When you start a business, you put your nose to the grindstone and do a lot of the work you could hire others to do.

Once your business is off the ground and you are able to hire a team, you focus on being a great leader – inspiring passion, developing potential, motivating your employees through tough times, mentoring and coaching them, increasing their engagement, heightening their satisfaction and more.

But what happens after that? Your business is up and running and your team is hard at work, using the operations, marketing and creative processes you have in place. How do you ensure your leadership has an impact beyond your immediate team?

At this point, most of us start thinking of our legacy: How do we want to be remembered when we’re gone? 

People define legacy in different ways. There’s … 

• Your personal legacy – how you’re remembered by the people whose lives you’ve touched
• Your business legacy – your impact on your culture, your community and your customers. This part of your legacy can involve your industry or even the wider world. 

Sometimes the two aspects of your legacy can intersect, especially when you intend to pass along your business to family.  You can even create a lasting impression that influences not just your own children, but future generations as well. 

When I hear the word “legacy,” I immediately think of Steve Jobs and Apple. Not only is Apple considered an industry innovator, with the release of the Mac and iPhone, but Steve’s vision and leadership have made Apple a game-changer in all the industries they are involved with.

The bottom line: Building a legacy involves thinking long term. Having a vision. 

Investing in coaching and mentoring can help you define the vision for your company from the very beginning. The right coach or mentor can help you set ideals and goals that will enable you to create a mission statement for your life and your business. Then, all of your marketing and promotional efforts will tie back to those ideals and the goals you have set for the future.

Building a legacy is not limited to business. Each of us, no matter what our profession, can work on building a legacy that will live on after we are gone. In the succeeding blogs of this series, we’ll talk to leaders who have built legacies in their industries. We’ll find out when they first thought about building a legacy, what steps they took to do so if they have any suggestions on how we can do the same, and much more.

Before we get started, take this opportunity to think about what building a legacy means to you. Years from now, when you’re no longer here, how do you want to be remembered? What do you want to leave behind?