Your Legacy

As leaders, what we do today is not about today; it’s about tomorrow. Because I want to create a better future—for my business, my family, my life—I have learned how to harness five key principles that have been critical to how I respond to any situation in life and in business. These five ingredients have been a powerful road map for me on my journey. They have guided me to make better decisions and prevail in tough times, helping me create the kind of legacy I am proud of. Here is a brief snapshot of these five principles: Vision, Core Culture Values, Authenticity, Transparency, and Gratitude.

Vision

Find your purpose. Seek out what fills you with a sense of purpose and what nourishes you in the best ways (e.g., spiritually, creatively, financially, socially, professionally, and personally). As you get clearer on what matters to you, you’ll have more energy and insight to share with others. Figure out what gets you out of bed in the morning and sees you through the day. Remember that while your purpose is why you get out of bed every day, it’s your vision that tells you where to go and what to do. If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there. Spend a good deal of time developing a vision for both you and your company.

Core Culture Values

Core values are those five to seven guiding principles that we put into action every day to keep us on track and moving toward our goals (e.g., vision and mission). They serve as the “filters” that can successfully guide our decisions along the way. It’s important to understand that values—like the bedrock beneath the building—in general rarely change. The values you live by and the values the organization lives by will live on and continue to create growth in many ways.

Authenticity

Be Genuine. You’re not going to change who you are at the core, so stop trying! Instead, play to your strengths and embrace your weaknesses. Let your team know who you genuinely are. Don’t try to do it all or know it all. Instead, solicit their advice and leverage their experiences. By showing them that you need their strengths to fill in your gaps, this builds trust, rapport and loyalty, which will create a powerful team and productive outcomes.

Transparency

Being transparent means you’re willing to be vulnerable with your teams, willing to articulate what you want to achieve, the why, and how each team’s role fits into your end goal. Transparency with your teams is paramount. Most people today aren’t willing to follow leaders who won’t communicate and aren’t open to other viewpoints. Lack of transparency will decrease employee engagement. Creating KPIs, aligning people with processes, and delegating are just some of the ways leaders can increase engagement. Remember that how well you’re managing your team depends on whether you are empowering your team. That’s what transparency accomplishes.

Gratitude

Live in gratitude. Let go of limiting beliefs that detract you from your purpose. Avoid feeding a negative mindset that only wants to focus on what’s broken instead what’s working. A gratitude mindset shifts the negatives into positives, expanding your outlook into greater possibilities. If you reframe I “have to do” into “I get to do,” it can bring you closer to what you truly want to accomplish. Gratitude is infectious, inspiring others to become more thoughtful, kind, positive, and solution-focused.

Our legacy is how we influenced others, what we contributed to society, and what value we added to the world. Owning a business with an empowered leadership team that continues, without me, to succeed and grow, is perhaps one of my proudest achievements. It happened because living by these five principles helped me shape a legacy. Our tenure as business leaders is only one part of our legacy, of course. Fortunately, these principles are designed to be applied to all aspects and stages of your life, including the one when the job is done and all that’s left of it is what we made of it and what it made of us.