Leadership can be defined in many ways, including “the ability to motivate and influence a group toward the achievement of goals.” As a manager, what is your role in motivating and retaining employees? How are you measured? What do you do? What are the results? What will be your legacy? How will your employees remember you? Think about it, managers are ultimately remembered for two things:

How well did the manager LEAD others to produce intended results?
How well did the manager INSPIRE and sustain an environment that brought out the best in everyone?

In today’s successful enterprise, managers must work toward mastering both leadership and management. Much has been written about the difference and interrelationship between the two. Put simply, leadership establishes direction, principles and values. Management directs people and resources based on the direction, principles and values that have already been established. Leadership is about vision and values. Management is about process and resources. Leadership is about movement. Management is about stability.

Effective managers lead with well-defined, predetermined results and values in mind. Generally, these are drawn from personal goals and principles, and organizational standards and expectations. The latter should include the vision, mission or goals of the larger enterprise as well as the primary aim and specific objectives of the business unit, location or team. Manager goals should include operational and production goals, of course, as well as goals that define the culture, specifically, how the manager and other team members relate with one another to achieve their goals.

The challenge facing you today is creating an environment where your people can satisfy their personal needs and achieve personal goals while helping you to satisfy organizational needs and achieve the organization’s goals.

Remember the legacy of the Starship Enterprise and Captain James T. Kirk?

“These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: To explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before.”

Captain Kirk’s legacy is vivid because we remember his mission and how he led by inspiring others on every mission to continually achieve their pre-determined goals. He took care of the people who he needed to take care of the goals.

If someone were to randomly ask the members of your team about their team mission, would they all give the same answer? What intended measurable results would they list? How do you know?
How do you inspire people to work on the right things? How do you make sure they work on their development?
Three years from now, how would your employees describe your role in the pursuit of team goals? Will yours be an inspiring legacy? How do you know?
What do you use to judge success and how well are you satisfied that you are measuring important criteria?
What is the biggest contribution you can make to your organization in the next three months? (Ask yourself; then ask the members of your team.)

Tips to Inspire Commitment and Create Legacy

Ask people to list their dreams and prioritize them.
Ask them to list skills & characteristics they believe are most important to their jobs.
Ask them to list the key responsibilities that define their jobs. You do the same for each of their positions. Compare your lists and discuss them together.
Discuss the development priorities gleaned from feedback.
Establish a regular process for sharing feedback with your team.
Invite people to have peer mentors and experienced coaches.
Challenge people to consider real development barriers and develop solutions with your support or with the aide of a certified coach.

Remember, you will be remembered for WHAT you and your team achieved as well as HOW you went about achieving it.