We’re excited to roll out a brand new leadership series entitled The Legacy Leader.
In this series, we’re going to look at, first of all, what a legacy leader is, how they live, and how they lead. I know by now some of you are wondering, what is a legacy leader? Well, when we take both of those words and we break them down we find out that a legacy is something that you and I pass down that continues from generation to generation. A leader is someone who has authority, someone who has influence. We combine both of those definitions, and here’s what we find. A legacy leader is someone who passes down leadership influence that continues from generation to generation. The first thing that a legacy leader knows is the definition of leadership in its simplest form.
And that is influence. John Maxwell, who’s considered the number one leadership expert in the world, says, “Leadership is influence, nothing more and nothing less.” Let me say that one more time. “Leadership is influence, nothing more and nothing less.” If we embrace that definition and I think we should, we look at it and we realize that everyone is a leader because we all have influence at some level. So the question is not whether we’re a leader, the question is what type
of influence are we passing down? Is it positive or is it negative? Are we passing down positive value or are we passing down negative value? One of the greatest examples that I know of is a couple, a husband and wife team, that had a great leadership legacy and influence. That couple was Jonathan and Sarah Edwards. Jonathan was a preacher back in the 1700’s, and he had great influence during his time.
Jonathan and Sarah had 11 children. Out of those children, they had 1400 descendants. In the early 1900’s there was a study done on those descendants. They found out 100 of those were lawyers, and one was a dean of a law school. Eighty were holders of public office. Sixty-six were physicians. One was a dean of a medical school. Sixty-five were professors of colleges and universities. Thirty were judges. Thirteen were college presidents. Three were mayors of large cities. Three were governors of States. Three were United States senators. One was the controller of the United States Treasury. One was a Vice President of the United States.
And that is just a short list. What an amazing legacy they had. As we close, I want to ask you two questions. First of all, what type of legacy do we want to leave? And number two, what type of influence are we passing down?
Next week we’re going to be talking about how we process and how we start to become a
legacy leader. If this has been helpful, please like and share this session on our Facebook
page. We certainly want you to have a great week, and we look forward to next week as we
continue our series, The Legacy Leader.