People become entrepreneurs for a variety of reasons– often because they want to make a difference in the world. But it’s easy for founders and CEOs to get stuck in the weeds, managing the day-to-day without finding the time to manifest their longer term goals.
Leaving a legacy requires focus, effort, and felicitous timing. It’s not something you achieve so much as create over time, by how you show up in your business and lead by example each day.
If you want to leave behind more than a memory, these four tips can help.
Know what matters
Identify the values that guide your work and worldview, what matters most to you. Then look at how your highest values and sense of purpose align with your business initiatives and strengthen those practices. If you place a high value on increasing the well-being of those who depend on you, for example, look for ways to develop your employees’ leadership capabilities or offer them a stake in ownership. Write down your top values – the non-negotiables – and keep them front and center.
Repeat yourself ad nauseam
Those non-negotiables? Keep bringing them up, calling attention to them, and communicating them – verbally and by example. Repeat yourself in meetings and one-on-one. Bring up your core values in performance reviews, in writing, and on the phone. Relay stories with a message and highlight employees who embody your values. Reinforce your values with conviction, recycle them, and regurgitate them until even you are sick of hearing them. Doing so will help build your legacy organically until it infuses the whole of your business enterprise.
And while you’re at it, invest in yourself, your vision, and your values. Cultivate self-awareness and maintain the conviction of your company’s values. This is how you show up so others can carry on your legacy.
Get out from behind your desk
Your values won’t take root in your organization (and you can’t build your legacy) if you never leave the managerial front lines. Yes, managers leave legacies too, but they’re tactical, practical, and focused on the bottom line. A leadership legacy, something lasting enough to guide future generations, can’t be built from behind a spreadsheet or the latest employee handbook.
That’s why it’s so important to foster leadership around you. Find an operational manager. Delegate more. Ditch your computer and phone a couple of days each month to spend time with the people who make your business hum. If you’re serious about leaving a legacy, there’s no substitute for personal contact.
Now leave
You’ve built a great team that shares your vision and has the technical mastery and business knowledge to succeed. Now leave. Leaving a legacy requires you to move on.
Felicitous timing and a graceful exit are key to ensuring that you and your business will affect the lasting change you’d hoped to make on behalf of your loved ones, staff, community… and the world.
Do yourself – and your legacy – a favor. Quit while you’re at the top and go transform some other part of your life!
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