It’s pretty typical of retiring CEOs, lame duck presidents, and people approaching their twilight years to think about their legacy — whom and what they’ve influenced, what will be remembered and passed down.

I don’t know if I’m unusual in this, but I think about my legacy a lot, and I’m only at mid-career (I hope).  I find that, by viewing a near-term situation through the lens of how I may be remembered guides me to see the big picture and, I believe, make a better decision.  This applies to all kinds of decisions, from how I tackle a difficult conversation; how I think about the professional development of my team (see the Massive Digression below); to what policies/approaches I want to champion in my role.  

I don’t have kids (yet 😉), but I have heard from parents that having kids makes them strive to become better people, because they recognize that their decisions will form an impression for the child about who they are as a person/parent.  And they more clearly see the connection between an action taken today, and the impact made later.

Massive Digression:  Here’s how considering my legacy re: the professional development of my team affects my everyday behavior.  I’d like to be remembered as the person with whom they learned and accomplished the most.  (I aim high when it comes to my aspirational legacy.  😁)  This means that I try to do the following things, to get as close to achieving this as possible.

(Whoa, I just wrote out my management manifesto without even intending to!  This is why I love writing a blog….)

Companies should also think about their legacies as they go about their business, because they’ll have one, whether or not they intend to.  Each employee eventually becomes an evangelist of the company’s culture and experience — either an evangelist for, or against.  This diaspora of former employees/evangelists — and how they operate in new companies — is what a company will be remembered for.  On the positive side, think about Xerox PARC and Bell Labs (innovation); Google (data-driven people operations and cultural norms; innovation; among others); McKinsey (leadership development); Apple (design); GE (Six Sigma quality); Zappos (service); etc.  There are plenty of negative examples as well.

What’s the difference between a company’s legacy, its core values, and its definition of success?  There are definitely ties, but I think they are different things.  The legacy is what gets carried forth and transferred by alumni from company to company; core values and definitions of success aren’t as fungible because each company is different.  However, ‘how’ core values and success are achieved can be part of a company’s legacy, since it’s about how decisions get made and how people are treated and motivated.

At McKinsey, the core values are a set of 8-10 principles, all of which support the dual mission of impeccable client service and industry-leading employee development.  From a legacy perspective, the concepts of ‘caring meritocracy’ and the ‘up or out’ method of advancement are what I hear alumni refer to the most when they reflect on the artifacts they take away from the Firm.  (Can’t say with any confidence that these are what the McK leadership would want to be their legacies.)  How do these two seemingly counterbalancing practices play out in practice? 

Here’s an example: anyone we hired through the rigorous McKinsey hiring process became our responsibility to develop.  That meant pouring extensive resources into mentoring, coaching, teaching someone who might otherwise be labeled a “hiring mistake”.  But at some point, after being given multiple opportunities to demonstrate their potential, this person may be counseled to leave.  This comes with a generous severance package, called “search time” — i.e., time to seek out a new job on McKinsey’s dime and with the support of the partners and other people who were involved in that person’s McKinsey experience.  9 times out of 10, people who have gone through this process leave knowing a lot more about themselves:  their motivations, their strengths and development areas; and feel grateful to McKinsey for helping them realize their next opportunity.  

That’s how the ‘caring meritocracy’ and ‘up or out’ policy plays out.  These artifacts of a company’s legacy tell you a lot about the company, what it values, and how it treats its people.

What is the aspirational legacy of your company?  How do you think about this for yourself?  I think it’s never too early to start thinking about these types of questions.