What are Your Legacy Time Horizons?
by Robert Hackman
Photograph by Stale Grut on Unsplash
Well, they say time loves a hero
But only time will tell
If he’s real, he’s a legend from heaven
If he ain’t, he was sent here from hell
Lyrics from the song ‘Time Loves a Hero’
By Little Feat
Our interactions with others and our environment each moment of every day have a much more significant impact than we comprehend. Our words, decisions, and actions have a rippling effect in breadth and over time.
Time horizons make a difference. They impact what you take into account when selecting and, thus, alter the choices you make.
Does your criterion for evaluating your Legacies impact the decisions you make? How does taking accountability for the full impact of your actions and what you leave behind in every interaction up your level of responsibility? What happens to trust within teams, companies, and communities that integrate a culture based on Everyday Legacies – over time and breadth?
Everyone wants to make an impact.
The areas where each of us focuses and our approaches may vary widely; still, the core desire is the same. People want to make a difference. They want there to be a reason they are alive.
Measuring Legacies
I ask the people I interview about Legacy how they believe their impact – their Legacies – should be measured. I give them a choice between:
1) Their inputs – what they tried to do, or
2) Their results – only by what they did.
Many people believe that we do not truly control outcomes, making our intentions and efforts – the inputs – essential components of the process.
Others answered: the results. Those respondents were most adamant about their view and maintained that results were all that matter. Some openly wondering how it could be any other way.
Legacies are more complex than that. If outcomes are the only valid measure, what time horizons are you using?
By all accounts, Vincent Van Gogh was an abject failure during his lifetime. He endured mental illness, lost an ear, and died young as a failed painter.
We all realize his Legacy changed dramatically over time.
By many accounts, John Adams, a founding father of the United States, was considered a poor president. Our perception of him did not change until David McCullough’s thorough biography put the second president in a different light.
His term in office was sandwiched between towering figures George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The fact that his son, John Quincy Adams, became president added to his impact and Legacy.
Legacies turn the other way, too, through time and expanse. They are always convoluted in one way or another. None of us gets out unscathed.
A quote from one of my favorite films, ‘Road to Perdition,’ sums up the complications inherent in Legacies. ‘When people ask me if Michael Sullivan was a good man or if there was just no good in him at all, I always give the same answer. I just tell them…he was my father.’
Regardless of their significance, all these figures were also incredibly flawed.
Please do not believe that these examples represent exceptions to the rule. That they only apply to those who gain celebrity status. That it has no relevance for you and me. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Various Time Horizons
Think about the different timeframes used in business. They include weekly call reports, monthly production, revenue figures, cash-flows, quarterly results, especially in public companies, and annualized profits, to name a few. Each one of these provokes differing considerations and responses.
Consider family businesses. They work within the same parameters as other companies yet often have a much longer time horizon, thinking generationally, representing a primary secret of their success.
Public policy entities, religious institutions, and other purpose-driven organizations tend to take significantly lengthier perspectives.
Indigenous peoples think multi-generationally. We see how their relationship to and care for their environment varies from more modern sensibilities. We can learn from them and add their perspectives to our own.
The Power of Shared Mindsets
If everyone in an organization or community collectively adopted Everyday Legacy Mindsets, they would become more conscious of their impact on others and their environment, in the moment, over time, and throughout the group.
The compounding effect of more respectful and considerate interactions between colleagues significantly increases trust levels among them across departments, the organization, and its stakeholders.
They continually build on top of one another. The positive accumulated difference over time should not be underestimated. It characterizes a significant point of differentiation.
Legacy Mindset Challenges
What you find significant will vary depending on your time and circumstance. Name and claim your essentials and align yourself with them.
There is much to consider when seeking to live and lead with fewer regrets. Do not be deterred. Resist the shortcuts or what you find expedient in the moment.
Practice compassion for yourself and others when they forget.
I am not writing about a sanitized version of Legacy here. Regardless of whether others come to know, you and I will always know our truth.
Worthy Inquiries:
- Do the timeframes you consider influence your decision-making? What impact would the Mindsets of Everyday Legacies have on them?
- How would envisioning a broader and deeper range of your impact affect your choices? What if everyone on your team or in your organization did that?
- How does visualizing the ramifications of the ripple effects of your interactions over time and reach change your decisions? What about what you leave behind?
- What does increasing your sense of responsibility for the sum-total of your entire range of impact of all your interactions do for your credibility and trustworthiness? How would that grow your leadership?
- How does taking accountabilities for all you do and say increase your compassion for yourself and others?
Please contact me for help realizing the depth and breadth of your words, actions, and decision-making over time to improve them for the benefit of yourself, your team, and your organization. I welcome the conversation.
Robert Hackman, Principal, 4C Consulting – Courageously Curious Consulting and Coaching, helps people live and lead with fewer regrets. He grows and develops leaders through executive coaching, strategy consulting, facilitation, and training of individuals, teams, and organizations. He is committed to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. He facilitates trusting environments that promote uncommonly candid conversations. Rob is also passionate about the power of Everyday Legacies and developing Legacy Mindsets. He has conducted over 50 Legacy interviews with people to date.
A serious man with a dry sense of humor who loves absurdity. Rob can often be found hiking rocky elevations or making music playlists. His varied mixes, including Pandemic Playlists and Music About Men, can be found on Spotify.