You can’t build a legacy without people remembering you. Very much like the concept of selling yourself, an unwavering, consistent, and solid branding is your key to being remembered by your teammates, clients, and stakeholders.

Whether you’re labeled as the team's Buzzer-Beater with your last-minute submissions, or remembered with an actual impressive title like the Excel Wizard or the Office Oracle is completely up to your skills, smarts, and how you play your cards.

The bottom line: make yourself indispensable to the team, and ultimately to the whole company, through a solid branding that is unmistakably and uniquely yours.

Have you ever been tasked with something so menial you can’t help but wish for robots to replace you right there and then? Chances are, these grumble-worthy tasks are the process gaps your team can improve on.

If you’re looking for a much more concrete legacy to leave, streamlining is one of your biggest allies. After a much-needed grumbling, it helps to think what improvements can be made to optimize the processes currently in place within the organization.

Of course, inspiration without action is merely entertainment. Formulate a plan on how to best approach the subject or how to formally escalate this to your superiors.

Especially effective in organizations still clinging to old-fashioned, manual labor, familiarizing yourself with automation and online collaboration tools will not only put you in a good light but overall make life easier for your team and clients as well.

Win-win, right? Well, it helps to also ease your teammates into the transition first. Keep in mind that people tend to reject the unfamiliar. A smooth transition helps them get to know the innovation and, if the stars are aligned, to actually grow an appreciation for it.

Coincidentally, leading by example works not only for children but for full-grown adults as well. One tested way to know how to create a legacy within the workplace is to observe someone who has actually done it – not to retrace their steps, but to take inspiration from their decision-making.

How did their initiative begin? Where did they even get the idea of shaking things up? And most importantly, what supporting actions have they done to enforce this change within the organization?

Whether it be through networking to win over colleagues, persistent campaigning and awareness drives to promote the innovation, or directly through mandating the new process, it helps to see what went right and what went wrong from those who have treaded the path before you.

The harsh reality is that it is not enough to excel during your time at work. Sure, you’ll be remembered by your immediate teammates and maybe even your boss, but what happens after their time in the workplace?

Your contributions should ideally ripple beyond your immediate environment. It doesn’t have to be something grand or complex, it can be simple yet meaningful gestures that surpass your time and reach in the organization.

For instance, coaching your teammates on a certain skillset you excel at not only boosts your relevance to the organization but also makes the team more efficient for stakeholders to work with. This way, your presence can still be felt long after your time in the company.

But as with all great things, planning ahead and strategizing heightens your probability of success. The best way to create your workplace legacy is to prepare for it while you’re still working. Doing this not only boosts your performance but inspires your teammates as well.

Lastly, keep in mind: Legacies don’t happen overnight. It most certainly doesn’t come served on a silver platter. It requires persistent effort, consistent performance, and heaps of patience not only for those around you but for your personal development as well.