Thermoforming Report

Real Leadership is Measured by What Gets Better Because of You

Legacy is a loaded word. It is most commonly thought of and used when referring to the past: “leaving a legacy” – much like our Thermoforming Report from October 2024.

But what if we think about legacy in a different way? What if creating a legacy is something we are doing right now?

A recent article in CEO Magazine, “Why Legacy is the Leadership Metric CEOs Can’t Afford to Ignore”, explores this idea and what it takes to build and create a legacy in the present. More importantly, it points out how ignoring that responsibility – or becoming too focused on short-term results – can dramatically impact the long-term success of an organization.

The author makes the case that the leaders who have the “most meaningful impact” are not simply the ones who produce strong financial results today. They are the ones who build organizations that can sustain trust, innovation, and the development of their people long after they are gone. As the author puts it, “Legacy is a present-tense leadership responsibility.”

That really struck me. Whether we intentionally think about our legacy or not, every leader is already creating one – through the decisions we make, the values we demonstrate, the culture we build, and the people we develop.

As the author begins to lay out the background on the topic, she states: “Research consistently demonstrates that organizations with strong cultures, high employee trust, and intentional leadership development outperform organizations driven exclusively by short-term financial pressures.”  She then backs it up with a study by Deloitte. 

When Short-Term Thinking Takes Over

We all inherently know this, right? Trust and career development versus short-term financial deliverables. This rings true to me thanks to a very difficult time in my leadership career. 

As part of a large organization, succession planning, open communication, and a commitment to clearly defined long-term goals were all that I knew. It was the culture that I stepped into, and I didn’t know any better. What I didn’t realize at the time was that this culture had been created and driven by our Executive Leader. 

Then a leadership change occurred – a promotion and internal transfer – and boy, did things take a dramatic turn for the worse. 

Trust was quickly replaced by backstabbing and covering our butts. Thinking strategically was replaced by doing whatever it took to hit the numbers for the month. And worst of all, respect was replaced with public humiliation, denigration, and flat-out misery – all brought on by our new leader and his paradigm. 

It wasn’t called ‘toxic’ back then, but boy was it!

And people left. Great people. Really good leaders. And because succession plans were all but stopped, cronyism became the norm. Lots of sucking up. Lots of politicking. Yes, we got results, but at a serious cost.

After a year of delivering results, the shortcuts started adding up. Things got out of hand. New KPIs were unrealistic, and leaders were forced to work toward metrics that were simply unobtainable. It was ugly, and the entire organization suffered.

The author summarizes this point well: “Executives are often incentivized to maximize immediate performance outcomes even when those decisions weaken organizational culture, increase burnout, reduce trust or eliminate developmental opportunities for employees.” 

Agreed. It took years to recover after that poor leader was summarily moved out.

Building Leaders, Not Dependency

The CEO article goes on to identify several behaviors that consistently show up in “legacy-oriented executives”:

• “They build leadership pipelines rather than dependency structures.
• Strong leaders intentionally distribute leadership capability throughout the organization.
• They mentor emerging talent, invest in coaching systems, and create developmental opportunities.
• Legacy-oriented executives operationalize integrity, accountability, and transparency through consistent decision-making.”

There is a ton of insight in the above list. 

The author doesn’t get into the details and instead shifts into discussing emotional intelligence and more. But I think it is worth taking some time to settle into each of these points.

Build Leadership Pipelines

What does it mean to have dependency structures? In my mind, this can be summed up by the term “micromanagers”.

Leaders and team members alike are hamstrung when they get chewed out by a senior leader for making decisions. Eventually, they stop thinking and making decisions, or they second guess everything. That is not building leaders. That is building dependency.

Building leadership pipelines means teaching, training, and mentoring – and allowing those leaders to succeed and fail knowing that their manager has their back.

Distribute Leadership Capability

This is similar to the one above, but it is more broadly applied. It includes all formal leaders, from front-line Supervisors and up through the organization. It should also include those situational leaders on the floor – the people others naturally look to when something needs to get done – and those Engineers who are aspiring to become leaders.

When leadership capability is distributed throughout the organization, it ultimately builds trust. People know they have a voice, they know they can contribute, and they know leadership doesn’t begin and end with the person at the top.

Develop the Next Generation

Which brings us to this point. Having succession planning discussions will begin to highlight those skills and tendencies that you see in those emerging leaders.

Deliberately creating opportunities – such as having an Engineer lead a project or an Operator play a key role in a kaizen event – is an investment in development that will pay future dividends.

This is where development becomes more than a conversation. You give people opportunities to stretch, learn, make decisions, and prove themselves. Sometimes they will knock it out of the park. Sometimes they won’t. That’s part of development, too.

The important thing is that you are creating those opportunities now – not waiting until you suddenly need someone to step into a bigger role.

Make Values Real

This one is interesting. The values on the signs hanging on walls around the company are one thing. Aligning those values with what is actually happening on the manufacturing floor and how you go about your business day in and day out is another.

This is the ‘do what you say, say what you do’ approach. And it can be tough at times. But that anchor is huge. It establishes a culture that is based on knowns and not on politics or conflicting priorities. People know what to expect. They know what the organization stands for. And they know that the values on the wall actually mean something.

When that consistently disappears, trust breaks down.

Leadership is in the Details

This is where the rubber meets the road. It is not only the decisions that get made, but how they get made, how they are communicated, and the willingness and ability to do the right things for the right reasons. 

Consistency is key, and it flows outward from the top. When leaders consistently demonstrate the right behaviors and approaches in the small decisions, those behaviors become ingrained. New leaders begin to emulate them. They learn what good leadership looks like by watching it in action.

And as their scope and influence increase, those things are already built in when they are faced with the bigger and more impactful decisions.

That, to me, is what creating a legacy now really looks like.

Wrapping Up

The article wraps up with a great nugget of wisdom: “The most influential leaders understand that success without sustainability is not leadership maturity. It is temporary performance. Real leadership leaves organizations better than it found them.” 

That last sentence brings us right back to the idea of legacy.

As we discussed in our October 2024 Thermoforming Report, legacy is often thought of as the long-lasting impact a person leaves behind. But in the spirit of this month’s “do it now” approach, why wait?

Real leadership is not something that gets measured at the end of a career. It is being built every day – through the people you develop, the decisions you make, the culture you reinforce, and the opportunities you create for others.

So, take that final thought from the article and put it into the present tense: Real leadership continually builds organizations so they are better tomorrow than they are today.

That is legacy – and it is being created right now.

At Siena Group, we are your Thermoforming Talent Partner. With more than 30 years of experience in manufacturing, hiring & recruiting talent, we bring a greater understanding of the companies we partner with and the candidates we pursue.
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