“Please think about your legacy because you are writing it every day.”

—Gary Vaynerchuk

One of the first activities I ask new clients to do is to think about and create their own personal legacy statement. It is often something that most people have never considered.

Whether you replace the word Legacy with ‘Brand’ or ‘Reputation’ or whatever else you feel more comfortable with – basically you’re pulling together a statement of intent on the impact you want to have on others.

A Legacy statement should become your baseline for how you want others to think about you or the feeling you leave behind after engaging and communicating with them.

The two key questions I ask clients to think about and write initial responses to are:

1. What would you like others to say or think about you behind your back?
2. What would you hate for others to say or think about you behind your back?

* ‘Others’ refers to anyone regardless of role, hierarchy, internal or external.

Once you have written your list of words consider the following:

• Does my list of what I’d like others to say have a leaning towards being more ‘task focused’ or ‘people oriented’? If there is a strong bias towards one or the other perhaps put some more thought into the one with a shorter list so that there is a more balanced emphasis.
• Why do the words I wrote down in my ‘hate’ list resonate so strongly with me? Often this list is not referenced again but it is a good way for people to be clear on what would absolutely go against their values if someone did say it about them.  It is often a way for people to gain clarity around intent versus their actual impact.

The last bit of creating a legacy statement is to ensure you refer to it and use it as a barometer regularly.   Your legacy statement should be embedded into your brain so that if anyone ever asked you, you could recite it off by heart.  It doesn’t mean you can’t ever amend or align your Legacy down the track but essentially you should have it clearly imprinted into your brain.

Then as you leave a meeting, walk away from a corridor conversation, hang up the phone, press end on a zoom call – use it as a quick check in – did I leave my Legacy behind after that interaction?   If not, what could I have done differently?  And, most importantly what will I actually do moving forward that will ensure that what others say is aligned to my Legacy statement?