Almost everyone who enjoys their work wants to leave some sort of legacy—that is, to be remembered for something meaningful to themselves and others. In my work on succession planning and knowledge transfer within organizations that have employees looking ahead to retirement or encore careers, I’ve heard from boomers and some older Gen Xers about the desire to leave a legacy at work. Most people would like to feel they have made a difference in their organizations or within their industries. Many boomers started their careers in optimistic times with this desire. Now some struggle to identify and articulate what their legacy at work can be and how to make it happen. And many people feel incomplete without it.
But this is not just an idea for people contemplating the end of their major career. The time to start thinking about work legacy is by age 40 or so. That leaves sufficient time to plan and pursue a purposeful journey and develop the resources and connections to make it happen.
As an example, a man I know, Dennis, had built a successful career as an executive at a financial software company. Along the way, he discovered a passion for supporting philanthropy. When he determined he wanted to plan toward a transition to helping foundations as his encore career, he consciously thought about leaving a nonfinancial legacy at the company that for over 20 years he had helped to grow significantly. The result was a leadership program for training employees on how to provide high-level client service. He left after implementing it, feeling proud and fulfilled and established himself as an executive helping foundations.