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When should you start thinking about the legacy you are leaving as a leader? Professional athletes almost have an advantage because they “retire” at a much younger age than most of us, and the media remind them of their legacy. One of our local heroes, Kurt Warner, announced his retirement from the National Football League by saying he knows what he wants his legacy to be: “It’s not the way I threw the football, it’s not particular games that I won, but that they remember that here’s a guy that believed, that worked hard.” But Warner will move on into another career, such as broadcasting or operating his family foundation.

Most people think about legacy at the end of their careers, as they near retirement. But Robert Galford and Regina Maruca, authors of “Your Leadership Legacy,” advocate that “thinking about your legacy now makes you a better leader today no matter how far you are from retirement.” Based on interviews with people at all levels of organizations – recently retired senior leaders, senior managers whose retirements were close, CEOs in midcareer and other leaders – Galford and Maruca believe we all should be engaged in legacy thinking: a forward-thinking tool that is counterintuitive compared with what we typically think about legacy work.

As Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner state in their book “A Leader’s Legacy,” thinking about legacy encourages us to think about today’s actions in a larger context. Legacy thinking requires us to go beyond short-term thinking, because legacies include the past, present and future.

Whether we realize it or not, as leaders we are leaving a legacy through decisions we make and actions we take. Our legacy is revealed in how others who work with us, for us and beside us feel and think about us as a result of having been in our presence. And we leave our legacy daily.

Galford and Maruca use the analogy of a photomosaic, an image made up of many other tiny images. When viewed up close, it is possible to see each image on its own. But when viewed from a distance, all of the images create a distinct whole image. If we imagine our own portrait made up of individual images – the faces of people who work for us, community connections, our customers, clients and patients, and others – the more consistent our leadership legacy, the clearer the larger image. The overall photomosaic is composed of our approach to leadership, how we treat others and what others think of how we are leading.

Dave Thomas, the late founder of the Wendy’s fast-food chain, was quoted as saying, “A reputation is earned by the actions you take each day.” It is important to remember that leadership legacies are built by each decision and action or inaction on a daily basis. Even in these times when decisions are difficult, we still have control over how we make them and how they are communicated. Kouzes and Posner summarize it this way: “The legacy you leave is the life you lead.” What is your leadership legacy?

Jann Freed holds the Mark and Kay De Cook Endowed Chair in Leadership and Character Development at Central College in Pella.