When new players join the All Blacks rugby team, they receive more than just a jersey—they receive a book. Inside are the names of every player who has ever worn that shirt, dating back over a hundred years.

It’s a physical reminder that they are part of something far bigger than themselves. Their job isn’t just to play well or win games. Their job is to honour those who came before them and to leave the team stronger for those who will follow.

This idea is summed up in one of the All Blacks’ core principles: leave the jersey in a better place. Every player is a custodian, not an owner. Their time in the team is temporary, but their impact can last. They don’t measure success by personal stats or short-term wins—they measure it by what they contribute to the legacy.

You can read more about this in the excellent book Legacy by James Kerr.

It’s a lesson every leadership team should take to heart. Too often, leaders focus only on the results they can achieve during their tenure—hitting targets, growing revenue, managing the day-to-day. But truly great leadership isn’t about what you accomplish while you’re in the role. It’s about what you leave behind. The best leaders don’t just run a business; they build something that will outlast them.

The shift: from managing to legacy-building

When leadership teams fail to think beyond their own time in the role, the cracks begin to show:

• Trust erodes – Employees can sense when leadership is prioritising personal success over organisational health, leading to disengagement.
• Decisions become reactive – Without a long-term vision, leadership teams chase short-term wins rather than building sustainable growth.
• Culture weakens – A lack of continuity in leadership values leads to inconsistency, confusion, and disengagement.
• Leadership gaps emerge – When succession planning is neglected, organisations struggle to replace key leaders, leading to instability.
• Silos form – Without a leadership team focused on the bigger picture, departments start optimising for their own success rather than the organisation as a whole. Information isn’t shared, collaboration breaks down, and teams operate in isolation rather than working toward a shared mission.

Without long-term thinking, businesses don’t just stagnate—they become fragile, vulnerable to shifts in leadership and market dynamics.

This shift from simply operating the business to actively building a lasting legacy is what separates great leadership teams from those that merely keep things running.

Let’s explore what you can do as a leader to encourage this behaviour in your team.

Patagonia: A company built to last

Most companies are shaped by their founders, but very few are designed to thrive long after those founders step away. Outdoor apparel company Patagonia is an exception. From the beginning, its leadership has made decisions not just for immediate success but for the company’s longevity, ensuring that its mission remains intact for generations.

• Sustainability over short-term profit – While most businesses are under constant pressure to maximise quarterly returns, Patagonia plays a different game. Time and time again, it has prioritised environmental responsibility, even when it meant sacrificing potential revenue. The company’s famous “Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign, which actively discouraged consumerism, was a perfect example—turning conventional business logic on its head in favour of a long-term commitment to the planet.
• Employee ownership of the mission – Patagonia doesn’t just rely on a top-down approach to uphold its values. Instead, its leaders empower employees at every level to make decisions that align with the company’s broader purpose. This creates a culture where sustainability isn’t just a marketing message—it’s something employees actively champion in product development, supply chain choices, and customer engagement. When leadership trusts its people to make mission-driven decisions, the result is a deeply engaged workforce that is invested in the company’s future.
• A leadership transition designed for continuity – When many founders retire or exit, they cash in. Yvon Chouinard took a different route. Instead of selling Patagonia or going public—both of which could have led to compromises in its values—he transferred ownership of the company to a specially designed trust. This structure ensures that Patagonia’s profits are used to fight climate change rather than being siphoned off for shareholder gain. It was a radical move, but one that perfectly aligned with his vision of leadership as something far bigger than individual wealth or control.

Patagonia’s approach is a masterclass in legacy-driven leadership—where every decision is made with the future in mind. It’s proof that when leadership is built on lasting impact rather than short-term wins, both the company and its purpose grow stronger over time.

Cathedral thinking: designing for generations, not decades

Some of the most awe-inspiring structures in human history were built by people who knew they would never see them finished. Nowhere is this more evident than in the great cathedrals—monuments to long-term vision, patience, and leadership that prioritises legacy over personal recognition.

Take Notre Dame. Construction began in 1163, but it wasn’t fully completed until the 14th century—nearly 200 years later. The architects, stone masons, and artisans who laid its foundations knew they would never see the final result, yet they worked with extraordinary precision and care, knowing their contributions would endure for centuries. Even after its devastating fire in 2019, the world’s response proved just how much a project like this transcends time—restoration efforts began immediately, not just to rebuild what was lost, but to continue what those medieval builders started all those years ago.

Then there’s La Sagrada Família in Barcelona, an even more extreme example of long-term thinking. Antoni Gaudí took over the project in 1883, knowing full well he wouldn’t see its completion. He embraced that fact. Rather than rushing to finish it in his lifetime, he set a vision so bold that generations of architects and builders would have to carry it forward. Over a century later, construction is still ongoing, with an expected completion date in the 2030s. But here’s the thing—no one sees it as a failure that it isn’t finished yet. Instead, it’s a testament to how great things are built when leaders are willing to plant trees they’ll never sit under.

These cathedrals weren’t just projects; they were commitments to the future. They remind us that the best leaders don’t measure success by what they achieve during their tenure. They focus on building something so strong, so enduring, that it will outlast them.

Why leaders struggle to think long-term

Despite its clear benefits, long-term thinking doesn’t always come naturally. Common roadblocks include:

• Pressure for immediate results – Investors, boards, and stakeholders often prioritise short-term gains over future stability.
• Career-driven incentives – Leaders are often measured by what they achieve during their tenure, not what they leave behind.
• No precedent for long-term thinking – If an organisation has never prioritised sustainability, it takes real effort to shift the mindset.
• Fear of letting go – Some leaders struggle with the idea of empowering others, preferring to hold on to control rather than develop future leadership.

Overcoming these challenges requires a deliberate effort to reshape leadership culture.

How to instil legacy-building in your leadership team

Shifting from short-term management to long-term legacy-building doesn’t happen by accident. It requires a deliberate mindset shift and structural reinforcement.

The best leaders understand that their time at the helm is temporary, but the impact of their decisions can last for generations. So how do you embed this thinking into your leadership culture?

Make it an explicit expectation

If you don’t actively set the expectation that leadership is about more than just delivering results today, most leaders will default to managing in the present. Legacy-building has to be woven into the fabric of leadership conversations.

Make it clear that leadership isn’t just about hitting KPIs—it’s about shaping the organisation for the future. A simple but effective way to reinforce this is to ask, “What will this decision look like in five years? In ten?” This reframing moves leadership discussions beyond immediate gains and forces teams to consider their long-term impact.

Develop leaders at every level

An organisation without a strong leadership pipeline is one crisis away from instability. Developing leaders isn’t a box to tick—it’s a fundamental responsibility of every executive. That means mentoring rising talent, ensuring knowledge transfer, and creating a culture where succession planning isn’t a last-minute scramble but an ongoing process. Encourage senior leaders to take ownership of developing their replacements.

A great test? If someone in your leadership team left tomorrow, would there be a capable successor ready to step in? If the answer is no, legacy-building isn’t happening at the pace it should be.

Recognise and reward long-term impact

What gets recognised gets repeated. If leadership success is only measured in quarterly targets, then that’s where attention will go. But if you actively celebrate and reward leaders who make decisions that strengthen the organisation beyond their tenure, you start reinforcing a different kind of success.

Look for leaders who are investing in people, setting up scalable processes, or making bold decisions that prioritise long-term value over short-term convenience. Make sure their contributions are visible, and acknowledge that true leadership is about leaving the business stronger than they found it.

Encourage future-focused thinking

If you want your team to think long-term, you have to build it into everyday conversations. Challenge leaders to ask:

• If we were starting from scratch, would we make this same decision?
• How will this choice impact those who come after us?
• What would my successor say about the decisions I’m making today?
• Are we prioritising quick wins over meaningful, lasting improvements?
• If I had to defend this decision in five years, would I still believe in it?
• What systems or structures am I putting in place to ensure this progress continues beyond my tenure?

Encourage leaders to think about the bigger picture. Are they just optimising for today, or are they laying foundations that will support the business long after they’re gone? The best leaders don’t just chase efficiency; they future-proof their teams, their strategies, and their impact.

Align incentives with sustainability

If long-term thinking isn’t embedded in how leaders are measured and rewarded, it will always take a back seat. Leadership evaluations, performance reviews, and incentives need to reflect more than just short-term execution. Consider how leadership impact is assessed:

• Are leaders measured on their ability to develop talent?
• Are they rewarded for making decisions that set the company up for future success?
• Do performance metrics account for continuity and sustainability?

A leadership team that only wins in the short term isn’t truly winning. True leadership means ensuring that when you step away, what you’ve built continues to thrive.

When leadership teams embrace this philosophy, they create organisations that don’t just perform well today but stand the test of time. It’s the difference between managing a business and building a legacy.

Leading for the future

The best leaders don’t just run businesses—they build something that will outlast them. They see themselves as custodians, responsible for shaping an organisation that thrives long after they’ve moved on.

When leadership is purely short-term, companies become fragile. They react instead of lead. They optimise for the next quarter instead of the next decade. But the most enduring organisations—whether it’s the All Blacks, Patagonia, or the cathedrals that took centuries to complete—prove that leadership built on long-term vision creates something far more powerful than short-term wins.

Many leaders struggle with this approach. The pressure to deliver immediate results is real. Career incentives often reward personal success over lasting impact. But these are challenges to be navigated, not excuses to ignore what truly matters.

So here’s the challenge for you: take a step back and assess your leadership through a different lens. Ask yourself:

• Are you making decisions that will hold up in ten years?
• Have you built a team that can thrive without you?
• If you stepped away tomorrow, what legacy would you leave behind?

Better yet, bring these questions to your leadership team. Make long-term thinking an active discussion, not just an abstract idea. Set the expectation that leadership isn’t just about delivering results—it’s about leaving the organisation stronger for the next generation.

Great leaders don’t just build successful companies. They create something that lasts.

Photo by Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa on Unsplash‍