What do you want to be famous for?

One of my old bosses used to say this thing a lot… “When you hang up your boots and retire, what do you want to be remembered for?”

What do you want to be known for, when this is all said and done?

And although I totally got what he meant at the time, my reaction was always visceral. Like… if my work in a dusty bank is what I’m remembered for… that doesn’t sound like a winning outcome, all told.

And yet.

I knew what he meant then and, the older I get, the more it resonates.

Because work is such a big part of your life that, actually, if you live it as a thing apart, you are doing it wrong. If what makes you you is only real outside the office, like that brilliantly creepy show Severance, then that’s such a waste.

An impossibility, as well, in these days of hybrid work.

We used to have the separation of space, of work clothes and work devices. They used to help us get into our parts. No more.

And that isn’t all.

At the end of the day, just showing up at work and the way you show up at work… those things are not interchangeable. You have choices to make every day. Some good, some bad, but mostly choices that don’t neatly bifurcate as wrong and right. Just choices.

So yeah. I know what he meant.

And I found myself quoting him yesterday.

I was speaking to a friend who is very much like me.

She doesn’t shy away from difficult conversations. She doesn’t suffer fools. And she will most definitely point out that the emperor is in the buff.

She solves problems.

But is that how others see it?

Sometimes, that is the answer.

Sometimes they see her as the person who is looking for problems rather than the person who keeps finding them. A qualitatively different position, if you are interested in such trifles as precision.

Sometimes they see her as the person who will mark their homework.

And sometimes they see her as the person who will clean up after them no matter what.

None of those are good outcomes for her.

And I would argue none of them are good outcomes for the organisation.

Now, it’s easy for me to say to her, “Not your circus, not your monkeys. Let other people make their own mistakes. Let them fail so they can learn.” But it’s facile, really. Because in a team we may work in silos, but we don’t fail in them.

So a mistake made over there… will hurt over here.

Maybe not immediately, but eventually.

So isn’t it better to protect us all before the thing blows up?

Yes.

It is better. But it is not always an available choice.

And that is a terrible place to be if you are the person who can see the oncoming train wreck… is willing to help… but somehow you end up having to explain that you are not a Cassandra… you are not trying to poke holes in other people’s work… you are just pointing out the obvious and offering help.

But if it’s not obvious to them, you are on to a losing battle.

And if you find yourself in this position often, you will lose the battle before it even starts. The minute someone goes ‘here we go again’. It won’t matter that you’ve been right every time. It will matter that they are not listening.

So my old boss’ words played in a loop in my head during this conversation.

What do you want to be known for, when this is all said and done?

Because you may be the person who has all the answers, but you may choose to be the person who helped pick up the pieces after the inevitable bang.

You may be the person that sees the matrix, but you may choose to be the person who asks small, seemingly innocent, open-ended questions to get the rest of the team thinking differently.

You may be the person who sees the oncoming storm… but you also see that calling it out will neither avert it nor persuade the others to take cover. So, what do you do?

You can choose to be the person who reminds them of their failings.

Or the person who helps build shelter.

At the end of the day, when it’s all done and you hang up your boots… what do you want to be remembered for?

#LedaWrites

Leda Glyptis is FinTech Futures’ resident thought provocateur – she leads, writes on, lives and breathes transformation and digital disruption.

She is a recovering banker, lapsed academic and long-term resident of the banking ecosystem. 

Leda is also a published author – her first book, Bankers Like Us: Dispatches from an Industry in Transition, is available to order here.

All opinions are her own. You can’t have them – but you are welcome to debate and comment!

Follow Leda on X @LedaGlyptis and LinkedIn.