One day you are fully immersed in solving a problem. Time moves on and two weeks later that problem has been overlain by many others. A year later the problem that was all embracing is long gone and your contribution has been forgotten. How do you want to be remembered? What is the legacy that you want to leave in your job? How can you best move on and leave others to take the action forward?
Part of the context for this question is recognising that you will not be remembered for long. Your contribution will be rapidly superseded, although there are times when you can make a difference that will have long-lasting implications. A teenager will remember for the rest of her life the youth worker who helped her embark on a different direction. A patient will remember the surgeon who helped save his life. A company will long remember the creative contribution of the inventor who changed its direction.
When a group of staff were reflecting on a chief executive who had retired 10 years earlier, they were not talking about the individual decisions he made or how he handled specific issues, what they were discussing was his enthusiasm and passion. They talked about his words of encouragement and the long-term impact of some of his feedback. What they were remembering were the emotions of their relationship with the former chief executive and the impact he had on them in terms of their own careers and their learning.
It is now five years since I completed my time working as a director general within government. When I come across individuals who used to work in the directorates for which I was responsible, they sometimes tell me stories about how I influenced them. Often I cannot recollect the instance, but it is a continual reminder that it is the way we interrelate with people that will be remembered well after the particular reason for the exchange.
It can be worthwhile asking yourself these questions:
How are those I meet likely to remember my contribution over the last year?
Is that the way I want to be remembered?
How does this perspective change the way I want to interact with people over the next year?
These questions are not about encouraging you to be soft on people, they are inviting you to think inside the shoes of other people in order to understand what contribution is likely to have the biggest impact on them. Those who remember you most are likely to be those whom you have encouraged and stretched in their thinking.
How you leave a job can have long-term effects. When you have been appointed to a new role, your preference can be to move as rapidly as possible into the new job. Some, like government ministers, shift instantly into a new role and have no time to complete unfinished business. Normally you have a period when you know that a transition is about to happen and you have the opportunity to complete tasks in progress.
When Darren was told that he would be starting a new job in four weeks' time, his immediate inclination was to think about all the tasks he personally needed to deliver. His immediate emotion was dejection, as he knew that it would be impossible to complete them all. His focus then switched to how best he could transfer to others the responsibility for delivering the next steps so that his role became enabling rather than delivering.
What 'added value' could Darren really bring over the next four weeks? He decided to spend one-to-one time with the people working for him in mentoring conversations, enabling them to work through their own next steps and giving them clear feedback. These perspectives were not contaminated by his expectations as a boss. Because he knew he was going to another post, it released him to give personal development time to all his staff. A final reflection from Darren was that perhaps he should have committed this quality time to his staff sooner!
When you move on to a different role it might worth reflecting on:
What is the legacy you want to leave behind?
What are the loose ends you should either tidy up or pass on before you go?
What are the specific tasks you need to finish off?
How can you best mentor key individuals before you depart?
The final words of farewell are so important. A good blessing at the end of a religious service sends people out in a positive frame of mind. The final 'benediction' you give when you leave a job will influence the way people view subsequent tasks and will also affect how they view you over the long term. Just as a good funeral for someone who has lived a full life is a reflective and joyful occasion, so marking your departure with a sense of celebration as you move to a new job enables both you and your colleagues to move on positively to the next phase.
However much passion and energy you put into a job, at the end of the day it is only a job. You can so easily end up with an inflated view of your own importance and the value of the work you do. Yes, you are making a difference, things are better because of your contribution, but in the great scheme of things yours is a modest drop in a large ocean.
And while your contribution may have been a drop in the ocean, that drop might have quenched someone's thirst and given them new vitality.
Getting a job into perspective is not about diminishing its importance, it is about being realistic and recognising that your contribution is modest and purposeful.
