What leadership legacy will you leave?

Have you ever wondered why ancient people created, carved and built such monumental and remarkable features that have stood the test of time? These relics of the past are some of the most enduring mysteries of life on earth. Why have people since the dawn of time, left these mysterious creations?

Some are gigantic megaliths, while others are more humble and simple arrangements of rocks and stones or carvings in rock. Deep in the caves of France, Indonesia and Laura in far north Queensland are rock paintings which have survived to this day as testament of another time, another people , and another lifestyle.

Amazing icons like Stonehenge – a ring of grey rocks on the desolate Salisbury Plain in England, chiselled and placed there over 4000 years ago. It is unique in prehistoric standing stones, for the fact that, all of the rock was artificially shaped and placed in an architectural plan. Was it a religious meeting place or an elaborate way to predict eclipses of the moon and sun or simply an observatory of the universe above?

Over a thousand kilometres away in the Pacific Ocean on a remote, tiny island, stand the eerie stone giants of Easter Island. They stand like sentinels, keeping guard over the horizon.

The massive and imposing pyramids and sphinx of Egypt built over 3000 years ago, which took thousands of people and many years to construct and in the ancient city of Teotihuacan in Mexico, well before the Aztecs, was a city of wide avenues and massive pyramids built more than 1400 years ago. Although considered primitive, ancient people have shown wonderful resourcefulness to create and build these amazing monuments to honour great leaders, great civilizations and demonstrate a great understanding of the power of leaving a legacy.

Further south in the desert plains of Peru at Nazca, are incredible rock shapes which can best be seen from the air. These precision drawings, using only piles of stone and rocks are spectacularly large, with one solar line drawn over 6 kilometres long, with 18 bird shaped figures, spiders and other shapes only discerned from the air, but why ? It would be another thousand years before people could fly and see them from the air.

On the weekend, astrophysicists reported that they have discovered an ancient Aboriginal sundial , west of Melbourne, that could be more than 10,000 years old – older than the Stonehenge, older than the pyramids of Egypt. Not as grand but still impressive for its time.


In the most remote northern hemisphere in the Arctic region are found stones built in the form called inukshuk by the Inuit people. They indicate migration routes or places where food can be found and sometimes they are built to signify places of power or important spiritual places. These ancient relics were built in many different designs – some mean “you are on the right path.” And others simply mean “someone was here.”

Around the world we find these ancient remnants of past civilisations. Since time immemorial, ancient peoples have left reminders of their presence. At the most basic level, I guess all of these ancient relics – large or small - are a way of people saying “someone was here.” Don’t forget that we were here; remember us. It’s their legacy to future generations – something special happened here.

Many did not have a written form of communication, or if they did, they knew that the written form would not survive unless it was carved in stone or rock. So the only way to leave a message, and to leave a legacy was in the form of a great monument of rock or stone – something that would not perish over time.
Napoleon Bonaparte once said:
“The human race is governed by its imagination.”
We are led and governed by the endless possibilities that lie ahead, untapped, unknown until someone reveals them. It’s a basic human desire to be remembered. Each of us deep inside wants to leave a legacy of sorts. We want to know that we have made a difference in this life – to someone - to our family, to our friends and for some people the power to influence and inspire tens or hundreds, even thousands, if not millions of people.

What kind of legacy do you wish to leave? Have you given any thought to the difference that you can make to other people’s lives? You have enormous power to do something positive in your life. Leadership is not the kind of thing to be taken lightly. It requires courage, fortitude and integrity. Leadership, like rock, is hard but once understood can transform lives – including your own.

Leadership means taking on more responsibilities.
Leadership is helping others before you help yourself.

As Winston Churchill said:
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

Leadership is having the moral fortitude and integrity to do the right thing all the time – not just when someone is looking.

Leadership is leading people in the right direction.
Leadership is having enthusiasm, being energetic and sharing your time with others willingly. John Quincy Adams once said:

“ The influence of each human being on others, in this life, is a kind of immortality.”

It’s the kind of immortality, like the ancient peoples used – their immortality was in rock and stone, but your immortality can be in words and deeds and just as enduring. Be the sort of leader that leaves a legacy for others to follow in your footsteps, just like the Inuit people.

Be a rock. In other words, be strong for others to look up to and follow with confidence. Above all, be the kind of leader that people respect, can count on and trust.

“In matters of style, swim with the current,
In matters of principle, stand like a rock.”