of a long-term leadership legacy. The un-innovative companies of the day will become obsolete in no time.
Such a leader builds an experimentation, question, and change-readiness culture builds an edge-of-the-time culture that carries much more than their leadership.
These are placing individuals in roles to disrupt the existing, investing in R&D, and brokering technology disruptors carefully. Other paradigm-bound managers who are reluctant or unable to think outside paradigms will create companies stuck in outdated paradigms that will not allow them to compete. The leadership history of Steve Jobs at Apple is the greatest example of how relentless innovation and commitment to customer experience can revolutionize industries and create a brand for all time. How far the ability of a leader to set and define an inspiring vision comes to fill out in great part their leadership resume. A leader who can define the mission of a company, motivate employees, and communicate strategically shows a people’s sense of belonging and purpose. Clarity puts effort at a personal level together with organizational ends and yields surprisingly cohesive and focused team. Leaders who listen, are accessible, and speak openly are relationally nearer to other individuals and have a legacy of trust and open communication.
Compare that with disconfused, unclear, or flat leaders with messages that, as a result, may give rise to confusion, disconnection, and fragmentation of the organization.
And how a leader’s external impact and contribution to society influence his leadership legacy. Beyond dollars and sense, the way a leader guides his organization to engage with its society, as a corporate citizen, and respond to social causes leaves its own legacy. Maybe in driving good business, service through philanthropy, or championing diversity and inclusion. When leaders recognize the good that their business does to society and make it real, they leave a legacy of good that inspires employees, customers, and the community. Paul Polman’s tenure at Unilever as a leader who practices sustainable business in an activist style could be termed a masterclass on how one could place himself in a position that he would be able to mainstream society’s interests into business minds and leave behind a strong and enduring leadership legacy.
Finally, the world around a leader, such as market drivers, industry currents, and geopolitical currents, also quietly adds to his or her leadership legacy. Leaders are responsible, but they are also creatures of their time where they are. A business leader in the midst of a boom economy may have one sort of legacy, while a business leader in the midst of a revolution in technological transformation or a global downturn may have another. But great leaders are able to overcome their environment, being courageous, visionary, and willing to yield to external pressure and thus forge a legacy of courage and strategic vision. In action terms, how they combine what they are doing with what is occurring in their external world is the enduring legacy of a leader. Thus, in conclusion, a person’s leadership heritage is a luxurious brocade embroidered with the values he holds very strongly in his heart, people investment, innovation, communication ability, and contribution to society.
It is not coincidental but the result of sustained behavior and decision repeatedly over time. For organizations who want to thrive in the long run, reflective leadership and knowing, conscious building of such a legacy are a necessity to build stable, moral, and living organizations amidst the era of perpetual change.
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