From:TheBahamasWeekly.com

Coaching for the Workplace - Kaylus Horton
This Award is in Honour of Your Legacy
By Kaylus Horton, Path™ Coach
Nov 18, 2010 - 9:20:58 PM

Recently I was engaged in a casually conversation with someone whom I had not seen for quite some time. As we reminisced, sharing our professional peaks and valleys, the topic of legacy arose and sparked great interest in us both when I asked, “Imagine that it is thirty (30) years from today’s date, your grandchild or a younger member of your family is accepting an award in honour of your contributions to present workplace. On what merit are you being recognized for?”  

Immediately, I could see that their “lights turned on” evident in their broad grin and squeals of “oooh, oooh, oooh”, and in a great display of enthusiasm, they belted out a profound experience and shared the contributions by which they would want to be recognized for.  

Legacy in the workplace! What does this statement mean to you?  Perhaps it is your work ethic, contributions to the organizational mission and vision, communication style, team spirit, reputation, character and personality that will be remembered and revered in the workplace long after you have either retired, moved on to another workplace or your soul left this earth. Everyone has a legacy!  Whether it is good, bad or indifferent; legacy is present in that we involve ourselves with voluntarily or involuntarily.  

What makes the difference between the Associate who has a memorable, significantly positive impacting legacy verses the Associate who does not is great cause for speculation, research and a healthy spirited, debate.  Which of the two Associates describes the potential of your legacy? Can you describe the legacy that you would like to be remembered for in your current workplace?  

To help you envision your response to the latter question, reflect on the following curious coaching questions:  

  1. I would like my present workplace to remember my work as being …     
 
  1. I would like my colleagues to be able to say that my values, character, personality and team spirit individually and collectively were …
 
  1. My grandchild or a youth in my family is receiving from my current workplace a life time achievement award on my behalf for my    
 
  1. In my grandchild or family members 60 second acceptance speech they would say this on my behalf       
 

Did the envisioning process help you “see” your legacy?  Congratulations!  Seeing is only part one, it is the foundation for belief, however its’ reality is part two, a process that will require definition, action, commitment and consistency.  For this considering the following steps: 

1.  Define realistic actionable goals as markers, achieving said goals are to help you transition from who you are now to the person that you envisioned remembered as and for.  Action steps vary; legacy is relative.  For example, you may choose to change how you communicate, interact with your colleagues, support the workplace mission and vision while another Associate may choose to change how they donate their time and money and serve their talent and skills in the form of “work”.   

Important! This process may causes you to face a buried or unrealized personal truth; your current workplace is not the where you would most prefer to create and leave a lasting, significant, impacting legacy.  If this is true for you, then seek wise counsel of a mentor, spiritual advisor, friend or life coach to brainstorm and pursue those possibilities and options that are more aligned with the envisioned legacy. 

Consider this quote by Robert Menzies, (1894-1978) Australian Liberal Politician and Prime Minister . 

“A man may be a tough, concentrated, successful money-maker and never contribute to his country anything more than a horrible example. A manager may be tough and practical, squeezing out, while the going is good, the last ounce of profit and dividend, and may leave behind him an exhausted industry and a legacy of industrial hatred. A tough manager may never look outside his own factory walls or be conscious of his partnership in a wider world. I often wonder what strange cud such men sit chewing when their working days are over, and the accumulating riches of the mind have eluded them.”  

This award is in honour of your legacy; what will be your legacy in the workplace? 

Until our next, 

Copyright @ 2010 Kaylus Horton  

Kaylus Horton, Principal of Renaissance Group of Companies and Path Coach facilitates learning and discovery for focus and direction to help organizations and individuals get clear around the who, what, when and how of their agenda.  

For more information about coaching in the workplace visit www.renaissancebahamas.com or send us an E-Mail: info@renaissancebahamas.com  



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