A Journey Through Legacy and Leadership. What do we learn from it?
Photo by Jeremy Bishop
I have written recently about the importance of leaving a legacy. Unfortunately I have seen this happen in real time. A great a leader in our organization passed away suddenly and he left an amazing legacy.
His team, colleagues and senior management suffered a huge loss. There were so many stories from his team about his leadership and the support he had given. There were stories from other leaders on the great legacy he left behind with his ability to be empathetic, strategic and inclusive. He wanted to help his team be successful and create new leaders.
Unfortunately, I did not work with this leader nor did I know him well. I knew he was well liked by so many and people loved being on his team. I feel as though I’m connected to him because of what he stood for and I admire the leader he was.
It’s so sad to hear such a great leader has left us so suddenly, but one thing it leaves us with is his legacy. Now how do we take this legacy and make a real impact across the organization to change the culture.
Here are my ideas to make changes in cultures across many organizations.
Accountability- Organizations must hold all leaders accountable for coaching their teams for success. Leaders should be inclusive and have empathy. If leaders are not behaving this way, organizations need to hold them accountable including warnings, reducing compensation or even termination.
Training- yearly training should be given to all managers who have more than 1 direct report. Training should focus on coaching for success, empathetic leadership and inclusion.
Yearly assessments included in annual reviews - every leader should have a mark for this on their annual review and should be able to evidence compliance.
This may seem harsh to some, but we want workplaces to be a place where employees enjoy coming in everyday. Employees should feel if they are struggling they have the support of their manager to be successful.
It’s a shame to lose good leaders, but we can’t just talk about how great they were. We need to make a change so we can say this about all leaders in our organizations. Think about how we can change cultures for the better.
I believe we can all make change one day at time so that the future of the workplace can be free of bullying, unfairness and politics.
Here’s to your success!
Best,
Rene