How to leave a legacy.

Last week, Fast Company ran an article about your legacy as a leader. It shared the story of the author walking through a park in Toronto after the passing of Jack Layton.

Layton was a leader in Canada’s New Democratic Party, and had just died of cancer. The park was covered with chalk drawings and messages of people thanking Layton for his service.

It reminded me of similar outpourings we witnessed here in the US just a few weeks ago. There were makeshift memorials all over the country (and online) honoring Steve Jobs.

It’s what most of us dream of. We want our lives to have meaning. We may not dream of memorials throughout the country or world, but we want people to care. We want friends, family, co-workers to show-up at our funeral, and talk about how their life would be lacking had we not lived.

How do you do it? How do you create meaning in your life and others? While I loved the article in Fast Company, it didn’t give a lot of here’s how to do it. So, I came up with a few of my own.

Be Intentional

It’s been a mantra of mine since June (when Kia and I attended the Storyline Conference). Live life intentionally. To do anything of meaningful in life, we have live with purpose. Here are 3 ways to live intentionally to create meaning and purpose.

1. Start today.

This is the one piece of advice in the Fast Company article, and it’s great advice. If you want to leave a legacy to the world (whatever that world looks like), then start today.

The article quotes the authors of the book, Your Leadership Legacy. The premise of the book is start now. If you wait to think about your legacy until later in life, it may be too late.

Do it now.

2. Know what you believe.

Answer the why question of your life and business. You know what and how, but take the hard step and answer why. It will make the biggest difference in why you do what you do.

Some might call this creating a belief statement or a mission statement. It’s a great place to start.

Here are 2 articles to get you started:

• Define the why.
• Create a belief statement.

3. Create goals.

I’ve been reading EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey, and this is one of the things he starts with – know what you want. The old saying is true,

If you don’t know what you’re aiming at, you’ll hit it every time.

Ramsey states that your goals should be:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Yours
• Time-sensitive
• Written

You can create goals for any and every area of your life and business. If you haven’t tried it, you really should. It’s amazing to see the strength of simply writing down a goal (even if you don’t look at it for another year).

Communicate

Interestingly, Fast Company last week also ran an article about how great leaders are directly tied to their ability to effectively communicate. If you want to leave a meaningful legacy, people have to know what you believe. The article highlighted Winston Churchill during World War II, and how his communication with the country continually strengthened it during absolutely bleak hours.

The article went on to say that communicating is more than a Twitter and Facebook page. It’s using those and other tools to:

1. Entertain
2. Educate
3. Intrigue

Dull stinks. Dull doesn’t draw followers. Dull doesn’t inspire.

Dream small.

William Joseph Noellsch died after 90+ years of good living. He had a nice funeral that drew a nice crowd (especially since many of his friends and family had already passed away). There weren’t makeshift memorials or chalk drawings, but he left a legacy.

WJ Noellsch was better known to me and my family as Daddy Joe, my grandfather. He lived his life with these 3-4 tips in mind. Daddy Joe’s legacy was his family.

Daddy Joe lived his life intentionally, knew exactly what he believed and passed it on to us. His communication wasn’t flashy, but he managed to always entertain, education or intrigue us.

I’ll admit, I have a part of me that would love to have chalk drawings across a city block upon my death. That’s a definition of greatness, but it’s not the end-all, be-all. It’s okay to dream small.

If nothing else, I want to leave a legacy for my family. I need to start today.

Header image courtesy of stock.xchng
Steve Jobs image courtesy of CultofMac.com