We define legacyas “the valuable contribution of enhanced
thinking and capacity for learning that an individual or team trans-
fers to others so that it is available both in the present and going
forward into the organization’s future.”
Building legacy, living it, and leaving it is crucial to leadership.
It is learning in action, and it occurs at all levels of the corporate
hierarchy. It is meaning culled from reflection and from interaction
with others.
Legacy: Passing Learning On
What exactly gets passed along as a person’s legacy? We believe it
is the sum of knowledge, experience, and understanding turned
into action, along with the ability to create new meaning from
one’s own actions and the actions of others. Of course, many peo-
ple use their knowledge and can draw on past experience. But far
fewer can truly reflect on their actions and translate them into new
understandings, new assumptions, or new beliefs. The ability to do
this is a kind of wisdom that begs to be shared.
For example, in a mentoring program we conducted, a senior
manager spoke about the importance of setting personal boundaries
and the ability to say no in the face of organizational pressure. He
supported his message with his own personal stories and track
record. When participants challenged him about the consequences
of saying no, his response was that of course there are conse-
quences, but consequences don’t signal failure and don’t negate the
importance of taking the right stand. At that moment, he became
a role model for this message—and made a hefty contribution to
his legacy.
We saw another example in a biotech company. One of the
engineers had a reputation for poor interpersonal skills, and by his
own admission, he was a man of few words. He had an unorthodox
way of running tests, but the results he achieved were consistent
and accurate. He possessed intuition and insight that might never
have been captured had he not been assigned a young college
intern who studiously learned and then shared his methods.
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