Walking the Legacy Talk

So many people can talk the talk.  But how many people can actually, truly, walk the

talk?  I love Mark Miller’s analogy in his new book, The Heart of Leadership.  He uses the example of an iceberg:

As you look at the iceberg, you only see about 10% of it.  The other 90% is below the waterline. The portion you see above the waterline represents leadership skills – reproducible by many.  Below represents leadership character – practiced by few.  The people who talk the talk represent the 10%.  The people who walk the talk represent that, along with, the other 90%.

I’m going to use my favorite example again . . . Disney.  Walt Disney passed away from lung cancer in 1966, before his vision of Disney World in Florida was realized. After much mourning and wondering where to go from there, his brother and business partner, Roy O. Disney, postponed his retirement to oversee construction of the resort’s first phase.

Walt had vision and plans for the company that extended for years.  And, to this day, things are still being developed from Walt’s original visualizations.  In fact, it wasn’t decided until well into the construction process to name the resort WALT Disney World, in honor of the man whose ideas and visions brought it to life . . . five years after he passed away.

A positive legacy is going to require leadership character and vision.  What do you need to do to get it going?

For more on your leadership legacy, see my entire article on Linked2Leadership.com - http://linked2leadership.com/2013/11/15/on-leadership-and-leading-a-legacy/.