“Legacies are not the results of wishful thinking. They are the results of determined doing. The legacy you leave is the life you lead. We live our lives daily. We leave our legacy daily. The people you see, the decisions you make, and the actions you take – they are what tell your story.” (Kouzes, James and Posner, Barry (2006). A Leader’s Legacy)

With the demands of today’s world, leaders have to hustle more than ever before. Not only is their every action and decision easier to scrutinize with the rise of social media, but their performance and success is out in public for all to see. Success in business is usually defined categorically by profits, company size, or online presence. Little by little though, a change in viewpoint is occurring – leaders are beginning to recognize that the employees who work for them are vital to their triumph. They are beginning to weigh more than the numbers on a spreadsheet. 

It’s easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of business, but there are better ways to define what makes a good leader or not. Some processes need to be undertaken to progress from novice to legacy leadership.

• Effective leaders self-assess.

When you’re a student taking an exam, how do you learn? You review the answers you made, recognize your mistakes, and adjust your thinking so that when you encounter the question again, you’ll know the correct answer.

Of course, real life is never as easy, but the fundamentals remain the same. When leaders take time out of their busy day to self-assess – think on their decisions, track results, and reflect on the outcome, there is a better chance that they learn from it. Self-assessment helps them recognize their skillsets, understand their strengths and weaknesses, and illuminate the visions they have for themselves as leaders.

Reflection can be a hard skill to acquire, and proper executive coaching training can provide exercises and practices that support and encourage this exercise until it becomes part of a leader’s routine.

• Effective leaders build wisdom and relationships.

Once you’ve gained a sufficient understanding of yourself, your vision for your company, and what is necessary to move forward, determining if you will pass on what you have learned to the people who work for you is the next step. 

If your legacy will survive, a big factor is your influence on other people – your impact on their growth, learning, and the relationships that you have built with them. 

“The things you do alone, with few exceptions, are not leadership.” (Leadershipfreak.org)

• Effective leaders read.

Simplistic as it may seem, reading cannot be underemphasized. Reading literature outside the scope of your industry broadens your horizons, and enables you to study strategies and processes that can be applied to similar problems you encounter which may otherwise not be at your disposal. 

• Effective leaders spend time with their people.

One of the best things that teachers do which anyone in a leadership position can emulate is spending more time (the recommendation is 40%) with your students or direct reports. This means constantly checking in on them, mentoring, coaching, and figuring out what works and what doesn’t.

The best leaders support their team. They ask questions, they challenge them to be on their toes, to be prepared, and to think through things in anticipation of the leader’s inquiries. This enables those who work for him to look through every aspect of each problem and to think of every potential solution that can address it.

This is crucial in the process of building a legacy because being able to do so is not an individual accomplishment, but something that is done through the people you work with and the lives you touch.

“If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, then, you are an excellent leader.” (Dolly Parton)

• Effective leaders start early.

Not all people choose to be a leader. Early in your career, you have to decide if a leadership position is something to which you want to aspire. Knowing this can help you assess periodically where you are in the process of leadership. It will help you define which skillsets need to be acquired, improved on, or fine-tune. Determining that leadership is a position you want to be in can also guide you in acquiring contacts, and even in identifying the values that will create the vision of where you want your company to go.

Prior to the advancement of employees who start at the entry-level of the organization, foundational work needs to be done to provide support as they get promoted. Promotions are rewards for people’s hard work, and we promote the people who are the best at what they do, yet, their abilities don’t dictate how well they will do as leaders. Investing in leadership development programs to educate them on the job they’re supposed to do, and empowering them with follow up training and seminars with qualified coaches also ensure that employees who go up the organizational hierarchy are ready for the positions they find themselves in the future. Millennials now are the perfect employees to invest in – for they crave the coaching, feedback and they crave career development. 

When you’re assigned a leadership position, meetings and appointments can take up a lot of your time. They make it easy to forget that, to build a legacy, what’s important is relationships; spending time with the people who work for you and who accomplish the tasks which need to be done to generate success. Yet, how do you inspire, stimulate and influence them? How do you bring out their creativity and innovation?

Leaders don’t need to have all the answers. They don’t have to be the most creative, nor the most innovative. They don’t even need to possess the best skills. The most important thing they can do is create an environment that encourages those in others. 

Business coaches are certified and skilled in helping leaders support their people and enable them to accomplish the goals that they’ve set for themselves. They provide impartiality in assisting leaders empower their people, allowing them to recognize they have all the potential inside of themselves. Creating relationships, recognizing others’ accomplishments, improving on their skills, and fostering their growth are all essential aspects in the process to building your legacy, which is not an individual endeavor, but is determined by the effects of your leadership on the people who work for you. 

“The way you achieve your own success is to be willing to help somebody else get it first.” (Iyanla Vanzant)