Create Lasting Impact by Balancing Ambition with Authenticity
Leaders who want to leave a legacy know that impact is what matters and endures. The problem is that lasting impact can be slow to build, influence can seem to happen without acknowledgment, and to make matters harder change seems to be happening at breakneck speed.
Leaders navigating rapidly changing technologies can easily get seduced into the world of immediate results, ambitious goals and optics, and branding claims that are cutting-edge but shallowly supported.
To balance the ambition that permeates today’s business world, which is undoubtedly important, with clear values and aligned action, is imperative to have lasting impact. The problem is that it can feel at first as though things are not changing.
Company leaders may be able to offer value and claim value in the world, but are they truly having a lasting impact? This can be measured simply by looking at two data points in time to explore what has changed and how. For instance, if we think about political leaders, we can ask ourselves if things are better or worse in our day-to-day lives since they came into office.
In the corporate world, we can explore how content a leader’s team is via employee surveys and culture pulses, how many widgets are produced and to what customer satisfaction, or how sustainable a team’s contributions appear to be based on projections. Organizational goals and values are paramount for considering how we create and state value propositions to have impact.
But what gets in the way, often, is a lack of awareness or a desire to claim value before truly creating it. To have an impact, sometimes we need to work quietly toward a larger goal. This means leaders are tasked to combine vision with authenticity, trust-building, and integrity.
According to Kouzes & Posner, leaders [must] articulate a vision that connects to a team’s values in order to ensure the entire time is engaged and motivated. In other words, just because the leader sees potential, it doesn’t mean the team has bought into the vision, nor does it mean its been pressure-tested enough to move forward.
We can’t lose sight of the fact that leaders make an impact by developing something lasting. Rather than focusing solely on personal success, impactful leaders invest in mentoring, coaching, and providing opportunities for growth. This practice not only strengthens organizational capacity but also creates a culture of empowerment. Daniel Goleman’s research has endured because it highlights an unwavering fact: leaders who demonstrate emotional intelligence are more effective at nurturing teams.
But let’s circle back to ambition. Resilience and adaptability are non-negotiable for current-day leaders, and in rapidly changing environments, leaders who embrace learning and model adaptability encourage others to do the same (Heifetz, Grashow & Linsky). This means that ambition and vision must be balanced with the foundations of most prescriptive leadership styles, namely self-awareness and a growth mindset.
It can be tempting to rush forward in our fast-paced age, to claim value before creating it, or to suggest a solution before it’s been pressure-tested, but I’d argue that the companies that will stand out tomorrow are going to go against the grain. Leaders who worry less about being left behind and more about creating practices, products, and services that offer true value will endure.
References:
Brown, M. E., & Treviño, L. K. (2006). Ethical leadership: A review and future directions. The Leadership Quarterly, 17(6), 595–616.
Goleman, D. Emotional Intelligence 25th anniversary edition. (2020), Bantam Books Trade Paperback Edition.
Heifetz, R., Grashow, A., & Linsky, M. (2009). The practice of adaptive leadership. Harvard Business Press.
Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2017). The leadership challenge (6th ed.). Wiley.
