| By Andrea Meacham Rosal When you make a commitment to excel in your career, before too long, you will be confronted with the spotlight of public attention. Whether you step into it intentionally, or are carried naturally toward it on the encouraging shoulders of your colleagues, the spotlight awaits. This is the point when many consider setting the goal of "thought leadership" for themselves...or find that others have handed them the mantle. What exactly is thought leadership, anyway? Global consulting and technology firms dedicate entire wings of their websites to Thought Leadership, offering downloadable articles and research written by their top stars. Others consider thought leadership to be the practice of personal branding, simply building recognition and awareness of a person and their work. I like the definition of thought leadership from the communally-defined Wikipedia online: "Thought Leaders" are said to be people (or firms) who are recognized among their peers for innovative ideas; who confidently promote those ideas; and who earn recognition from the outside world that they deeply understand their business, the needs of their clients, and the broader marketplace in which they operate. (Paraphrased from www.wikipedia.com)
As a researcher and though leader on thought leadership itself, I am always speaking with thought leaders in their particular fields. A few of the people I spoke with recently included: - Michael McLaughlin, consultant and principal at Deloitte, co-author of Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants with Jay Conrad Levinson, and editor of Management Consulting News
- Dr. Martha Rogers, founder of 1to1 Media and co-author of 7 books (6 best-selling) with Don Peppers, most recently Return On Customer
- Bert Gregory, CEO of Mithun, an architecture and design firm in Seattle, known also as lead project designer for Seattle-based REI's flagship store
- Brian Carroll, CEO of InTouch, Inc., known for his B2B Lead Generation blog, and author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale
- John Doerr, Principal of Wellesley Hills Group and founder of RainToday.com, an expert on thought leadership abd service business growth
While these professionals got their starts in different ways–such as taking a work opportunity perfectly matched with interests and ability, benefiting from a strong firm-based influence to be “out in the market”, starting a new company, or meeting a severe market challenge–they share common words of advice on the path to becoming a thought leader. Thought Leaders Advice On Becoming A Thought Leader - Be able to communicate.
Develop the ability to communicate your ideas in a fast and easy way that people can understand quickly. Make the complicated simple. Not simplistic, but simple so that people can understand. Be comfortable in large group settings. (Michael McLaughlin)
You can't be a thought leader without thinking and articulating what you know and what you've done. And then you have to get your thoughts out there. Over time, if you think it through enough and try to be as expert as you can, one day you wake up and people are calling you and saying, “Can you come speak in Dubai?” (John Doerr)
- It takes time... so commit, and commit for the long term.
My business partner was questioning, "Is what you're doing really going to make a difference to our company? It's nice you're doing this article writing, Brian, and this blog writing, but shouldn't you spend more time doing sales? That's a lot of time." I could have been doing more short term sales things. Fortunately within a fairly short period of time, I'd be able to point to something that says, "Look, here's this thing that takes time during the day and evenings and it's making a difference! We got to be #1 on Google out of 70,000,000 websites, how's that?" (Brian Carroll)
Success is fleeting. Therefore, you have to constantly be honest with yourself about, "Are you really working at this?" If you want to do it, pick the thing you want to be an expert or thought leader on, and concern yourself with that. (John Doerr)
What it [thought leadership] tends to do is pull people in, rather than pushing to get people to come talk to you. So you have to say, "I'm going to now commit to it over the long term to actually achieve the benefits of becoming a thought leader." It takes a while before that happens. You have to understand that, and decide that you're going to stick with it, whether or not it works right away. (Michael McLaughlin)
- Admit it: you've got room to grow.
Not a big ego! Being very open to others' ideas, and recognizing that it takes a team to do everything. (Bert Gregory, when naming important elements to his achievement)
The biggest challenge is getting people to admit that they aren't already perfect. This is true for most professional service people. You have to go into it with a perspective that you can benefit from this. You don't have to admit that you're not a good speaker, but you have to admit there's room for improvement before you'll be able to get anywhere. It's important that you get to the point where you understand there's value to improving, and that's what makes it effective. (Michael McLaughlin)
- Always deliver value.
Over 1,000 times, I've had to think of [my speaking engagements] as, "Somebody put their neck on the line to suggest that they hire me. To somebody, this is the most important event of the year, and it may be a career-breaker or maker. For all the people in this audience, it's my job to make sure that this speech alone is worth coming to this meeting." Every one of them matters an incredible amount to somebody. Therefore, it has to matter a lot for me. And not just because of the money I'm being paid. I have a chance to take these 2,000 people and change the way they think, and I only get this one crack at it. (Dr. Martha Rogers)
- Be yourself.
Be yourself, be real, be authentic, and put your whole self into what you do. Be who you are, whether you're at work or at home. Be your true self. Not everyone can do this. It's something you can't fake. Over time, if you're not it, you can certainly hire or find someone to help you with this. But from a reader standpoint, if someone's not sincerely interested in sharing thoughts or ideas and that's not your way of doing business, that's not necessarily the best for you. (Brian Carroll)
- The Big One: Follow your heart!
Only do something you're passionate about. (Bert Gregory)
The first thing you have to do is to be so moved by something, some realization or some idea, or something you've learned, that you can't not write about it and share it with people and bore people at cocktail parties...I think, truly, that you don't sit down and decide you've got to be well-known for something. What happens is that you have this "something" that drives you so hard, that if you have the energy behind it and any communication capabilities or anything like that, you end up becoming known for it. Maybe I'm wrong. I mean, there are probably perfect examples of people who decided they were going to become thought leaders, and then did it in that direction. But it's just unthinkable to me. (Dr. Martha Rogers)
No one is perfect, not even the thought leaders we look up to because of their deep understanding of our industry and innovative ideas. What makes them stand out from the rest is their commitment and passion for what they do. So to become a thought leader, be true to yourself, provide valuable insights on topics you are truly passionate about, communicate these in a clear, simple way. And remember: In every group or profession, there's a fairly small group of people who are looked to as thought leaders. It can't be everyone. If their heart isn't in it, they'll eventually lose to the ones who are passionate about it because their heart is in it. (Brian Carroll)
|