Lead the Way You Want to Be Remembered

A Legacy That Began More Than 150 Years Ago

In the 1870s, my great-great-grandfather, James Baron Sr., established Baron Woolen Mills in Brigham City, Utah. He could not have known then that the business he was building would leave a legacy that would endure for generations.

Following his passing, my great-grandfather, Thomas Baron, inherited the mill at just 18 years of age.

Imagine that responsibility. At an age when most young people are still discovering their place in the world, Thomas was entrusted with continuing a family business, leading employees, and building something that would outlast him.

But Thomas understood something fundamental about leadership: no one builds a lasting legacy alone.

With a small team of dedicated employees, a commitment to craftsmanship, and a shared vision of excellence, Baron Woolen Mills grew into a respected producer of high-quality wool blankets. Its reputation eventually extended far beyond the boundaries of Brigham City, reaching customers around the world.

The mill was eventually sold in 1988, but something remarkable remains.

Today, original Baron Woolen Mills blankets are still treasured. Some command prices of several hundred dollars, and finding one can be difficult because many owners simply refuse to part with them.

Think about that for a moment.

A company established more than 150 years ago continues to be remembered, not simply because of the products it manufactured, but because of the quality, pride, and commitment woven into everything it produced.

And while the blankets are the tangible evidence of that legacy, I believe the more meaningful story is found in the people who helped create it.

My ancestors did not build that reputation alone. They built it alongside the men and women whose dedication and craftsmanship made the business what it became.

That is where the real lesson in leadership begins.

A lasting legacy is never simply what a leader leaves behind. It is what continues to live through others.

Affiliation: The Leadership Connection That Endures

In Intelligent Leadership, affiliation represents something much deeper than a professional association or an employee's connection to an organization.

It is the strength and quality of the relationships a leader develops with the people they have been entrusted to lead.

It is built through trust, mutual respect, compassion, consistency, and a genuine interest in the success and well-being of others.

Affiliation is not about being liked. It is not about becoming everyone's friend, avoiding difficult conversations, or compromising accountability.

It is about creating meaningful professional relationships in which people know they matter.

There is an important distinction between employees who work for a leader and employees who believe they are working with a leader toward something meaningful.

The first relationship may produce compliance.

The second can inspire commitment.

And commitment is where extraordinary organizational performance begins.

Throughout my career in executive leadership and coaching, I have seen organizations invest enormous resources in strategy, technology, systems, and operational improvement while overlooking one of their most important competitive advantages: the relationship between leaders and their people.

Organizations do not achieve greatness through strategy alone. They achieve it through people who believe in what they are doing, understand why it matters, and trust those who are leading them.

When affiliation is strong, employees are more willing to contribute ideas, challenge assumptions, collaborate across organizational boundaries, and take ownership of outcomes.

When affiliation is weak, even the most sophisticated organizational strategies can struggle to gain traction.

People may respect your title, but they remember how you made them feel, how you treated them, and whether you helped them become better.

That is the foundation of leadership legacy.

When Leaders Become Disconnected From Their People

Now consider the opposite.

An organization experiences years of success. Revenue grows, market share expands, and the executive team receives recognition for its accomplishments.

Over time, however, something begins to change.

Senior leaders become increasingly removed from the daily realities of the organization. Their calendars fill with executive meetings, financial reviews, strategic planning sessions, and conversations with other senior leaders.

Their interaction with frontline employees becomes less frequent.

Eventually, leadership begins operating in a world that looks very different from the one experienced by the people doing the work.

Employee concerns are filtered through layers of management. Difficult conversations are avoided. Constructive feedback becomes less common.

People begin to feel that their opinions no longer matter.

Employee satisfaction declines. Turnover increases. Negative reviews begin appearing, and management dismisses them as the complaints of disgruntled employees rather than considering whether they reveal a deeper organizational problem.

The organization may still be financially successful, at least for a time.

But beneath the surface, the culture is deteriorating.

This is one of the most dangerous conditions an organization can experience because the absence of employee complaints does not necessarily indicate satisfaction. Sometimes it indicates that employees have simply stopped believing anyone is listening.

When people no longer believe their voices matter, they begin to withdraw.

They stop offering ideas. They become reluctant to challenge decisions. They do what is required, but little more.

Eventually, some of the organization's most talented people leave.

And those who remain may become increasingly disengaged.

This deterioration rarely happens overnight. It occurs gradually, through hundreds of interactions, missed opportunities, and moments when leaders choose authority over understanding.

The consequences can extend well beyond employee morale.

Innovation suffers. Customer experiences deteriorate. Institutional knowledge disappears. Organizational performance becomes increasingly difficult to sustain.

The leader may still occupy the corner office, but the connection that once made leadership effective has begun to disappear.

The Difference Between Authority and Influence

One of the most important lessons I have learned throughout my leadership career is that authority and influence are not the same thing.

Authority comes with a position.

Influence is earned through relationships.

A leader can direct people to complete tasks, follow procedures, and meet performance expectations. But no organizational title can command genuine respect, loyalty, trust, or commitment.

Those must be earned.

And they must be earned consistently.

Consider the leaders who have made the greatest difference in your own life.

Do you remember their quarterly financial results?

Do you remember their operational dashboards, strategic initiatives, or organizational charts?

Perhaps.

But I suspect what you remember most clearly is something very different.

You remember the leader who believed in you before you believed in yourself.

The leader who took time to listen when you were struggling.

The leader who challenged you to achieve something you did not think was possible.

The leader who gave you an opportunity, stood beside you during adversity, or recognized your contribution when no one else did.

You remember the leader who helped you grow.

That is influence.

And influence, unlike authority, does not necessarily end when someone leaves an organization.

Your title is temporary. Your influence can last a lifetime.

Building Affiliation Through Intelligent Leadership

John Mattone's Intelligent Leadership philosophy emphasizes the importance of developing the leader's Inner Core as the foundation for effective Outer Core leadership behaviors.

This relationship is especially important when we consider affiliation.

A leader may possess exceptional technical expertise, strategic intelligence, and operational capabilities. But if that leader lacks self-awareness, humility, empathy, and emotional maturity, the ability to build meaningful relationships will be limited.

The Inner Core shapes how leaders think, interpret situations, manage their emotions, and ultimately respond to others.

The Outer Core is where those internal qualities become visible through actions and behaviors.

Employees experience leadership through those behaviors every day.

They notice whether a leader listens or interrupts.

Whether a leader takes responsibility or assigns blame.

Whether a leader recognizes contributions or claims the credit.

Whether a leader demonstrates compassion during difficult circumstances or treats people as interchangeable resources.

And perhaps most importantly, whether the leader's actions consistently reflect the values they claim to hold.

Building affiliation requires intentional leadership behavior.

It means being present and accessible, not simply when problems arise, but when people need guidance, encouragement, and support.

It means creating an environment where honest communication is welcomed, even when the message is uncomfortable.

It means understanding that accountability and compassion are not opposing leadership qualities. The most effective leaders demonstrate both.

It means investing in the professional growth of others, even when that growth may eventually take them beyond your organization.

And it means recognizing that every interaction provides an opportunity to strengthen or weaken the relationship.

The strongest leadership relationships are not created through grand gestures.

They are built through consistent, everyday actions that demonstrate respect, integrity, and genuine concern for others.

What Will People Say When You Are Gone?

There is a question I often encourage leaders to consider.

What will people say about your leadership when you are no longer in the room?

Not what will they say during your retirement celebration.

Not what will appear in the company announcement recognizing your years of service.

And not what will be written in the official biography highlighting your professional accomplishments.

What will people say when there is no longer an obligation to recognize your authority?

Will they speak about the opportunities you created?

Will they remember the confidence you helped them develop?

Will they talk about the standards you established, the values you demonstrated, and the example you set?

Will they say that working with you made them better professionals and better people?

Or will your departure be little more than an organizational announcement, followed by the appointment of your replacement?

It is a difficult question.

But it is one every leader should be willing to answer.

Because your leadership legacy is not something you get to define for yourself.

It is defined by the people whose lives you have influenced.

You may believe you were an exceptional leader. You may point to years of financial success, organizational growth, and impressive performance metrics.

Those accomplishments matter.

But they do not tell the complete story.

The people who worked alongside you will remember a different set of measures.

They will remember whether you treated them with dignity.

Whether you listened.

Whether you cared.

Whether you helped them succeed.

And whether your leadership made their lives better.

That is the legacy that ultimately matters.

The Responsibility of Leaving Something Better Behind

When I reflect on the history of Baron Woolen Mills, I see much more than a family business that produced exceptional blankets.

I see generations of people who contributed to something greater than themselves.

I see a young man who inherited enormous responsibility at 18 and recognized that success would require the commitment and talents of others.

I see a business whose reputation survived long after its original owners and employees were gone.

And I see a lesson that remains as relevant to today's executive leaders as it was more than a century ago.

We do not build lasting legacies through individual accomplishments alone.

We build them through the people we develop, the relationships we strengthen, the values we demonstrate, and the opportunities we create for others.

This is especially important for senior executives who may become so consumed with achieving organizational results that they lose sight of the people responsible for producing them.

The challenge is not to choose between results and relationships.

The challenge is to understand that sustainable results are often built upon the quality of those relationships.

A leader's responsibility extends beyond achieving today's objectives.

It includes preparing others to succeed tomorrow.

It includes building a culture that remains strong when the current leadership team has moved on.

And it includes leaving people, teams, and organizations better than we found them.

That is what legacy leadership demands.

Final Thoughts: Lead the Way You Want to Be Remembered

Someday, every one of us will lead our final meeting.

We will make our final decision, have our final conversation as an executive, and walk out of our workplace for the last time.

Our position will be filled.

Our responsibilities will be reassigned.

Our name will eventually disappear from the organizational chart.

But what happens to our influence?

That depends entirely on how we lead today.

The relationships we build, the trust we establish, and the people we help develop will determine whether our leadership continues to have meaning long after our departure.

I think about those Baron Woolen Mills blankets that people still treasure generations after they were made.

They were created with care, commitment, and craftsmanship. Their quality was never intended to last only until the next sale or the next quarterly report.

They were made to endure.

I believe leadership should be approached with that same commitment.

We should lead with the intention of creating something that lasts beyond our tenure.

Something that strengthens others.

Something that people value enough to carry forward.

So I leave you with three questions:

1. Are you building relationships with your people that will endure beyond your position?
2. Are you developing others in ways that will continue to influence their lives long after you have moved on?
3. If your leadership ended tomorrow, what would people genuinely remember about you?

Your leadership legacy is being written every day, through every decision, every conversation, and every relationship.

You will not have the final word in how your leadership is remembered.

The people you lead will.

Lead accordingly.



About the Author

Rich Baron, PCC, is the Chief Operating Officer and Director of Global Coaching Projects at John Mattone Global (JMG), an Intelligent Leadership Master Certified Executive Coach, organizational culture and leadership expert, global coach trainer, international speaker, and Professional Certified Coach (PCC) credentialed by the International Coaching Federation (ICF).

With decades of executive leadership experience, Rich has dedicated his career to developing leaders, transforming organizational cultures, and helping executives translate greater self-awareness into measurable leadership performance. He works with senior executives, emerging leaders, and executive coaches worldwide, strengthening the connection between leadership character, organizational culture, and sustainable performance.

As COO of John Mattone Global, Rich helps lead the organization's global operations and executive coaching initiatives. He also serves as an instructor in JMG's Intelligent Leadership® coach certification programs, developing and mentoring executive coaches from around the world.

Rich is co-host of Mainline Executive Coaching ACT, John Mattone Global's globally recognized executive coaching and leadership podcast, where he explores leadership, organizational culture, executive development, and the challenges facing today's leaders and organizations.

At the center of Rich's work is a simple belief: Leadership is ultimately measured not by the authority we accumulate, but by the people we develop, the culture we create, and the legacy we leave behind.