The old “command and control” style of leadership won’t work anymore. Smart workers expect more and different competencies from their leaders, and more reason for them to excel than merely producing profit for someone else. Employees expect leaders to be interested in them, and not just the bottom line. Long-term corporate loyalty was becoming a thing of the past, with workers holding more positions and making more career changes than ever before. They also generally handle more responsibilities.
Today’s global competition demands top talent, and leadership needs to attract and retain the best in the workforce. Perhaps one of the biggest changes, and one that is most difficult to address, is the fact that technology is unfolding so quickly that the maturing process for leadership development has been short-circuited. Today’s workers, and especially young executives, have not had the opportunity to grow the vital people skills required for leadership. They have not been allowed to become seasoned. We knew that great leaders intentionally influence and develop other leaders, build teams and foster collaborative cultures. In other words, they become Legacy Leaders, building a multi-generational thumbprint for others who will use these same principles of learning and training with their own staff members.
As the model came together, what emerged was a system that fits the need for great leadership in good times or bad times, in fast times or slow times. These leaders don’t have to be super human, but they do need a sincere desire, and knowledge, to be a great leader. They need a leadership framework. This framework, or leadership platform, is what we term Legacy Leadership, the Five Legacy Practices, with guidelines to shape competencies and behaviors and attitudes. Legacy Leader skills are designed to be flexible in any situation, and are focused on interactions with other people to accomplish goals.
Business is always future-paced. Leadership shifts need to be purposeful, and that purpose is to impact the future, to influence others, to shift from just-in-time (or just-in-case) learning to real-time application for current and future success. As we coach executives, the most sustainable work has been through identifying gaps that needed filling, and then working with the client to create strategies, and to develop attitudes, behaviors and motivations that can fill and bridge these gaps. The foundational context for this process has become Legacy Leadership. Our executive coaching is not about fixing the past, but about creating a new future. Our work with individual leaders and entire organizations is focused on the future, whether five minutes or five years from now. It is about building bridges to tomorrow. The Five Legacy Practices enable this kind of successful coaching strategy. This model is not linear, and does not depend on starting at the beginning. It can be implemented at any place in the leader’s development, and at any place in the model. It is highly flexible and adaptable to just about any leadership need, anyplace, anytime. And by its very nature, it builds the leaders of tomorrow.
Companies are concerned about branding today. Branding is a unique distinction that sets you apart from any other person, or any other company. It speaks to who you are, what you do, what your product is. It is generally recognizable in a few words. Legacy Leadership is a brand. It defines the leader, who he or she is, and what they do. Once leaders embrace the concepts and platform of Legacy Leadership, everything they do comes out of the Five Legacy Practices. They are intentional, moving from unconscious competence to conscious greatness. We cannot not influence. We can’t prevent people from talking about us. The challenge as leaders is to be intentional, creating and living that talk now—living our legacy now, in real time. It is intentional influence that shapes the future. This is our leadership legacy—our brand.
Download Article 1K Club
