SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 190,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our e-newsletter.
Last week, we asked: Have you ever thought about what your “leadership legacy” will be?
- Yes — I’ve thought about my long-term leadership impact: 70.93%
- No — I’ve never considered my leadership legacy: 24.81%
- What’s a legacy?: 4.26%
What remains after you’re gone? It’s a big question to answer — how will your organization be different after you’ve left? Perhaps one of the most critical things you need to answer on this front is who is going to carry on after you? It is said that a leader’s job is to create more leaders. If you’re interested in having a legacy that lasts, think about how you can lead future generations through the leaders you build to take the reins after you’ve left. It will spread your legacy farther and longer than you can do on your own.
Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS and author of “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”