Leadership Lounge: How to Create and Maintain Impact as an Emerging Leader

The way you lead has a distinct and long-term impact on your direct reports, your peers, and your organization more broadly. You can inspire or demotivate. Rally or divide—and the imprint you leave on people tends to endure longer than the outcomes themselves. At senior levels, your words carry disproportionate weight. A passing comment can redirect weeks of work. Silence can be interpreted as disapproval. A question can either open up debate or shut it down entirely.

So, how do you create a positive impact that lasts?

It isn’t defined by one bold decision or defining moment. It lives in the ripple effects your leadership generates over time. In whether people grow under you. In whether performance strengthens when you step back. In whether your presence builds clarity and confidence—or caution. Impact isn’t what you intend. It’s what others consistently experience. Which means lasting impact requires intention, reflection, and the discipline to continually recalibrate how you show up as a leader.

How should emerging leaders think about impact?

Shannon Knott, Leadership Advisor, RRA: Leadership impact is about both the tangible and intangible effects that we have on others: our team, our organization, our industry, and the communities we serve. It's really more than hitting targets or delivering financial results. Those are important, of course, but I'd argue that they're more table stakes as a leader. Impact goes a lot deeper. It's about how you create lasting change, how you influence how others think, work, and lead.

What sets apart leaders who sustain impact over time?

Erin-Marie Collins, Leadership Advisor, RRA: We often relate impact to business performance, but it's important to dig a bit deeper because sustained impact isn't just about meeting or exceeding performance metrics. For a leader, it's about creating the conditions that allow others to perform at their best.

Is leadership impact something you master or continually earn?

Shannon Knott, Leadership Advisor, RRA: It's something that you need to earn continually. Each stage in a leader's career comes with new rules of engagement. What earned you credibility five years ago might not do so today. And the leaders who thrive long-term are the ones who don't rely on yesterday's playbook. They understand that what made them successful earlier in their career, their execution, their expertise, their control, has to begin to give way to influence, judgment, and inspiration. Sustained impact is then about how you can recalibrate that balance again and again. It's a muscle that requires ongoing training.

How can leaders sustain impact over time?

Shannon Knott, Leadership Advisor, RRA: It's not a single intervention, but rather a conscious and intentional rhythm of reflection, feedback, and renewal. The leaders who invest in reflection and feedback sustain their impact because they stay self-aware. They're willing to evolve their leadership identity just as the enterprise evolves around them. And at the same time—and this is important—they remain anchored to their core sense of purpose. This can provide them with direction and stability in a rapidly changing environment.

How can leaders evaluate whether they’re creating meaningful impact across various stakeholder groups?

Erin-Marie Collins, Leadership Advisor, RRA: Impact isn’t about what we intend, it’s about what others experience. To find out what others are experiencing, firstly create a stakeholder map of peers and stakeholders and ask yourself: “How can I find out if what I’m doing is having the impact I intend?” And be quite objective about this. Don’t just read the customer verbatims. Go and talk to a customer. Another idea is to build a trusted cabinet of mentors, confidants, and colleagues who will give you that unfiltered feedback, so you can ensure your behaviors are having the impact you intended.

About the authors

Shannon Knott is a member of Russell Reynolds Associates’ Leadership Consulting Practice. She is based in Durham, NC.
Erin-Marie Collins is a member of Russell Reynolds Associates’ Executive Assessment and Development Practices. She is based in Melbourne.