Angelina Carleton
Jul 31, 20222 min
How does strategic planning differ from a good leader’s legacy?
A good leader's legacy is based on the impact they've had on people. Their legacy lives on through the lives of those whom they've touched. A strategic plan, however, is something that can be easily forgotten or discarded by future leaders who come along.
For example, I worked at a company where the CEO had built an amazing culture and team spirit that lived on long after he left the company. We all still talked about him and what he meant to us even though he had been gone for years. But when it came time to do some strategic planning around how we were going to scale our business moving forward, there was very little buy-in from everyone because nobody felt like it mattered anymore because this new guy would just come in and change everything anyway.
I am writing today to share my thoughts on the differences between a leader’s legacy and strategic planning. They are both important, but they serve different purposes.
A leader’s legacy is about how people will remember you when you are gone. It is about what your company looks like after you have left it. It is about whether or not your employees feel appreciated and valued by their employer.
Strategic planning is about how your company will survive in the future. It is about where you want to be in 5 years or 10 years from now. It is about what steps need to be taken now in order to get there successfully.
When done correctly, these two elements of leadership should complement each other nicely because they address different aspects of being a good servant of your people and making sure that your employees are happy at work. But they can also be difficult to balance if one or the other becomes more important than the other depending on what stage your company is at right now as well as what kinds of challenges it is facing internally and externally.
This post will discuss the differences between a leader's legacy and strategic planning.
A leader's legacy is their lasting impact on an organization after they have left their position as CEO or otherwise in charge. A strong legacy will ensure that the organization continues to thrive even without the presence of the original leader. A weak legacy will lead to uncertainty in the organization, which can cause employees to leave or decrease productivity.
Strategic planning is an organized approach to outlining goals for an organization over a period of time; usually 5-10 years. The goal is to create a plan that will ensure that the organization will continue to grow and flourish under any circumstances, including changes in leadership or other factors outside of direct control such as economic downturns or natural disasters. If done correctly, it will provide direction and purpose for everyone involved with the organization from top-level executives down to entry level employees. Who are you talking about either with these days for a lasting legacy plan, filled with your intentions and the design of your ideas?