How to Repair a Broken “Legacy Perception”

Reputation Management Secrets from a Navy SEAL & CEO.

By Michel Koopman & Special Guest Co-Writer, Tom Chaby

Hidden dynamics exist in the leadership world, whether you operate within corporations, platoons, or sports teams. Managing your own "legacy perception" can be crucial to creating an amazing or average career. This is true, whether you're a CEO, commander or star quarterback.

When you have a legacy perception (and everyone does), how do you know if yours needs repair and how do you fix it?

As executive coaches, we have spent time with thousands of top CEOs, Navy SEALs and elite athletes. Along the way, we have observed a leadership and performance phenomenon called the "legacy perception" that can either inspire greatness or become a hidden landmine that prevents good leaders from becoming great.

We have learned that your value as a leader is determined by the perception stakeholders around you have based on your past behavior and performance, even after you have evolved beyond earlier mistakes. A tarnished perception can have an enormous impact in business, on the battlefield or in the sports arena. Your legacy perception may be costing you missed opportunities, stronger relationships and elevated success.

What is a legacy perception? Leaders are typically judged harshly on specific standards, depending on the domain in which they operate. That judgment is typically made quite rapidly and it is extremely difficult to change once established. The challenge is to get others to see past their initial perceptions and recognize your new growth. This is exactly what managing your personal legacy perception is all about.

A leader must deliberately engage in specific behavior correction efforts to fight through a tarnished legacy perception and be patient to receive credit for change long after it happened.

How could a lack of positive legacy perception by others affect your success? Let us tell you a real-life sports-related story: Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donovan Peoples Jones (also known as DPJ) recorded an impressive vertical jump, clocked super-fast running ability and snatched the trickiest of throws when scouted for the NFL. He left the Michigan State football team a year early to go pro and was ultimately drafted based off his physical attributes and abilities. His perceived talent didn’t extend to being a game-changing, dynamic player on the field & as a result, he was drafted in the 6th round.

A question loomed: would the “legacy perception” of DPJ being a 6th round pick, ever be replaced by a different perception, representative of his true talent and potential? *Former NFL coach Urban Meyer thought differently and is quoted as saying that the Browns "got a 1st round draft pick in the 6th round."

Identifying nuances through direct observations of an athlete is crucial in performance prediction - this skill is exactly why scouts are paid so much money. Talent recruiters in corporate settings are no different – someone’s education, previous titles held, historical business achievements, interpersonal skills and personality types together determine the future success of a potential hire.

In business, a misinterpretation about someone's capabilities and value can hurt them over a career from a financial and relevancy standpoint. Maybe if DPJ played an additional year of college football and elevated his play statistics - the perception of his value may have been markedly different and made him a 1st round pick. Another former Michigan player and later round pick (# 199), Tom Brady, experienced a similar start to his NFL career, yet was able to overcome this initial perception to become a 7-time Superbowl winner, team captain and a record 15-time Pro-Bowl player.

A common miscalculation in managing one’s perception is timing – for example, not taking the time to properly "marinate" in a lower role before moving onto a more challenging position to master a skillset, regardless of the appeal of a quicker ascension up the company ladder, to the NFL from college ball or from boot camp to becoming a SEAL. In creating a SEAL, it is only after a highly demanding selection process with physical and mental aptitude evaluations that a candidate is invited to Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training, as the extreme challenges could crush someone who is not ready for such demand.

How do you break a negative legacy perception with patience and active perception management? Once you realize a negative perception exists, whether around a skill set or personality trait, you may feel discouraged to make behavioral changes because stakeholders may not recognize changes as quickly as you make them. This delay can be terribly discouraging, especially for high-performing individuals, who may internalize the lack of recognition for making positive changes and revert to old behavior.

You simply must be patient - it takes time to change perception, as with any relationship, personal or professional in nature. If a person has an established reputation as being an aggressive leader over an extended period of time, it becomes difficult for colleagues to accept, acknowledge and appreciate the current reality of improvement. If legacy perception about you is lagging behind, give others time to adjust to how you see yourself.

As a leader, you can change your legacy perception with active reputation management - the combination of waiting patiently for others' lagging recognition to catch up + actively deploying behavioral modifications (regardless of acknowledgments) will pay off eventually. This time will allow others to recognize (and genuinely believe) the positive change - be patient with yourself and others...and watch your reputation to catch up to reality. Activate the change you want others to see and (as they say in the military), “hurry up and wait.”

From the executive floor to the battlefield and football field, being cognizant of your legacy perception, taking action to improve behavioral mistakes and giving others the space to acknowledge change, will positively impact the trajectory of your professional, financial and social success.

Changing your legacy perception is a long game.

*Special thanks again to my co-writer, Tom Chaby - a retired, highly decorated, U.S. Navy SEAL Captain and sought-after expert on performance and team optimization.