Last Thursday I sat on a fireside chat with more than thirty founders and CEOs in a room in Noida. Everyone there had built something. Companies, teams, revenue.
Then the conversation turned to one question, and suddenly none of those numbers were any help at all.
When the org chart no longer has your name on it, what remains?
I've been sitting with that question since I left my CIO chair at IndiaMART in 2024. Its practical version is really about how to build a leadership legacy without waiting for an exit, and here's where I've landed.
Key takeaways
- Legacy isn't a retirement project. You don't need an exit or a windfall to start. You need to decide what you're willing to give away this quarter.
- Your most valuable assets aren't financial. Time, expertise and networks compound inside other people's lives in a way a cheque simply doesn't.
- Generosity without a filter just becomes noise. Five questions will turn scattered good intentions into something that actually changes a life.
How to build a leadership legacy: start with a better question
The topic that evening was Leadership Beyond Business, and the organiser, Saurabh Gupta of CXO Lanes, did something I wasn't expecting. He handed every leader in the room a printed Legacy Card.
On the front was one instruction. Before you contribute, don't ask "how much should I give?" Ask "what kind of future do I want to help build?"
That sounds like a small change. It isn't. The first question turns generosity into a line item you approve once a year. The second turns it into something you actually live inside.
My co-panelists were Uttama Pandit, who leads operations and resource mobilisation at INDIAdonates, and Richa Wahi, founder of Tales Dat Spin. What stayed with me wasn't a statistic. It was how they spoke about giving, and the plain evidence sitting in that room that a lot of very accomplished people genuinely want to contribute with something other than money.
At the bottom of the card there was space for one commitment. Not ten. Not a strategy deck. One.
Mine was already written, two years before that card reached my hands. Build people, not just platforms.
Your TEN: time, expertise and networks
Somewhere over the last two years I started calling this your TEN, because the three things most of us undervalue happen to spell it.
- T, time. An hour of properly undivided attention for somebody standing at a fork in their career. Not advice shouted from a stage. One person, one conversation, no agenda.
- E, expertise. The pattern recognition you paid for with years of expensive mistakes. It feels obvious to you. To the person sitting opposite, it's a shortcut worth years.
- N, networks. The introduction only you can make. Costs you a two line message and can reset somebody's whole trajectory.
Since leaving corporate I've done over 550 coaching hours, written two books, and served as Director of Membership at ICF Delhi NCR. Not one of those needed a chequebook. Every one of them needed a decision about where my hours went.
And that's the uncomfortable bit, isn't it? Money is the easiest thing a successful leader can give, which is exactly why it feels so safe. Your TEN costs you something you can never get back. That's what makes it worth anything at all.
The two people who made this real for me
I talk about this constantly. Over coffee, on calls with people in my network who are quietly restless about what comes next.
Two of them decided to train as coaches. Not as a business move, not as a second income. Purely because they wanted to give back, and coaching was the shape their giving was going to take.
I didn't fund anything. I didn't open a door at any company. I gave time, and honest answers about what this path actually costs you.
Those two decisions mean more to me than most things on my CV. And I suspect they mean more to them too, because nobody talked them into it. They got there themselves, in conversations with no agenda attached. That's exactly the ground coaching is built for.
Five questions before you give anything
The back of the card carried five questions. I've used them ever since, and they work just as well for a mentoring request as for a donation.
- What problem genuinely moves me? Good giving starts with a cause that connects to your values, not one somebody asked you about at a networking event.
- Do I trust the people creating the change? You already do this when you back a founder. Same standard here: integrity, transparency, accountability, long term vision.
- What impact will my contribution create? What actually changes because you showed up, and does it last once you step back?
- Can I contribute more than money? Knowledge, time, mentorship, your network, your thinking, your influence. For most people reading this, the answer is yes, and it's uncomfortable.
- If this succeeds, what becomes possible? Look past the contribution itself. A child stays in school. A founder finds a mentor. A team learns to run without heroics.
Question four is the one that stops people. Writing a cheque is easy. Admitting that the most valuable thing you own is already sitting in your hands, and you've simply never allocated it, is not.
Where leaders get this wrong
Waiting for the milestone. Usually it sounds like "once we cross this round" or "after the exit". The exit isn't a starting gun. Habits you haven't built by then won't magically appear.
Confusing scale with impact. I know a leader who spent a year designing a large mentorship programme and mentored nobody in the meantime. One person, done properly, beats a framework that nobody uses.
Giving reactively. Saying yes to whoever asked most recently isn't generosity. It's poor prioritisation in a nicer shirt. That's what the five questions are for.
Treating it as separate from the work. Building people isn't what you do once the business is handled. It is how the business gets handled. Teams built by people who invest in people need far less rescuing later.
What to do on Monday
- Write your one commitment. One sentence, your own words, about what you're building beyond the business. If it takes a paragraph, it isn't clear yet.
- Block two hours this month. Put them in the calendar before anything else claims them. Two hours, no agenda, for somebody who's stuck.
- Make the introduction you keep meaning to make. You already know who. Send it today. Ninety seconds.
- Audit last month honestly. How many hours went to somebody who can do nothing for you in return? That number is your real answer, whatever your commitment says.
- Pick your cause using question one. Not the one you were asked about. The one that genuinely moves you.
There's a line I've carried for more than a decade. It was my WhatsApp status for ten years before it became the title of my book. Seekhna band toh jeetna band. The day you stop learning, you stop winning.
The same is true of giving. Give away your time, your expertise and your networks, and you'll find you learn faster than the people you're helping. That isn't a nice sentiment. That's the mechanism.
Frequently asked questions
How do I build a leadership legacy if I'm still early in my career?
You don't need seniority to give your TEN. Somebody two years behind you will find your recent experience more useful than a CXO's, because you still remember the details. Start there.
Is mentoring the same as coaching?
No. Mentoring is mostly telling: here's what I did. Coaching is asking, so the person reaches their own answer and can repeat it without you. Both are giving. Knowing which one the moment needs is the skill.
How much time is realistic for a busy founder?
Two to four hours a month, properly protected, beats a grand annual gesture. What ruins it is treating those hours as the first thing to cut when the week gets heavy. If you wouldn't move a board meeting, don't move this.