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Real leaders don’t worry about legacies. Instead, Frank Brown says leaders care about the long-term viability of their companies.

“Anybody who wants to see an organisation survive and be proud of it for their lifetime and beyond wants to leave it in good shape,” Brown says.

In fact, Brown says CEOs should be grooming two or three potential successors. 

“It’s both a responsibility and an enabler to get your job done. Treating someone as a potential successor is a great way of fostering a relationship and retaining that individual for the good of the company,” he adds.

To choose a successor, it’s important for any CEO to get input from across the company and outside the organisation. It’s also important to let the company, the public and the markets know who the successor is, long in advance so there’s a smooth transition.

“If you’re focused on contriving a legacy. If you do things because you’re going to wonder what people are going to say about you later, my guess is you’re not always going to do the right thing” for the business now.

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