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Hello everyone and welcome to The Upstream Leader Podcast. My name’s Jeremy Clopton. Today we are going to be talking about redesigning a legacy, or if you want to think about it maybe a slightly different way, building on a legacy. And this topic is one that comes up a lot in our profession. We may not call it exactly legacy all the time, but it’s how do you change some of the most important things about what your firm does, what the leaders that came before you have put in place, and how do you build for the future and build something better? We’re going to be exploring this in great detail, by the way, at our HeadWaters conference this summer, it’s going to be July 16th and 17th in Chicago. The whole conference is all about legacy in motion, charting the next 25 years of leadership. Love to have you there to join us.
But what really got me thinking about this today is we’ve spent the last few months here at Upstream getting ready for our program year, it kicks off in June. All of our programs, our leadership academies, our educational programming, retreat season, our conferences, everything begins in June. And normally, we go back through our materials, our programs, and make sure everything is still relevant, we make updates like we do every year. But earlier this year, I was reflecting on how far our profession has come, all of the changes that have been taking place in the profession, and many of the conversations that I’ve been having with leaders across our profession. One of the things that really resonated with me is the need to help individuals in our profession not just learn how to be great leaders, but actually apply those lessons in their everyday activities: How do you actually navigate the tensions, the difficult discussions, the decision making that you really don’t want to have to do, but you know you need to do because it’s a business-related decision. How do you actually go apply leadership lessons in those moments and make things as actionable as possible?
And that’s been something that I’ve had conversations with leaders about a lot over the last year especially, but probably over the last few, is how do we really drive behavioral change? And when I look at our programs, our academies—I graduated from our Emerging Leaders Academy when I was with Affirm in Public Accounting—they’ve long been based on the principles of creating high yield, low maintenance leaders, whether that’s at the partner level, the manager level, now with our Advanced Partner Academy, for those that are stepping into significant leadership seats, helping them do the same. We’ve always had a focus on principle-based teaching, but also best practices, and how it shows up every day. And what I came to the realization of is: We’ve been teaching a lot of the same principles for quite some time—Upstream Academy has been around now for 25 plus years—the principles haven’t changed. When I look at our programming, I look at our academies, what I realized is what we teach and why we teach it, that really hasn’t changed. A great leader today still has many of the same values and virtues and principles of a great leader from 20 or 30 years ago, but the application is what’s looking different.
And that was a bit of a challenge as I was going through that and realizing, man, I think we really need to update everything that we’re teaching. And I don’t mean, for those of you that are listening and you’re thinking, “Oh my gosh, it’s all changing,” I don’t mean changing the principles, I don’t mean changing the core Upstream philosophies, I don’t even mean changing the topics that we’re addressing, but instead how we approach it. With that recognition that information is so readily available today, but what’s so scarce is that guided implementation, that direct, here’s the tension, the challenge you’re going to face, and how you’re going to be able to navigate that, especially within public accounting. And this created a bit of an uncomfortable situation for me because I’m sitting here thinking, I’ve been in the Managing Director role of Upstream now for a little over a couple years, and those of you that don’t know my background, I was in public accounting for 12 years. I then had my own consulting firm, and then I ultimately came and joined Upstream as a successor to our founder. I succeeded Sam a little over two years ago. And every time I think about changing our programming, the foundations, and how we approach things, there’s always that uncomfortable feeling of, “But this is what was built. This is what Upstream is known for. These are the principles that Sam and Tim always taught and how they taught them, and it’s been so valuable. Who am I to change them?”
And I don’t know about you, but I really believe this is one of the biggest challenges that leaders face when they’re trying to drive change in their firms today. They see what came before them, they know the effort that the previous generation put in, everything, the blood, the sweat, the tears, all the things that they did to create the firm the way that it is: It’s successful, people are enjoying the spoils of all of the efforts that have been put forth, and you sit there and think, “I really believe that change needs to occur, but it’s so difficult to change the legacy that came before you.” It feels almost like you’re having to admit maybe that the thing that came before me is broken, it’s not what it needs to be. I’m reminded of some words of wisdom that I was provided by Jake Thompson, he’s actually going to be keynoting at Headwaters this summer. Early on in my tenure at Upstream, we were chatting about something. He said, “Jeremy, you’ve have got to remember that your job is not to become Sam’s legacy. Your job is to build on Sam’s legacy.”
And as I was going through our programs and our academies and everything earlier this year, those words kept repeating in my mind. They were just on replay. It’s not that I am becoming that legacy, it’s not that I am changing that legacy, it really is building on that legacy. It’s still respecting everything that came before—everything that Sam and Tim built and they put into these programs and the principles and the philosophies and everything that they learned and all the stories that when I’m teaching some of these principles, I still hear them telling in my mind, and the lessons that I’ve heard them share and that they’ve shared with me over the years—none of that actually goes away. And that was a really important realization for me. It’s not that that legacy is now gone, it’s now that we’re building upon that. What that looks like is the topics in our academies and programs are the same, the principles that we are teaching are the same; what’s changing is how we’re delivering it, how we’re now connecting with new participants.
It’s so funny that when we think about the things that are working really, really well in our firms, in our businesses, in our lives, it’s almost that that success fools us into thinking we can’t change anything because it’s working. What’s that old saying? “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it?” The grammar’s not perfect on that, I’m sure, but something to that effect. When in all actuality, what we will ultimately come to realize is it’s not that we’re even fixing it, it’s that we’re building upon the success that came before us. It’s almost like that success is the foundation that allows you to build the new thing, that allows you to redesign that legacy. It’s not that the legacy is gone, it’s that it’s influencing the next legacy that’s going to be built.
And I’ve got to admit, it’s a little bit weird talking about and thinking about legacy as a leader who’s still got several years ahead of me in my career. And I’m not at the point at which anybody’s gonna be looking back with reverence on anything that I’ve done because I intend to be around for a long time. But one of the things that we realize is the impact that we are having and how we’re designing the impact that we’re having is ultimately what’s going to impact the legacy that we will one day leave for people. And in looking at our academies, and evaluating how we teach things, and evaluating the impact that I’m having, the conversations that I have, and all of that, one of the really important realizations that I came to is, the impact that I want to be known for is helping leaders achieve the things that they weren’t sure that they would be able to achieve. It’s helping them activate that leader within and really unlock their potential to go lead themselves, their teams, their departments, their firm, maybe the profession as a whole. That’s what I want to be known for. That’s the impact that I want to have. I recognize that the legacy that came before me laid the foundation for that. And it’s not up to me to ensure that I protect what was built, that I don’t touch what was built, that I don’t change what was built. Instead, my responsibility is to figure out how can I take what was built and turn it into something even greater? How do I redesign it? How do I build upon it? That is ultimately what it looks like to respect the legacy that came before us.
And when I talk with leaders of firms, they’re experiencing similar things. Maybe they’re not redesigning their leadership academies. Instead they’re looking at the culture, they’re looking at everything that came before them, the policies, the procedures, the standards of excellence, the firm that they inherited as leaders. What’s really important then, as leaders, is to recognize it is not your job to maintain the status quo and simply ensure that that legacy is not tarnished. If we aren’t constantly evaluating how we improve the thing that came before us, not because it’s broken, but because everything can be improved—if we aren’t thinking about it that way, we’re actually letting that legacy start to deteriorate, and it starts to go away. And the impact that everything that came before you had, starts to become lesser and lesser and lesser because nobody was here when that legacy was created, you were.
In a way, it’s similar to how we talk about partners in our profession and leaders in our profession here at Upstream. It’s not about maintaining. The best leaders, the best partners, they don’t maintain—they build. They know what came before them, and they are committed to continually building value. That’s what it looks like to redesign a legacy or to build upon a legacy, is to say, you know what, yes, everything up to this point, we found success with it. It has been working. That doesn’t mean that it can’t be better. We would be foolish to trick ourselves into believing that nothing can be improved upon because it is the best that it’s ever been. Instead, we’ve got to recognize, our responsibility is now to figure out how do we make it better? How do we look at what came before us and determine what worked really, really well, and what has opportunity for growth and improvement? We’re builders of value. We’re building upon a legacy. We’re trying to create that better future. We’re trying to have that better impact.
I know that a lot of folks that work with us here at Upstream have received an update from me, have received updates from our team about the changes that are coming up in our leadership academies this year, and I’m sure that somebody is going to get those updates and they’re gonna think, oh my gosh, did they really change the things that Sam and Tim have built over all these years and the way that they did things? And a couple years ago, I probably would’ve been concerned that that was going to be the reaction that folks might have: “What are they gonna think if we ever change something that they built before I stepped into this role?” But the realization that I’ve come to is, it’s actually one of the most flattering and respectful things that I can do, is to commit to building value and building upon the amazing things that Sam and Tim did over their tenure at Upstream, and redesigning it in a way that respects that value, that carries on the amazing legacy that they built, and then applies it in a way that allows for an even greater and newer impact to take place. And that’s what I’m really excited about, especially for the coming year, is how do we keep increasing the impact that we’re having at Upstream? We’re going to do that through some redesign programming. Yes, the principles are the same. Yes, the core philosophies haven’t changed. We didn’t change our values, we didn’t change our beliefs. We’re just going to change how we help you drive action, how we have an impact on those that we get to work with, and I’m excited to see where that goes.
If you’re listening to this and you’re thinking, “Yeah, I’m too young to be thinking about legacy, I’m too young to be thinking about how do I do that?” I’m just here to tell you that’s not the case. Every professional—I would argue every person, whether you’re in public accounting or otherwise—you’ve got a responsibility to build value for the next generation. That doesn’t mean that we have to say everything that came before us is broken. It simply means that we have to respect what came before us and understand that everything can be made better. So my question to you is, what are you going to make better? How are you going to build on the legacy that came before you? It’s my hope that maybe you’ll want to come discuss this with me. If so, I’d love to see you in Chicago at HeadWaters. If you aren’t able to join us there, but you want to have the conversation, reach out to me on LinkedIn. Shoot me an email. I’d love to talk more about how you as a leader can build on the legacy that came before you and create a lasting impact into the future.
Thanks so much for joining me for today’s show. I look forward to talking to you again very soon.
