leaders legacy by jim kouzes and barry posner

A Leader’s LegacyBy Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner

Published by Jossey-Bass, 2006ISBN 0787982962

IntroductionAre you on this planet to do something or are youhere just for something to do? If you’re on thisplanet to do something, then what is it? What dif-ference will you make? What will be your legacy?

Leadership isn’t solely about results. Successin leadership isn’t measured only in numbers.Being a leader brings with it a responsibility to dosomething of significance that makes families,communities, work organizations, nations, the en-vironment and the world better places than theyare today.

The purpose of leaders is to mobilize others toserve a purpose. And if you’re here to serve a pur-pose, the purpose comes first. You’ll have to makesacrifices in service of that purpose. In this age ofreality shows like Survivor, The Apprentice andThe Amazing Race, it might appear to some thatsuccess is winner-take-all and at all costs. Butthat’s not true.

When people talk about leadership, they oftenuse the word passion. And when we think of pas-sion, we tend to think of emotions such as enthusi-asm, zeal, energy, exuberance and intensity. Well,all those attributions might be true, but if you lookup the word passion in any dictionary that includesorigins you’ll see that it comes from the Latin wordfor suffering.

Passion is suffering! A passionate person issomeone who suffers and a compassionate personis someone who suffers with and shares the suffer-

ing of others — and wants to take action to allevi-ate this condition. Nearly every act of leadershiprequires suffering — and often for the leader achoice between one’s personal success and safety,and the greater welfare of others. Nothing greatcomes without costs.

Leadership is hard work. At times we’ll suffer,and those we love and cherish will suffer, if only be-cause of the tradeoffs we have to make betweenour own career interests and those of the greatergood. If you want to be a leader, you must be will-ing to pay a price. By sacrificing, you demonstratethat you’re not in it for yourself. That sends themessage, loud and clear, that you have the best in-terests of others at heart.

The most significant contributions leadersmake aren’t to today’s bottom line but to long-term development of individuals and institutionsthat adapt, prosper and grow. People should nevertake on the job of leadership if they’re unwilling tosee beyond their own needs. If they do, they’ll ulti-mately fail.

We’ll all be remembered for something. Thequestion is, for what? What will others say aboutyou when you’re no longer around? Each of uslives on in the memories we create, in the systemsand practices we set in place (or don’t), and in thelives we touch. We guarantee that what people willsay about you won’t be about what you’veachieved for yourself, but what you’ve achieved forothers. Not how big a campfire you built, but how

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well you kept others warm, how well you illuminatedthe night to make them feel safe, and how beautiful youleft the campsite for those who would come after youto build the next fire.

The Best Leaders Are TeachersThe best way to learn something is to teach it tosomeone else. No matter whether you’re a leader or astudent, if you’re really serious about helping otherslearn, you start to think, study and prepare from themoment you’re asked to take on that role. In thatprocess, you become consumed by learning. Youknow you’re on the line. You know you’re going tohave to perform live in front of others, and you’d betterhave your stuff down cold.

One of the things that leaders do is to mentor andteach. And when they’re teaching — at least, whenthey’re teaching with intensity — they’re learning.Each and every interactionyou have with your asso-ciates can be framed as alearning opportunity forthem — and for you.

Take a performanceappraisal, for example. Youcan view it as a perfuncto-ry exercise in describingsomeone’s scores on cer-tain measures and compe-tencies, or you can look atit as a mutual learning op-portunity. These sessionsbecome mutual learning opportunities when you ap-proach them as chances for people to teach you abouttheir strengths, weaknesses, aspirations, goals, disap-pointments, confusions, vulnerabilities and the like.They become mutual learning opportunities when youapproach them as chances for you to teach your asso-ciates about your own struggles with these issues andwhat you’ve learned from your experience, and forthem to teach you about the same.

It transforms the experience from a monologue to adialogue. It also elevates your relationships from boss-subordinate to mentor-protégé.

But there’s a second lesson to keep in mind aboutthis element of teaching and mentoring: our teacherscontinue to teach as we go on to tell their stories. Each

of us, whether we intend to or not, will become atsome point a character in someone else’s story. We alltalk about people when they’re not around, and otherswill talk about us when we’re not around. The obviousquestion is: what will they say?

That should make each of us wonder about a fewthings:

• What lessons am I teaching in every interaction Ihave? The “moral of the story” I’m relating may beobvious, but what else am I teaching? Am I evenaware of it?

• What stories will others tell about me in the fu-ture? What will others learn from those stories? What’sthe legacy being passed along? What’s the legacy Iwant to pass along?

• What am I learning from others as I teach?Put that together with some lessons Jim Kouzes

and Barry Posner discovered when analyzing theteaching evaluations at theLeavey School of Businessat Santa Clara University,where they work. Themost highly rated teachersare those who are mostenthusiastic about theirmaterial.

That probably squaresdirectly with your own ex-perience. When you’re in aclass with someone who’struly passionate about asubject, don’t you get

jazzed about it? Doesn’t that person really turn you onto the subject? Don’t you wish all your teachers couldbe that way?

The same applies to leaders. The best leaders arethe most passionate about their work, their organiza-tions and their disciplines. Their enthusiasm is conta-gious, and others catch that enthusiasm and display itin their own work. Those are the leaders we’ll tell themost positive stories about in the future. Those are theteachers who continue to make a difference long afterwe, and they, have moved on.

We All Need Loving CriticsThe late John Gardner, leadership scholar and presi-dential advisor, once remarked, “Pity the leader caught

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between unloving critics and uncritical lovers.” Thatphrase should be put on a poster to hang over everyleader’s desk — or a screen saver on every leader’scomputer — and it should be read and contemplatedseveral times a day.

None of us likes to hear the constant screeching ofharpies who have only foul things to say. We close ourears to constant complainers who are predictable intheir whining. At the same time, we never benefit from,nor truly believe, the syco-phants whose flattery isobviously aimed at gainingfavor. To stay honest withourselves, what we reallyneed are “loving critics” —people who care deeplyenough about us to giveus honest feedback abouthow we’re doing.

The higher up you goon the corporate ladder,the less likely it is thatleaders will ask for feed-back about their perform-ance. Leaders want toknow how others are doing, but rarely do they ask howthey’re doing themselves. Senior executives are quitehappy to prescribe 360-degree feedback for others —it’s the rage these days. But when it comes to gettingfeedback, it’s not for them. And if they’re getting it,that’s probably because an outside consultant orcoach told them they should be getting it, not becausethey took the initiative to ask.

Think about this for a moment. From a behavioralperspective, credibility, which is at the foundation ofleadership, is about doing what you say you’ll do. Buthow can you do what you say if you don’t know howyou’re doing? If you never ask for feedback on your be-havior and on how well your behavior affects how oth-ers are doing, how can you really expect to align yourwords and actions over the long haul?

There’s solid evidence that the best leaders arehighly attuned to what’s going on inside themselves asthey’re leading and to what’s going on in others.They’re very self-aware and they’re very sociallyaware. They can tell in short order whether they’vedone something that has enabled someone to perform

at a higher level or whether they’ve sent motivationheading south.

All leaders want to have a positive impact on per-formance. It’s part of their legacy. The only way theycan know if they’re having the desired impact is to getregular feedback on how they’re doing. Leaders needmore loving critics.

The reason that leaders aren’t eager to ask forfeedback is that they’re afraid of feeling exposed — ex-

posed as not being per-fect, as not knowingeverything, as not being asgood at leadership as theyshould be, as not being upto the task. But if you’re aleader, you’re already ex-posed. You’re effectivelydancing naked on thetable, so there’s no usepretending you’re wearingclothes.

The better strategy isto accept the importanceof seeking feedback aboutour performance. Learning

to be a better leader requires great self-awareness andit requires making ourselves vulnerable. Make sure youhave processes for getting regular feedback.

Leaders Should Want to Be LikedLasting success depends on whether we like our lead-ers. It’s only logical, then, that all leaders should like tobe liked. But leaders often say, “I don’t care if peoplelike me. I just want them to respect me.” Get real! Thatstatement is utter nonsense — contrary to everythingwe know about effective leadership.

Think about it for a moment. Is this a binarychoice? Are we restricted to either liking or respectingsomeone? Can’t we have both? Can’t we both like andrespect a person?

The leaders people want to follow are the ones forwhom they have genuine affection. Love is not toostrong a word to use for how the best leaders feelabout their constituents and how their constituents feelabout them. If you can’t have both liking and respect,then you should choose liking over respect.

Of course, some leaders worry that if they get



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close enough to people for them to like the leader,then it will be tough doing the difficult parts of theleadership job — things like firing people, reprimand-ing them for poor performance or holding them ac-countable for living up to high standards. A toughtruth about leading, however — and one that doesn’tget talked about enough — is that sometimes youhurt others and sometimes you get hurt. You can’t hitthe delete key and eliminate those times from yourjob. You can’t delegate them to others. They comewith the territory.

That truth should not deter us from wanting to beliked. Being motivated to have others like us will resultin more empowering actions on our part than justwanting to be respected. Being motivated to want oth-ers to like us will make us more concerned about themthan we are about ourselves.

And here’s a final piece of advice. If you have peo-ple working for you in leadership roles who truly don’tcare if other people don’t like them, then fire them.They may not like you, but everyone else will.

ConclusionLegacies aren’t the result of wishful thinking. They’rethe result of determined doing. The legacy you leave isthe life you lead. We leave our legacies daily. e

ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Jim Kouzes is an executive fellowat the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship atthe Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara Univer-sity. Barry Posner is dean of the Leavey School ofBusiness.

Related ReadingLeading at a Higher Level: Blanchard on Leadershipand Creating High Performing Organizations, by KenBlanchard, Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2006, ISBN0132347725.

Leading Quietly: An Unorthodox Guide to Doing theRight Thing, by Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr., HarvardBusiness School Press, 2002, ISBN 1578514878.

The Likeability Factor: How to Boost Your L-Factor andAchieve Your Life’s Dreams, by Tim Sanders, CrownPublishing, 2005, ISBN 1400080495.

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