Legacy Thinking: Leading Beyond Your Own Career

Hi Leader,

Legacy is often talked about as something that comes later.
Something you leave behind when your career is over.

But that definition is too small.

Real legacy is built in real time. It’s what continues because of how you lead while you still hold the role.

If you watched the video, you heard me name something that’s easy to overlook when leadership is going well: leadership doesn’t end with achievement. It compounds through the conditions you create for others.

Before I became the first Black person to lead a private aviation company, there were leaders who expanded what leadership looked like, and made it easier for others to step forward after them.

That work is still happening today.

Some of it is highly visible.
Some of it happens quietly, behind the scenes.
But all of it shapes what the next generation believes is possible.

Here’s the tension most leaders don’t sit with long enough:

You can be highly successful and still leave very little behind.

In the rest of this issue, I break down what separates leaders whose impact compounds from those whose influence ends when they exit…and how to practice legacy thinking now, not later.