What is ‘Thought Leadership’.

I’ve looked at 20 websites, each talks about it as if everyone knows what it is but by reading between the lines , all 20 websites seem to be talking about something slightly different.

Cheers
Derrick

Your most recent article is spot-on. So much of what passes for TL today is poorly articulated ideas that only arise from the limited experience of the “author,” who more often than not didn’t write the article in the first place. The true beneficiaries of the push toward TL is writers. Most of the good free-lance writers I know are in feast mode right now.

I often relate the experience of one my fellow graduate students who attempted to build his entire master’s thesis around his personal experience of developing a new, innovative, and complex booking system for a major airline. While his experiences, and the value he delivered to his organization, were indeed rich, they were, after all, only his. He was forced to overhaul his entire approach by one of our professors because he didn’t include any research, any ideas outside of his own and the limited team he worked with.

The point is this. No matter how brilliant you may be as a practitioner, to be a thought leader, you must have ideas beyond yourself. More often than not, “research” (which can take many forms) becomes a key driver in shaping those outside ideas. In my experience, very few organizations are actually willing to put the time and effort into developing good quality research that can fuel good quality TL. And to your point, they don’t have to. TL is not for everyone.

The bad news for those who truly work hard to be thought leaders is that the market is becoming very cloudy. There are more “articles” today than ever before, and most of them are limited in the value and insights they offer. TL has become a primary SEO strategy where certain practitioners are seeking to have more web links than quality ideas, hoping this will drive traffic to their sites.

TL isn’t just about opinions. Everyone has those. Good quality TL is about ideas, strategies, and to a limited degree tactics, that consistently and repeatedly produce outstanding business results.

Thanks for taking the lead on this point Mike. Well stated.

Content marketing needs to be a well-thought out strategy. I’m afraid the democratization of e-publishing tools has spawned a massive wave of mediocre thought leadership marketing in professional services. I think you hit on something important when you talked about passion. Thought leadership in a particular area of expertise requires deep knowledge + passion. Yes!

Btw, you and I were in business school together at Babson. I remember you in particular because you were an uber-networker! Great to see your success!

You have a pretty tough road ahead of you. It’s a common one as many in the professions don’t want to work as hard as the need to in order to compete as strongly as they can in the market, but it’s still tough.

Here are a few thoughts and comments:

1. I wouldn’t equate my argument necessarily to supporting the status quo as I don’t know what the status quo is. I am arguing that firms need to commucate their value in the market, but that thought leadership isn’t the only path. If they’re communicating their value and getting it across broadly to the buyers in the market they should be in good shape already.

If their not and they don’t want to pursue thought leadership (which, as I state above is a perfectly reasonable strategy to pursue) what are they going to do instead, and why do they think it will work? Their answer should be pretty telling.

2. Is it lack of communication of thought leadership that’s the problem, or is it something else? Let me give you a few observations about professional services firm leaders. Many are great, hard working, sharp, and focused on doing their best to succeed. There are quite a number however that:
- Don’t want to do the work they need to do to succeed.
- Aren’t serious about being a leader in their market.
- Aren’t passionate, energetic, and enthusiastic to come to work and be better today than they were yesterday.
- Talk a good game about “providing value over and above the norm” and “being a committed partner in their clients’ success” but don’t really deliver on it.
- Are too dysfunctional an organization to get past a vocal group of naysayers to do anything interesting, bold, or productive.
- Are happy with the status quo, and don’t see negative consequences of just doing more of the same.

Perhaps none of these are true at your firm, but they are true of some firms. If any of the above are the case, you should tackle these problems firms. Or go someplace else.

3. While they might have case studies, learning modules, and experience, that does not mean they have anything that qualifies as thought leadership. Sure, all that content might provide a path to help establish them as an authority in the industry, but do they really have what it takes to be a thought leader? Being a thought leader takes personal commitment; people are thought leaders, not companies.

Even at places like McKinsey – widely recognized as being a firm filled with thought leaders – is still just that: a firm filled with people that are thought leaders. So if you don’t have the people that want to stake their name to some thinking, thought leadership is as likely to succeed as the Swedish Chef would in Hell’s Kitchen.

Mike

Rodger

Providing value in conversations differentiates. Getting testimonials provides substantiation for your claims of how you help. And you can do it all without writing a white paper.

Mike

Unless you’re new in town, any one with more than a few years of experience has clients who like them and are willing to give a testimonial. In a market filled with the same claims backed by great track records, how do buyers make a choice?

It’s the conversations we have. In those conversations, when we actually help the client, the buyer experiences what they will get — and that can tip the scale.

Keep up the good thinking and have a great holiday!

Vickie

I agree that the term has become debased. Reminds me of the ’80s when everyone started to sell “solutions”. I remember a time that only chemists sold solutions, now everyone says they do. But just because they say they “solve problems” doesn’t mean they actually do.

These days everyone who writes a blog post or gives a speech calls themselves a thought leader. Just because you say it doesn’t mean it’s true.

Mike

P.S. And everyone who is out of work these days is a “consultant”.

Definitely one of the best articles I have read on thought leadership.

Clearly not everyone can be a “thought leader” – whatever that is, but certainly it must involve having ground-breaking ideas in some form. Quite frankly many people aren’t up to it (even/especially in top firms), and would rather spend the time doing another aspect of their job.

Also, the term has become completely debased – with everyday activity now described as “thought leadership” because it sounds more impressive. For instance the application of the term to Opinion Polls is a great example – they are a really useful tool for getting coverage or showing interest in an area, for instance.

Asking questions per se is not “thought leadership” – having a damn good explanation for the results and why they are important is more like it… yet this is often the bit lacking.

Tim