We can create a legacy worth leaving. To accomplish this, I suggest that you do the following:
1. Choose today the legacy you want to leave others.
• Choose your legacy. Be intentional about it. That way you have the possibility of making a greater impact on a future generation. You can begin doing that today by defining your “life sentence.”
• “Most people don’t lead their lives; they just accept them.” -John Kotter
2. Live today the legacy you want to leave.
• It’s one thing to identify a legacy. It’s another to pass it on. The greatest guarantee that you will leave the legacy you desire is how you live.
• The sum of how you live each day becomes your legacy. Add up each action over the course of many years, and you can see your legacy beginning to take form.
3. Appreciate today the value of a good legacy.
• Charles F. Kettering, inventor and onetime head of General Motors’ research division, stated, “The greatest thing this generation can do is lay a few stepping stones for the next generation.” There is great joy in taking others to places they have never been and to heights they have never dreamed possible. As a leader, you have a great opportunity to do those things.
• I think the ability to create a positive legacy is greatly dependent on a person’s attitude. First, you must care about people. Second, you must appreciate how great an impact a good legacy can make. But you also have to have the right perspective. You must come to realize how unimportant you are in comparison to the task with which you have been entrusted as a leader. That requires a level of objectivity, maturity, and humility that many leaders never attain. Your goal as a leader isn’t to be indispensable to the people you lead; it is to leave your people something that is indispensable to them.
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