Cultivating a Legacy of Leadership

Cultivating a Legacy of Leadership

I recently stood in a room in Greensboro, attending the North Carolina School Nutrition Association Conference, to share a talk close to my heart — Let Us Play™ — Cultivate a Legacy of Leadership.

I want to bring it home to you here. To walk you through the garden the way we walked it together. And to share the gifts I carried home for my own toolbox.

Because here is the truth about teaching: you stand up to give. And somewhere in the giving, you receive.

The question I opened with.

What leadership legacy do you hope others remember about you?

Sit with that one for a moment before you read on. Not the title on your door. Not the line on your résumé. The way people felt in your presence. That is the legacy that outlives the role.

Leadership is cultivated, not inherited.

This was the seed of the whole talk. Leadership is not handed down like an heirloom. It is grown. Every interaction plants a seed — every conversation, every hard day handled with grace, every small kindness offered when no one was watching.

We don’t get to choose every flower that blooms. We certainly don’t get to control the weather. But we get to tend. We get to show up, season after season, and trust that what we plant in others will keep growing long after we step away from the row.

I know that truth in my bones right now. I am in a season of stepping back — handing the watering can to the next person, learning to trust the garden to keep blooming without me standing over it. It is tender work. But a garden that only blooms while you’re holding the hose was never really yours to begin with. The legacy is in what keeps growing after you go.

The good soil: PERMA-V.

When I talk about flourishing — for leaders, for teams, for ourselves — I lean on a framework from positive psychology called PERMA-V. Think of it as the soil every leadership garden needs. I’ll give you the pillar, and the reflection I offered the room. Fill in your own blanks as you read.

Positive Emotion. Celebrate small wins and notice what is going well. Where did something go right today that you almost rushed past?

Engagement. The work that pulls you in so completely you forget the clock. I lose track of time when I ______.

Relationships. Strong programs — and strong leaders — grow from trust, connection, and belonging. Who helps you feel you belong?

Meaning. Knowing the why underneath the work. My work matters because ______.

Accomplishment. Track progress, not perfection. What progress have you made that you haven’t paused to honor?

Vitality. The energy that keeps the whole garden alive. What fills your cup?

You don’t tend all six at once. You walk the rows, and you notice which one is dry.

Building your rose garden toolbox.

Every gardener needs tools. So I asked everyone in that room to do the same three things I’ll ask of you:

•    One seed to plant. What is one thing you want to begin growing — in your leadership, your team, yourself?

•    One weed to remove. What is one habit, worry, or pattern crowding out the good?

•    One flower already blooming. What is already beautiful that you’ve been too busy to stop and notice?

You don’t have to overhaul the whole garden. You just have to tend one row at a time.

The gifts I carried home.

Now for my harvest — the gifts that went straight into my own toolbox this week.

The first was laughter. I had the joy of time with Jane Jenkins Herlong, and if you know her, you know she teaches you, without ever lecturing, that humor and grace belong in the same toolbox as strategy and grit. That is a gift I am tucking in for keeps.

The second was the company of true friends. I spent most of my time with people who know me, who light me up, who remind me why I love this work. We don’t always get to choose our circumstances. But we can choose where we sit and who we sit with. Period. I chose well.

And the third was the quiet reminder of why. It is easy, in a season of transition, to wonder whether what you built still matters. Then you stand in a room full of people doing the very work you care about, and you remember: the garden is always bigger than any one gardener. That is the whole point.

Your commitment.

I closed in Greensboro with a commitment card, and I’ll leave it with you here. Finish this sentence in your own words:

I will cultivate my leadership legacy by ______.

And carry this question out into your week:

What will continue to bloom because of your leadership?

Come as you are. Thrive as we go.

References

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. Harper & Row.

Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56(3), 218–226.

Seligman, M. E. P. (2011). Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being. Free Press.

Seligman, M. E. P., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55(1), 5–14.

Zhivotovskaya, E. (2012). PERMA-V: An applied framework for human flourishing. The Flourishing Center.