Honoring a leadership legacy

It’s important to leave a leadership legacy you can be proud of. Alaina Love writes about a colleague and a friend who broke the mold.

At the conclusion of a recent development session with a senior leadership team, we discussed the moment that all leaders eventually face: It’s the last day of their tenure in the organization, the day they’ll retire or move on to another role in a different organization. These are pivotal moments of passage that every leader should ponder well in advance of them happening, so I asked participants to consider what their final words to their team might be on that momentous day. What will be their leadership legacy? 

People responded with all kinds of ideas, from thanking their teams for their hard work on meaningful projects to acknowledging the growth and development the team had experienced. However, one leader had a different response from the others. “I don’t know what I’d say if today were my last day with this company, but I do know what I don’t want those words to be. I don’t want the quality of my leadership to result in me saying: I’m sorry, I regret or I wish I had.”