leadership and legacy: creating a lasting impact
What do you think of when you think about legacy?
Do you think about leaving behind a large inheritance which will ensure that your family will be well taken care of? What about having a scholarship established in your name? Or having your kids take over the family business? Maybe having your life documented to record the impact that you have left on your community?
Legacy has a different connotation for different people. Generally, though, legacy tends to be associated with your memory of something. Whether good or bad, it is the imprint that someone or something has left behind.
Often legacy is considered as we near retirement, or worse, when we are facing the end-of-life. We start to reflect on the impact we have had on the people around us, how the life we have led has made a difference. For those that view legacy in financial terms, we might plan inheritance gifting and charitable donations in a way that will reflect how we want to be remembered.
But legacy isn’t something to think about only in our later years. It’s something we shape every day. In fact, in this very moment, through our choices and actions, we are building our legacy in all aspects of life.
Legacy as a North Star
When I think about the legacy I am hoping to leave behind, I think about three guiding principles:
Be present, supportive and fun.
Make life easier for the people that matter to me.
Do my small part to leave the world a little better than I found it.
These aren't just principles for work or leadership; they are holistic life values that guide how I show up in every context, from family gatherings to community involvement to professional settings. Legacy is my north star, guiding both my personal and professional choices.
For as long as I remember, I have been driven by these three objectives. Even when I did not recognize that these principles were about creating my legacy, they were still informing the way that I lived my life in its entirety. This realization has reinforced an important truth: whether we acknowledge it or not, our everyday actions contribute to our legacy.
The real question is whether we want to be intentional about it, or leave it to chance.
Where Leadership and Legacy Intersect
I've always been drawn to work that aligns with my values, a natural extension of my life principles into my professional world. Out of university, I started my career in the charitable sector. It was easy to see the difference you were making because the impact was so tangible. Even as I moved into a role in a national not-for-profit, I could still feel that impact. I could see the difference that we were having with the work we were doing. My approach, even in those early stages, was aligned with building a meaningful legacy both personally and professionally.
In 2008, I joined the public service with trepidation. I feared that I would lose that ability to see change, to feel the impact—essentially, to build my legacy. Much to my surprise, however, it couldn't have been further from the truth. I consistently found myself in positions where I could tangibly understand the impact that my work was having. From homelessness to international health to post-secondary education, I had the opportunity to work with hundreds of different stakeholders and engage with organizations from coast to coast to coast.
Government became the place where I further honed my leadership skills. It was also where I became a Coach. Together, building competencies and experiences in these two areas completely changed my trajectory. It gave me even greater purpose and added a new dimension to my satisfaction. Both leadership and coaching became vehicles for extending my life principles into meaningful impact.
When Life Values and Work Misalign
With significant changes in the public service, it became increasingly challenging to show up in alignment. Despite the circumstances, I focused on what truly mattered: how my team felt, staying true to my values, and cultivating a positive culture. These were ways I could apply my principles even in a challenging environment.
But eventually, advocating for the things I believed in became an uphill battle. My efforts to drive positive change were met with resistance, and I started to be perceived as a nuisance rather than constructive. The misalignment between my values and my work deepened. I could no longer see the impact I was making. Work felt laborious, political, redundant, overly bureaucratic. I was feeling a values misalignment. It was time for a change.
Leadership as One Expression of Life Legacy
Through deep reflection, I've come to understand that my drive has always been about creating a meaningful legacy in all aspects of life, generating impact that extends beyond my immediate reach and endures over time. The Haudenosaunee Seventh Generation principle captures this beautifully: it encourages us to consider how our decisions today will affect people seven generations into the future—approximately 150–200 years ahead.
This principle serves as a powerful reminder that in all our roles—as family members, community participants, and yes, as leaders—we are stewards for future generations who should inherit a world at least as vibrant as the one we enjoy today. Our legacy isn't just about what we accomplish in our lifetime—it's about how those accomplishments continue to influence and inspire long after we're gone.
The Inseparable Nature of Life Principles and Legacy
A meaningful legacy emerges from living by consistent principles across all domains of life. The values that guide our personal relationships, our community involvement, and our professional contributions are not separate sets of rules — they are different expressions of the same core identity. When we bring our authentic selves to leadership roles, we naturally infuse our organizations with the same principles that guide our broader lives. The artificial separation between "work self" and "real self" dissolves, allowing for more integrated, purposeful living that builds a coherent legacy.
The people who have most profoundly shaped our world — whether in business, politics, science, arts, or community service — understood this fundamental connection. They lived with both present accountability and future vision, recognizing that their daily actions across all domains were writing their legacy in real time.
As you navigate your own life journey, I invite you to regularly ask yourself: "What legacy am I creating today through my choices? How will my decisions now shape the experience of those who come after me?" By bringing conscious awareness to this question, you transform ordinary moments into extraordinary legacy-building opportunities.
In the end, the most profound legacy any person can leave is not found in buildings named in their honour or in the size of their retirement portfolio, but in the lives they've touched, the potential they've unlocked, and the positive ripples their principles have set in motion across time. That is life's true legacy, and it starts with how you choose to live today.
