Conversation with Veiko Valkiainen in the Pocket Voice “Management quality is a competitive advantage”.
Consult here for my conversation with Veikko as well as other insightful and interesting discussions on leadership:
The idea of the metaphor of the management footprint came to me from the concept of the ecological footprint and the whole climate theory, and I started to link the two. Just as with the ecological footprint we should ask ourselves how we can leave as small a footprint as possible, I felt that as leaders we should increasingly ask ourselves what is the positive leadership footprint I want to leave on my team?
The first thing to realise is that you are not the leader of this team for life. While we may have a contract for an indefinite period of time when we are in a leadership role, life in general is still one where you know that sooner or later your role will change. The realisation of the finality of the role of the leader also begs the question, what do I really want to leave as a legacy to this team? What do you want to achieve in that time? What would you need your team to grow or evolve into in order for you to move forward in a heartbeat? This is a good place to start discussing your desired footprint as a leader.
Achievements and business results are certainly one side of the footprint, but perhaps more important than the results is the leadership style that achieved those results and the people the team members grew into as a result.
