The Point: Ask yourself: What legacy are you creating and leaving behind? Whatever a leader does and the way in which they conduct themselves with their team members and colleagues, leaves behind a legacy. A legacy which can either be a source of inspiration for future aspiring leaders or a model to avoid. At Tip of the Spear, we believe in creating a legacy which will prove that you succeeded in the leadership challenge with flying colors… Enjoy!
The way that a leader motivates and trains their team members, ensures their personal and career development, mentors and coaches them and inspires them to perform at their best. This not only proves beneficial for the employees, but also leaves behind a golden path for others to follow.
The leadership challenge also includes leaving a positive legacy behind, which can always serve as a source of great motivation as well as inspire individuals to perform at their best.
A Leader’s Legacy
In their book “The Leadership Challenge”, Kousez and Posner have illustrated the relative importance of a positive legacy left behind by a successful leader.
The authors assert that leaving a legacy means that a leader utilizes their talents to bring about a positive impact in the organization, employee attitude, and their community or society as a whole, which can be linked with their committed efforts.
Leaders have a responsibility to do something significant, and when they utilize their efforts to inspire a positive change and attitude, it leaves behind a legacy which serves as a guiding path for others to follow.
Create A Lasting Legacy
Leaders should utilize care to leave a lasting legacy which will always be an inspiration for many, and serve as their guide in challenging situations. Leaders lead by example, and that is what a legacy does. It leaves behind a guide for aspirants to learn from the actions, methods and conduct of their leaders and mentor their team members to help them achieve their potential.
It’s All About Service, or Your Ability as a Leader to Serve
To ensure a lasting legacy, leaders should serve their team members and should never take employee trust for granted. Intelligent leaders know and realize that it is not merely their own vision, rather the combined effort of many, and the result of a contributed discussion, which leads to success in the end.
Great leaders are never hesitant to try out something new after a careful evaluation of the pros and cons, and also inspire their team members to utilize their best potential to achieve something great in life. They exercise and inspire courage to make the necessary and hard decisions, thus leaving behind a legacy for performing at one’s best by utilizing all the talents, and never taking a back seat or accepting defeat as the only option.
Summary
Leaders recognize and accept failure as a part of life, and encourage others to keep on exerting effort to improve and master their (through leadership development). Their mentoring and coaching, along with the most effective method of leading by example, tends to leave behind a legacy which proves a valuable form of guidance and benefit for many.
Any leader, who wishes to succeed in the leadership challenge with outstanding accomplishments, needs to leave behind a memorable and beneficial legacy behind, through their conduct and effort.
To learn more about Tip of the Spear’s Leadership Development offerings, including The Leadership Challenge program, CLICK HERE.
