“Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”
Fifty years ago, on November 18, 1963, President John F. Kennedy made a stop here in Tampa, FL. Who would have had any idea that four days later he would be assassinated in Dallas, TX?
Your Leadership Legacy
I just watched a special on the Tampa visit, and it got me thinking . . . I mean seriously thinking . . . what legacy would I leave behind? What plans would I have, in place, that would keep going after I was suddenly gone?
When a prized leader leaves an organization, you normally hear things about how “he did this” and how “he did that.” But that’s all in the past. Times keep changing. Needs keep changing. Are the things that you DID, lasting through to the future and making an impact?
We all want to be remembered for something. But that’s where the problem starts. “Something” tends to be singular. It’s a definitive. You do it, it’s done, people remember . . . for awhile. Think big – think bigger – – think long-term. You’ve given a lot of time to your employees and your organization.
So why does it have to stop when you leave?
Legacy Planning
Now don’t confuse this with succession planning. Succession planning is a process for identifying and developing your internal employees with the potential to fill your leadership position(s) in the company. You could have the most detailed succession plan possible but still not leave a lasting legacy.
The key is to THINK of your job in terms of how you will leave it. This provides a different way to look at your work and what you want to accomplish. Instead of focusing on the day-to-day tasks, it helps you to focus on the bigger picture and take a more organizational view of your work. Consider your own job, your team, your department, the leadership, and how all of these pieces are connected to bring the overall organization together.
On Talking and Walking
So many people can talk the talk. But how many people can actually, truly, walk the talk? I love Mark Miller’s analogy in his new book, The Heart of Leadership.
He uses the example of an iceberg:
As you look at the iceberg, you only see about 10% of it. The other 90% is below the waterline. The portion you see above the waterline represents leadership skills – reproducible by many. Below represents leadership character – practiced by few. The people who talk the talk represent the 10%. The people who walk the talk represent that, along with, the other 90%.
I’m going to use my favorite example again . . . Disney. Walt Disney passed away from lung cancer in 1966, before his vision of Disney World in Florida was realized. After much mourning and wondering where to go from there, his brother and business partner, Roy O. Disney, postponed his retirement to oversee construction of the resort’s first phase.
Walt had vision and plans for the company that extended for years. And, to this day, things are still being developed from Walt’s original visualizations. In fact, it wasn’t decided until well into the construction process to name the resort WALT Disney World, in honor of the man whose ideas and visions brought it to life . . . five years after he passed away.
On Big Shoes and Footprints
So maybe you’re not the owner or the CEO of the organization. What does that matter?
You still have the opportunity to leave some pretty good-sized footprints.
Not trying to blow my own horn here, but at my last two jobs I developed customer service programs, from scratch, that saw great success within the first two months. Now if I had been putting things together month by month, my legacy would have ended when I left.
But I had a whole vision, training materials, schedules, tracking procedures, customer response actions – the whole package. My footprints weren’t in the sand. I “lived on” through the people who took over after me.
The Nurse Bryan Rule
In his book, The Essential Drucker, management guru Peter Drucker told a story about how a hospital adopted what came to be known as “Nurse Bryan’s Rule.”
“A new hospital administrator, holding his first staff meeting, thought that a rather difficult matter had been settled to everyone’s satisfaction, when one participant suddenly asked, ‘would this have satisfied Nurse Bryan?’ At once the argument started all over and did not subside until a new and much more ambitious solution to the problem had been hammered out.
Nurse Bryan, the administrator learned, had been a long-serving nurse at the hospital. She was not particularly distinguished, had not in fact ever been a supervisor. But whenever a decision on patient care came up on her floor, Nurse Bryan would ask, ‘Are we doing the best we can do to help this patient?’ Patients on Nurse Bryan’s floor did better and recovered faster. Gradually, over the years, the whole hospital had learned to adopt what became known as ‘Nurse Bryan’s Rule.'”
— At the time this story took place, Nurse Bryan had been retired for 10 years.
Leading a Legacy
Someday, you’ll look back over your career and ask, “What did I really do?” You’ll regret the opportunities you missed and time you wasted. But you’ll also remember all that you did right. And people will still come up to you and say, “Oh yeah, you’re the one that ______. We still use the guidance from your _____. Our team wouldn’t be as successful without you.”
Ask not what your organization can do for you. Ask what you can do for your organization.
What kind of future for your organization are you looking at? What is important to you? What parts of your work do you most value? Is there a need in the organization you can fill? I would love to hear your thoughts!
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Andy Uskavitch is Leadership Development and Customer Service Specialist
He develops and facilitates Leadership, Motivation & Teambuilding Seminars
Email | LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Blog | (727) 568-5433
Image Sources: marksremarksdotorg.files.wordpress.com
