Your impact is your legacy

You may have a lot of strategies for the business, change initiatives, cost saving, or growth. So why not have a strategy for your impact?

Do you know what impact you are having at work? Do you know what kind of ripple effect you create around you? Do you know how you make others feel?

For the last 25+ years, we have worked with many hundreds of leaders around the world, and we have taken great interest in the importance of leadership impact. We have experienced leaders with a significant, positive impact and those with less effective and even very negative impact. What makes the difference? In our experience, it starts with awareness—self-awareness and social awareness. The more aware you are of yourself, your thoughts, feelings, values, stressors and energisers, and the more aware you are of the world around you, the more you can start to take control of your impact and shape the impact you want and need to have to be successful.

It may not always be about the impact you want to have; it may be about the impact that others need you to have.

Is your awareness muscle in great shape?

Awareness is like a muscle in your body; it needs to be used, trained, and flexed to build strength. Is your awareness muscle in great shape? Have you been training it lately? Or did you expect it to be in fine shape without any work? What more could you do to build its strength?

When was the last time someone knocked you with their rucksack while turning around in a cramped commuter train? Or seemed to ignore you in a meeting? Or were oblivious to the fact that they were holding up a whole airplane aisle of people while talking to their friend instead of getting into their seat? Or did not remember you even though you know you have met several times before?

In all those examples, their awareness muscle was not as well-trained and engaged as it could have been. And the impact on you was probably not great.

Taking control of your ripple effect and the multiplication effect

Everyone can benefit from great impact, but it is vital for leaders.

When you are a leader, you deliver results with and through others, and this is why you must take control of the impact you have, as there is a multiplying effect that leaders’ actions and behaviours have. A leader is always ‘on stage’, a role model, people see what you do, so your ripple effect is a reality. Impact happens through knowledge and skill, and at times through a position of power, but most importantly through behaviours. If you want to achieve a positive impact, then pay particular attention to behaviours. How we behave and conduct ourselves has an impact on others, creating ripple effects that often go much further than we can ever imagine.

Research shows that leadership behaviours are contagious, so it is worth choosing your behaviours with care. What do you choose to make contagious in your organisation?

Take a moment to reflect on the impact you want and choose to have, to be the most successful leader you can be, for the benefit of those you work with, your organisation, its customers, and partners, and of course yourself.

Leadership is the act and art of influencing others

Leadership and impact are an art, not an exact science. There is not just one way of being a great leader. The most impactful leaders we have encountered authentically fine-tune their actions and behaviours to the situation they are in and the people they are with. No one gets it right all the time, but we can all maximise our impact with greater awareness and focus.

The most impactful leaders we have encountered authentically fine-tune their actions and behaviours to the situation they are in and the people they are with.

Whether consciously thinking about it or not, you have an impact. And chances are, if you don’t think about it, you may not achieve the effect that you want or need.

Leadership is the act–and art–of influencing others. And your ability to influence dictates what impact you have

Whatever impact you want to achieve, always do so from a win-win perspective–the impact should benefit everyone involved, not just in the short term, but also in the long term. And your impact should be in harmony with the organisational direction, vision, and strategy.

Be intentional about your impact-do not leave it to chance

Some people leave their impact to chance, but that is a risky approach; impact is much too significant to leave to chance.

As impact is that important, you need to challenge yourself to become aware of the impact you have or lack. You may have a lot of strategies for the business, for change initiatives and more, but you also need to have a strategy for your impact and therefore what that will do for the business.

Your impact is and should be bigger than you. And as a senior leader in particular, it is not about raising your profile; your focus on impact is for the good of the business, the greater good. Consistent and/or powerful impact creates your legacy, what the history books would say about you. Your legacy is also your personal brand. What do you want to be known for? What legacy do you choose? When you move on to the next role, what do you want to be remembered for?

Impact has always been essential, but usually a subconscious occurrence rather than a focused effort. The awareness of its importance has grown over time, hence also the need to, at a minimum, manage, or ideally even create the impact you want to have, rather than just accepting the impact you naturally have. And by being proactive about it, you get there quicker.

If you are a senior leader, then your impact is also magnified. You set the pace for your organisation. You need to lead and role model the kind of impact behaviours the organisation, its people, its customers, and all other stakeholders need.

Your impact is your legacy.

Some find the idea of creating impact challenging as it seems false or conceited to them to ‘create’ impact, hence they may be reluctant to do something with this. This is particularly true for leaders in the early stages of their careers. If you are a more senior leader, this concept should be at the forefront of your mind and something you should be comfortable with. Creating impact is a positive, powerful, and respectful commitment to excellence.

Everyone’s behaviours shape the culture, but the behaviours that are displayed by and accepted or even rewarded by leaders are the most significant culture shapers. They impact culture the most.

Reputation and brand matter when it comes to your leadership

‘Reputation’ and ‘brand’ matter in all leadership positions, and it is essential for leaders to understand and work with them. Whatever leadership role you are in, you must have a strategy for your impact. And to see your leadership brand and reputation as a vehicle for influence and impact, particularly in a fast-changing world, where each moment matters.

Leaders impact culture

Culture is very topical in organisations. There is always a culture. It can be left to chance, or it can be consciously worked on and shaped.

Leaders at all levels have a responsibility when it comes to the organisation’s culture; the buck stops with the senior leaders. Everyone’s behaviours shape the culture, but the behaviours that are displayed by and accepted or even rewarded by leaders are the biggest culture shapers. They impact culture the most.

The ‘bad’ culture shaper

Imagine a CEO who speaks about the value of transparency and openness, but who goes behind his executives’ backs, sharing certain things only with his ‘trusted few’. The executives who experience this become cautious, thinking it is not about transparency at all–I’d better tread carefully around here from now on. These executives, in turn, become less transparent with their teams, who become disenchanted by the false behaviours (=not in line with the values) of their leaders. That is how leaders shape culture.

Transformational change happens at a behavioural level

The ‘good’ culture shaper

Imagine a company that says it values and respects people’s work-life balance. The leaders then reward and praise people who work smarter and within work hours, and work together in teams to achieve. They are rewarding what they value, not what they do not value (they are ‘not’ rewarding people who work long hours and sacrifice their personal lives). That is how leaders shape culture.

How we operate rather than simply what we do is becoming increasingly critical to success. It is all about how we impact people, the business, and the world around us.

So leaders who want to maximise the power of culture must look to themselves first: What is my impact? How am I behaving? What messages am I sending through my behaviours? What behaviours am I creating in others? And then start changing and adapting their behaviours, creating new habits if needed, to create the desired culture.

The 5-step impact strategy creator

Going into the future, our ability to have a significant impact is becoming increasingly important. We all need to think about our effect on others and what kind of impact we want to have. How we operate rather than simply what we do is becoming more and more critical to success. It is all about how we impact people, the business, and the world around us. It is fast becoming ‘the’ differentiating factor for successful executives, leaders, and organisations overall, something that we observe every day in our work.

And considering that leaders are increasingly connected 24/7 through social media, you are always ‘on stage’, so the need to manage your impact is crucial. By actively ‘creating the impact’ they want, leaders are demonstrating they are more in charge of, and can better predict, the outcomes they get. We all need to manage our personal impact and the effect our impact has on all our stakeholders, both in the short and the long term.

Are you ready to create your ‘impact strategy’?

Great, then use our 5-Step Impact Strategy Creator to get you started.

 

And remember that it may not always be about the impact you want to have, it may be about the impact that others need you to have.