5 ways to leave a great legacy

Legacy tends to come up at leaving parties, usually when the card has been signed and the speeches are underway. This is too late to start thinking about what people will remember.

Most of it is built through everyday behaviour, so anyone can work on it at any time regardless of their seniority. Here are five ways to start the legacy-building process.

1. Aim at the people (not for a plaque)

Researchers Zacher and Bordia, writing in 2024, describe the wish to be remembered as the more self-focused side of the wider desire to support the next generation. Teams seem to respond to the second. In a study by Zacher, Rosing, Henning and Frese, older leaders who cared about developing others were rated by their teams as more effective, and those teams were more satisfied and worked harder. Decide what you want people to do better because they worked with you, then tell them.

2. Hand over what you know early

A handover often covers the tasks to be completed and very little about how the work really gets done. One symposium linked legacy-building to the passing on of knowledge and the culture that surrounds it. That argues for documenting it well before the final month, while you are still around to answer questions.

3. Give people decisions of their own

Knowledge only helps if people are allowed to use it. Hand over real decisions and let people own the outcome. They are then able to ask questions whilst you’re still in the building.

4. Share the success as you go

Dame Stephanie Shirley founded Freelance Programmers in 1962 and gradually transferred shares to her staff while still running the company. She stepped down as chief executive in 1987, and around 70 of her people became millionaires. The company was renamed more than once and was bought in 2007. What she gave her staff did not depend on the name surviving. Most of us have no shares to give, but we can share the wins when they happen instead of at the review.

5. Elevate others, not yourself

Say who did the work. Name the person whose idea it was, in the room where it matters and while they are there to hear it. Credit is free and still rationed in most organisations, and people remember who rationed it. A 2026 study of 489 older employees in China found that those whose efforts to share what they know go unrecognised or unsupported may become frustrated. Praise needs nothing but a sentence and the habit of saying it.

Finally, ask a few colleagues what they think you are leaving behind. Their answer is the one that counts, and there is still time to change it.