The Questions That Define a Leader’s Legacy
Many people think about building a legacy, but not many learn how to build a leadership legacy. That difference in focus can be the defining shift between achieving success and driving lasting impact.
We are all leaders in our lives, and the way we lead matters to the people we serve, like our children, family members, peers and friends, colleagues, communities, and, for some, in our countries or the world. This is why I believe each one of us will benefit from answering the following legacy questions for leaders, no matter what we do or where we live in the world.
What Does Legacy Really Mean?
Legacy is often thought to be the sum of our accomplishments, professional recognition, wealth, and the things we leave behind after we are gone. While that is true, it is not all that legacy is or how it is made.
Your true legacy is built in the now, through your everyday actions and interactions. It is in what you do and the way you make people feel. And it’s developed through the strength of the relationships in your life and your leadership within those relationships.
To build the kind of leadership legacy you want to be known for, it is important to be clear about what that means for you in your everyday life, so you can align your decisions, actions and interactions with that legacy.
That all starts with understanding yourself and the kind of leadership impact you want to make.
Am I Living According to My Definition of Success?
It is vitally important to your leadership legacy to define your personal definition of success and live according to it. Too often, people try to achieve someone else’s or society’s definition of success, and once they achieve it, they realize they feel empty inside and that it doesn’t bring them the happiness they thought they would get from it.
This is because chasing someone else’s idea of success takes us away from our purpose and the things that are fulfilling to us.
It is also important to understand that success and fulfillment can be very different things, which is why you need to define your definition of each to build the legacy that lights you up inside and out.
To do that, consider the following questions:
- What do you need to do to make sure your values and your legacy are in alignment?
- How can you prioritize the relationships that matter most as you build your legacy?
- What things fulfill you and how can you integrate them into your daily, weekly and monthly activities to make sure your success fills you up in all ways?
- When priorities conflict, what kind of framework can you build or use to help you make the best decision at that time? (Preplanning can really help!)
It is also important to regularly revisit your definition of success, your goals and the leadership legacy you are creating. As we move through different stages and phases of life, and have more life experiences, we change. So does our perspective and the things that are important to us.
That means your living legacy needs to evolve with you.
What Do I Want to Be Remembered For?
Thinking about what you want to be remembered for can help to shape your thoughts, decisions and actions in the now, which will help you consciously build the future you desire.
Do you want to be remembered for:
- Your skills, accomplishments and achievements?
- The way you made an impact?
- Your ability to serve and support others?
- The depth of your relationships?
- Your reputation?
- A combination of the above? (If so, prioritize the importance of each so you can focus accordingly.)
To fully map out what you want to be known for, start by:
- Defining your values and the things you truly value in life
- Describing the qualities of a great leader and how you can embody those qualities
- Considering your principles, the rules you want to live by, and your non-negotiable standards
- Outlining the injustices that tug at you and the reasons you want to change them
- Narrowing down where you most want to make your difference
These things will help you to start defining your purpose and the way you can personally bring about change and transformation, as you build your leadership legacy.
Who Am I Helping Through My Work?
Leadership and purpose go hand in hand which is why understanding who you want to serve and support matters so much.
When you know exactly what you want to be remembered for and who you are helping through your work and interactions, it is much easier to decide on the kind of leadership style you want to embody and how you will live out your leadership legacy each day.
Think about:
- Who benefits from your success as a leader in your business, career, and life
- How your success as a leader can create greater success for the people you lead
- The kind of ripple effects your leadership could create in the bigger picture
- Who you can mentor and how you can help them build their own leadership legacy
This will help you define your purpose more effectively and help you see that making a difference as a leader goes far beyond reaching a goal or getting excellent financial results.
Building other people’s confidence in themselves, helping them improve their hard and soft skills, and offering guidance as they deepen the relationships in their lives are some of the steps you can take when developing future leaders who like you and can pass on what they learn to the people they lead.
The ripple effect of that kind of inspiring leadership is a living legacy that generates a power of its own.
What Do I Need to Let Go of for My Next Chapter?
When we are making changes in our lives and setting goals to bring our bigger vision to life, we typically think about the new things we must do to make that vision a reality. But what can make just as big, or an even bigger impact, is deciding what you have to stop doing to make room for your new goals, your priorities, and for the leadership legacy you have defined.
That means identifying the things that might be holding you back in your leadership and from your purpose.
This can include:
- Outdated beliefs
- Responsibilities that can be delegated or deleted
- Habits that don’t support the legacy you are building
- Goals that no longer align with your new direction
- Relationships that sap your energy instead of building it
Each one of the things that you stop doing will create more mental and physical energy, while freeing more of the time you need to work on the things that really matter to you. This will in turn, bring new opportunities and ways to grow as you live your leadership legacy.
How Can I Turn My Answers into Action?
Making a strategic plan to live your leadership legacy is important, but even more so is putting it into action.
Your leadership action plan can include:
- The small things you can do each day to serve and support others
- Intentionally living your values by defining the behaviors that match each one
- Prioritizing the people who matter and who you want close to you in the future
- Mentoring and supporting others
- Ways you can empower the people around you and build their belief in themselves
- The steps you must take to make your goals a reality
Then it’s up to you to do the things that will bring your living legacy to life.
Creating a lasting leadership legacy takes intention, dedication, and, most of all, action. This is why reviewing your decisions and actions throughout your day to ensure they line up with your answers to the legacy questions above, as well as considering how you can adjust when they don’t, will help you create a lasting legacy day by day. The kind of legacy that will bring about your definition of success and fulfillment, as you help the people who matter to you.
It all starts by taking the time to answer the questions that define a leader’s legacy and then taking action on the things that will help you build the impactful future you’ve been dreaming about.
Another action you can take to speed your success is to learn from a mentor whose living legacy is helping others to build their legacies.
<<CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE SHARON LECHTER LEGACY-BUILDING MENTORING PROGRAMS<<