Lead On with Greg & Mark (LOwGaM)
We invite you to join us as we talk about the world of leadership during times of complexity.
Lead On with Greg & Mark (LOwGaM)
S4:E7 Creating Your Legacy: Reflections on Life's Journey
Ever wondered how everyday actions can shape your lasting legacy? Join us on Lead On with Greg and Mark as we explore this profound concept.
We delve into the real meaning of legacy and the everyday impact each of us can have, discussing the importance of aligning daily actions with long-term goals to map out a personal legacy manifesto. This episode invites you to reflect on your own legacy and the mark you want to leave on the world, sharing four easy steps you can take starting today.
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You're listening to Lead On with Greg and Mark, brought to you by the Pennsylvania Association of Intermediate Units. Join us this season as we engage in conversations on leading on through times of complexity. Now for your hosts Greg.
Speaker 2:Hello Mark Hoffman. How are you today?
Speaker 3:Wonderful You're in 10 minutes A little loud A little loud, a little loud.
Speaker 1:A little loud.
Speaker 3:Maybe it's just my headphones, maybe it's just your headphones. It's a good thing we have mastering software that levels all that out. It sure is, it sure is. So what's going?
Speaker 2:on hey, doing well, doing really well. It's a lot of milestones lately with the end of the school year.
Speaker 3:It is that time of the year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I had a great experience. My daughter, morgan, graduated from high school. Congratulations, thank you. And because she was the vice president of the class, it's my time to brag.
Speaker 3:Go ahead.
Speaker 2:She got to do the opening. So she did this nice opening speech and she dropped the Ferris Bueller's quote.
Speaker 3:Well, kudos to you and your wife for raising a daughter that would quote ferris bueller at her graduation ceremony how about it? Yeah, so uh, tell us about it. So she's on stage. Let's set the scene.
Speaker 2:She's on stage she's on stage and she essentially you know she's greeting her class and greeting everybody who's in attendance and you know she she talks about she drops the ferris bueller quote, which I thought was great you thought well, there's so many great quotes. Well, life, life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you might just miss it. You might just miss it, yeah, you might just miss it play hooky every once in a while.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, exactly. Have a nice lunch in chicago. Go to the art museum right exactly what is it a? Is it a ferrari or a porsche?
Speaker 2:drive. It was a ferrari ferrari.
Speaker 3:It was a ferrari drive an italian sports car, you know my dad only wipes it with a diaper once in a while.
Speaker 2:That was great, the great movie we'll take great care of your vehicle. That's that was great.
Speaker 3:And then they cut to the scene of them racing through chicago and they're like jumping oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was like slow bottoming out, it was the best, it was the best and then they get there just in time to pull up. Yeah uh, so, speaking of cars, I so, so I think that's a good segue, right well?
Speaker 3:milestones like milestones legacy.
Speaker 2:So, um, I am the proud owner of a legacy. I know we might have mentioned in a previous episode, but I got a great story the car that I almost died in last month. Oh, I did the nipa slide. It was listen, I had lots of room. Has that taken off by? I did the nipa slide. It was listen, I had lots of room has that taken off?
Speaker 3:by the way, the nipa slide. I want to copyright that maybe slide mark hoffman stamp.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna get you a t-shirt.
Speaker 3:I would like it nipa slide, the nipa slide for, if you don't know, uh, greg made a very risky left turn with me in the passenger seat.
Speaker 2:It wasn't that risky.
Speaker 3:He turned left on green and I escaped that turn only by miracle, by a miracle. So you got this car. We did leadership through the lens of cars. We did do that. That was a season two, maybe it was.
Speaker 2:So I got this car, but I didn't talk about the fact that, where the car came from. Did I say that there was an older lady who needed to be to go to a senior living home? And so I didn't tell you anything, it's so good, it's so good, so, um, I didn't, I didn't actually buy it until the day I saw it?
Speaker 2:no no, but it was told about me through a colleague at work at carbon lehigh and, uh, I went and I met the day. I went to meet the people for the cars the day I got it and I didn't even test drive it yet, just bought it, as is yeah, so I'd seen the site on scene. So what I did is I took my father in law with me, john Chandra, because he loves cars, all right, and he's always been like with my wife and everybody like so reliable, he does the research, he knows the Kelly book, value, value, all that kind of stuff. He knows his way around, he knows his way around the car. So we get to triple a and I go in with, uh, it was the, the wife, um, it was the daughter of the, this lady.
Speaker 2:And then, uh, the husband went in the car with my father in law and he test drove it. So your father-in-law test drove the car. So we test drove it. When he got back he gave me the thumbs up. I'm okay, let's get the transaction done. So, literally, that's how the legacy we got the legacy.
Speaker 2:It's a nice car. So you're sitting around, greg, how's your legacy? And I said and I said, well, that's a really deep question. I said I've been making investments, you know, in in my kids. You know, cause usually you think about monetary value with with when you leave your legacy, you want to make sure you leave your kids money. So I'm like I have them set up with five, 29 plans. And uh, and I said that they're doing well and my job's going well. You know, I'm really working on my mentorship, I really want to leave my mark. And he goes greg, your subaru, how's your subaru? So that? So that guy, it was just I don't care about work.
Speaker 2:It's just a classic it's, it's, it's, it's just me and in real life, this is. These are the kind of discussions I have and I I guess I am a deep person, you're well, very reflective I.
Speaker 3:I think it says a lot that you know someone asking you about your legacy. You immediately go to your personal legacy, not your Subaru. That's right Legacy.
Speaker 2:I love it, yeah, so that's. I thought it would be fitting it's a nice tie in yeah. I thought it'd be a nice tie in, so I did look up an article on legacy leadership living your purpose, leaving your mark, leaving your mark.
Speaker 3:Another one of these articles where it's four easy steps. This is Emily Rogers, thank you. You can Google this and find her work online, which we'll just sort of talk about. It's funny because simultaneously I've been thinking about milestones and legacies though I have an ascent, not a legacy, right, but that doesn't have the same ring though.
Speaker 2:No it doesn't Leave your assent. Leave your assent, no, no.
Speaker 3:Make your assent, make yours Okay. Maybe I don't know, but I don't think it's going to get confused because it's the end of the school year as we're recording this, so we're thinking about legacies and milestones. Those are natural things to talk about at a commencement, because a commencement or a graduation or is a milestone.
Speaker 2:That's correct.
Speaker 3:It's about legacy, so yes, and that's actually one of the nice things about our career paths is that we have these natural cycles every school year.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:There's always a new incoming class. There's always an outgoing class right.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:People celebrate their 30th year, their 15th year in the career path. We were talking in my remarks at our recent graduation ceremony about milestones and I'm sort of a word nerd, you know. The word that I looked up was milestone.
Speaker 2:Yes, just sort of curious like where does it come from, like a definition, or where the history?
Speaker 3:is yeah, I mean, it's actually a literal translation of what they were. Every mile they would put stone markers or piles of stone to indicate that you had gone another thousand double paces.
Speaker 2:No kidding.
Speaker 3:And so apparently I learned that in the Roman Empire they had like 40, 50,000 miles of road and every mile, if you will, they would put a stone marker indicating that you had gone a mile. So, in other words, it would help the traveler know where they were in terms of how far they had gone and how far they had to go. And the mile comes from thousand mil or mili, because it was a thousand double paces Was the equivalent of their mile, which was like 4,000, some odd feet, which is roughly close enough to what we ultimately standardized it on, but anyway, milestone, every mile, a pile of stones Indicating that you had gone another mile or that you had another mile to go.
Speaker 2:That's really cool. I had no idea. Yeah, I just because we always use the term and never. I never really thought about the term.
Speaker 3:So that's literally what it is and apparently, if you go like through Italy and parts of the Roman empire, apparently many of these milestones are still there.
Speaker 2:That's great. Let's go to Italy. Can we do a little educational road trip? If we move to Italy, let let's do it.
Speaker 3:So the analogy, I think, rings true. It's obviously where we've borrowed this word right, this idea of markers along a path, markers indicating how far you've gone and how far you have to go. I think that's why it's such a natural analogy to a life or to a career or to a journey that doesn't involve literal travel. As you think of your life, where are those markers that indicate these momentous events or these things that you've achieved, or experienced, and it reminds me of the classic tombstone reference where you have your birthday.
Speaker 2:So I was born in 1976, and then there's a dash, and then, obviously, when I pass away, there will be another date. So it's all. What do you do with the dash? What do you make of that?
Speaker 3:dash. Yeah, that's the only thing that matters. Right Everything in between the two years and between those two years.
Speaker 2:So in this article it starts off with a great quote by Maya Angelou, and it's a if you're going to live, leave a legacy, make a mark on the world that can't be erased. Yeah, Love that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, very good. We, we, we do a lot of workshops, professional development, retreats, things like that. And when we work with boards, one of the first questions that we typically start with is why did you run for the board, or why did you run for office, or you could do. The analogy to this applies to any career path. Why did you pursue XYZ, yes, why did you volunteer for this, that and the other thing? And ultimately, what we get at is when you're done with your term of service, what will you want people to say about your tenure? What do you want your legacy to be? Because sometimes people hear legacy and they think about ego and like, oh, I don't really have, I I'm not worried about, but so I've reframed it, it's not. What do you want your legacy?
Speaker 3:to be it's what do you want people to remember about your tenure, about your time? Yes, about your accomplishments, about your contributions I think it's. I think it's related and it's another way to twist it in a way that is um for the people that shy away from the word legacy yes, because it's a big word it's, it's, it's like whoa, like they might think of it as high pressure or self-absorbed.
Speaker 3:Yes, like, almost like an egomaniacal word, like my, my. Well, I'm worried about my legacy. Well, a lot of people don't do things because they're worried about their legacy. They do it because they want to make an impact. Yes, so if you're one of those people that don't relate to the word legacy, think about impact. What do you want your impact to be?
Speaker 2:I like that. It really resonates with me. So the author, emily, she's got four things here to get connected. All right, so the first is my favorite go ahead, reflect. So so often we during a day, you know we, we think we do, that we make the best decisions we can right, but it's often until you reflect on it you know that where the improvement comes. So like if on my commute, example, I do a lot of reflection and going through it is that did we make the best choice there? Did I handle that conversation the best way I could have? But all this reflect piece is so the reflection is so key here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and her point about reflection is specific to legacies, right, so not just general reflection, but what reflect as you're driving? What do you want your leadership legacy to be?
Speaker 1:What has it been?
Speaker 3:I like this one too, because we're thinking about it in the future. Another way to frame it in your reflection could be if I were to leave today she's not saying this, but I'm sort of taking her work and extrapolating If you were to leave today, if today was your last day in your position, reflect on what your legacy will be tomorrow when someone replaces you. What will people say about your tenure? And if you don't like the answer, then change. And if you don't know what the answer is, if you can't articulate what your legacy is, I think that reflection might say well, maybe I need to be a little bit more intentional about what my values are, and maybe I need to be a little bit more intentional about the legacy I'd like to leave or the impact I'd like to make, and she also mentions about asking three mentors or trusted advisors what they think your legacy is now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you might not like what you hear. You might not like it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if you're surrounded by yes people or your friends, you'll probably hear things that you like, but I like this idea of trusted advisors, greg number two Aspire.
Speaker 2:So, setting aside self-doubt and dwelling in possibility, write your legacy manifesto. Yeah. So what is a legacy manifesto? It's a declaration of your intentions and should include the characteristics you want to be remembered for what you have learned, that you would like to pass on, what remains to be accomplished and what might get in your way of realizing what is possible.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so that's obviously the natural outcome of the reflection.
Speaker 3:So if you've reflected on what you want your legacy to be, write it down write it If you've reflected on your legacy and you can't articulate what it is, write down what you'd like it to be. Or, if you don't like the legacy that you're leaving, write down how you'd like to change it. And through, I would assume, through that aspiration, through that development of a mission statement, if you will, or a legacy statement, you'll have the roadmap you need to change your behaviors, to change your legacy.
Speaker 2:Yes, there you go. Number three. Number three is become so. It's saying use that legacy manifesto as a guidepost. So carefully consider how you are currently spending your finite time and energy. What percent of time are you currently devoting to actions that are bringing your legacy to life today?
Speaker 3:So this one is, I guess, so you've reflected Yep, you've made a plan, made a plan.
Speaker 2:Now do it. Now do it. Are you tracking it? Yeah, put it in action, become, become.
Speaker 3:Yeah, does your time and do your actions reflect the values that you've articulated and reflected upon in terms of your legacy? Because I mean, like, think about it, what is your legacy really? It's just a reflection, or a shadow, if you will, of your actions, right, and the decisions that you've made and how you've made people feel yes, Right.
Speaker 3:I imagine when people think about legacies of others, they're not saying well, he built that building, you know she secured that big grant or she made that big sale, or you know he led the company. I think most people will say they were a nice person, they knew their employees, they cared about us as humans Wanted to help students. Yeah, exactly, they were selfless, they were you know, they were respectful, they were kind, they were funny. I would imagine most people would rather be remembered for their positive attributes than for their tangible accomplishments.
Speaker 2:That's my guess, I would agree. Yeah, the human characteristics rather than the tangible outcomes, the tangible projects and those kinds of things. Yeah, I would agree. I would agree.
Speaker 3:Finally, Number four.
Speaker 2:Finally, sustain. So to sustain, you want to sustain your intended legacy. In order to do this, you must have the focus and determination necessary to overcome distractions, disruptions and doubt.
Speaker 3:Yeah, legacy-minded leader. She writes ensure a better future by creating something that outlasts them and enables the legacies of others. This is very similar to the first one, which is reflect right, yes, it's almost like the rinse which is reflect right, so it's almost like the rinse repeat cycle. Right? So you've reflected, you've created a plan, you've implemented the plan. Now you need to evaluate the plan and in evaluating the plan, you'll be reflecting. Then you should write down, then you should act, then you should evaluate. You know it's that. Yes, that's a cyclical, it's a, yeah, it's a cycle, yeah, yeah, right. So, um, have you, have you thought about your legacy?
Speaker 3:I have been thinking about it yeah, I mean, how many more years do you have before you can comfortably retire?
Speaker 2:I would say another nine, nine to ten years.
Speaker 3:Yeah about that yeah, I mean it's interesting, right, I haven't actually done this where I'm like writing down what I want my legacy to be.
Speaker 3:So that'll be an interesting exercise for me. I teach a doctoral course through a local university for aspiring school administrators well sitting school administrators, aspiring doctors of education and recently I taught a course on curriculum and this article reminded me of an exercise I had them go through, where I literally asked them throughout the course to articulate for me their curriculum or their teaching and learning North Star. What are their core beliefs about teaching and learning. And it's always interesting to do that because I knew from personal experience I'd never been asked to do that. So here it is. We're trained educators, we've gone, we've got bachelor's degrees. Most of us have master's degrees. You have a master's if you're going for your doctorate.
Speaker 3:Very rarely do we actually ask people in the field to pause and write down and articulate what their theory of education is, or their theory of teaching and learning. We call it pedagogy. That's a technical word for us. Yes, what's your North Star? And it's always fascinating to watch people go through the process of reflecting, writing and revising and then to see if their actions and what they do each day and the decisions they make with their budgets and how they interact with their staff and their professional development that they offer? Does it align with their North Star? And if you've never written it down, then you don't actually know if your decisions are aligned to anything or you're just doing sort of what your gut says you could just be floundering, or just, you know, just on your feet, just on your feet, like whatever seems like the right thing to do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so this reminds me of that exercise. It's not a hundred percent correlated, but it's close enough in the sense that sometimes these foundational things that are so core and essential to who we are, sometimes we actually take them for granted and we don't actually articulate it, like if I were to ask you what's your core I'm not asking you this but if I were to ask you what's your core I'm not asking you this but if I were to ask you what's your core? North star for teaching and learning. Have you ever written that down?
Speaker 2:No, we had to do education philosophy way back in bachelor's days. That's my point. Bachelor's degree yeah.
Speaker 3:And so it's like I'm challenging all of us. Take this seriously, Write down.
Speaker 2:What do you want your legacy to be? Yeah, and the simpler the better too.
Speaker 3:I think so, and the clearer you can make it, the better yeah, and then ultimately, like when you're faced with an ethical dilemma, you should reflect on the legacy and say if I, if I turn left, if I turn right, if I go straight, if I turn around, how will this be remembered? Or how does this align with how I want to be remembered? That makes sense. At least it makes perfect.
Speaker 2:I don't know if the connection is there, it does make perfect sense. The connection is there.
Speaker 3:It's just amazing that we take for granted these core, essential elements of our leadership styles and of the things that sort of drive our everyday actions. I think we know the answer, but knowing the answer and articulating the answer in a really succinct way two totally different things. This reminds me of journaling also.
Speaker 2:Similar to journaling, because that you're keeping like you're keeping tabs with how you're doing. You're keeping everything in check. Yeah, but yet most people don't journal, I don't, I still don't journal.
Speaker 3:Right and we talk about it on the show all the time.
Speaker 2:I would love to come on an episode and say I'm journaling. Yes.
Speaker 3:But I mean, I think it's like that reflection, right it is. Are those crickets I hear again? I think they are?
Speaker 2:They followed us from a couple episodes ago. All right, I'm off my soapbox, but I like that and we did summarize, let's wrap it up so going back, I'm getting emotional, so you are so going back. We had the four different ways to get connected to your leadership legacy and to start living it. All right. So number one was reflect, number two was aspire, number three was become and number four sustain. Yeah, the cycle it's the cycle.
Speaker 3:Who do you want to be Yep, and how?
Speaker 2:are you going to get?
Speaker 3:there and how are you going to get there? How do you want to be remembered and do the actions that you take? Will they result?
Speaker 2:in being remembered that way. Are you aligned with that North Star?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So the next time you're looking to start a meeting, you need a meeting starter or an icebreaker, even if it's a small group of people that know each other well. Just Just say, hey, what impact do you want to be remembered for? Exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2:Or if you're a team, what impact do we?
Speaker 1:want to be remembered. For what do we want? The legacy of?
Speaker 3:this cabinet to be. What do we want the legacy of this team to be? When people think back 20 years from now on the people that were in our seats what do we want them to say about us? That's a great point. That's a great way to establish norms. It is that we worked well together, that we put the students first, that we put the customers first, that we were employee-centered, whatever it is that you value.
Speaker 2:And I have been talking to our directors lately about not being in silos. How do we work on interdepartmental projects and goals?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think you probably get there a little bit more organically if you start with a legacy question like this, because that has to be not working in silos, has to be a natural outcome of wanting the legacy to be that you collaborated, yes, right. That you work together, that you put the organization first before you put your team yes. Or whatever I mean. Obviously it's going to depend on the people, but yeah, All right, let's wrap this up, brother.
Speaker 2:So not only was this a commercial about the Subaru legacy, but it was also about living your legacy. Look at that. So I'll tell you Live what you drive, drive what you live. I like it Very good.
Speaker 3:Very good, yeah, that could be like a thing for that's a good commercial and I'm making my ascent you're assenting on a in the outback commercial.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, on, yeah, out in the outback for an outback. That's, my wife has an outback. I don't know, we'll have to think on that. My dad drives a forester. That'll be another episode. God, we have a lot of super. We do got a lot, yeah, we do. This is like your third one.
Speaker 3:Right, this is my third, yeah and you have one of those little plaques on the back that says that you're, I do so you're like in the subaru club I'm in subaru club. So I, my buddy, drives a jeep and there's a jeep club right.
Speaker 2:You know they wave at each other, and then they wave at each other and give each other rubber ducks rubber ducks, yeah, we should start this with subarus. We should all right greg let's wrap this up all right. Listeners, thank you for supporting. Lead on with greg and mark. In the meantime, let's make it a great day and innovate. The USA, here we go. What's your legacy?
Speaker 1:What's your legacy? It's red, cherry red. It's got 30,000 miles.
Speaker 2:Ain't counting. All right, goodbye, goodbye Mark.
