{"id":61,"date":"2013-07-14T14:00:07","date_gmt":"2013-07-14T19:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.leaderperfect.com\/blog\/?p=61"},"modified":"2025-06-27T21:48:58","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T02:48:58","slug":"how-leaders-use-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.leaderperfect.com\/blog\/leadership\/how-leaders-use-the-past\/","title":{"rendered":"How Leaders Use the Past to Shape the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Recently I asked an audience, \u201cHow well do you manage your past?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a strange question on the surface. After all, the past is past. There\u2019s not much we can do to manage it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Viewed from another perspective, however, the past resides only in one place, namely, in our memory. What we do with these memories, how we manage them, has immense implications for what our future will be like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That\u2019s because this memory of the past is not just a collection of events. It\u2019s an intermixture of events overlaid with our interpretation of them \u2014 the meaning that we impose on them. We cannot change the events of the past, but we can choose to put a different meaning on them. And when we do, the past (and how we feel about it) changes for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, we can choose to look at adverse moments in our past as failures or as learning experiences. The first perspective adds to self-blame and self-doubt. The second one adds to our reservoir of wisdom and equips us for greater impact in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, the way we envision the past has telling influence on the promise of our future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since leaders are future-oriented, it\u2019s incumbent on them to \u201cmanage the past\u201d well. And if managing the past is vital for leaders personally, it\u2019s no less vital for the organizations that they lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organizations, too, have a past. Again, it only exists in memory, in this case, the collective memory of the organization. When leaders manage the interpretation of this collective memory well, they add leverage to what the future may hold for the entire enterprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems to me that there are three distinct ways in which leaders manage the past to make good use of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n