What is Thought Leadership?

I’ve been thinking lately about how people define thought leadership. I define thought leadership as being a pioneer when it comes to identifying future solutions and trends. That means taking into account the past of a given subject, idea or industry, understanding the changes that it underwent to reach the present and what things about the present will ultimately drive the future. Thought leadership means different things to different people, but that’s my definition.

What frustrates me the most is that many individuals claim to be thought leaders because of their expertise and experience. While I am not trying to discount those things, that is only part of the big picture. Expertise and experience only help you to understand the past, the present and how you got to this point. The real differentiator for those that are actually thought leaders is the ability to understand the reasons for change and how that will affect their initiatives.

Inexperience offers a clear disadvantage as the only way to research how things were and became so is to ask others or research it alone. A lot gets missed when you haven’t “walked the path.” That doesn’t mean that inexperienced individuals cannot possibly be thought leaders. Inexperience offers an advantage as well.  Often, those that are inexperienced are young and idealistic. Youth can be defined as young to the industry, role or situation and/or young in terms of age. Youth can offer the advantage to not being set in a particular way of accomplishing things or generating ideas. This can be leveraged to initiate more creative solutions and visions for the future. 

In addition, thought leaders are not those that follow current trends without looking out ahead to see how they will develop and evolve. Individuals can be “superstars” currently in their industries, but if they don’t actively keep up with how things are changing, they are sure to fall behind. This issue sometimes goes hand in hand with the experience myth. Experience and current success does not automatically make an individual a thought leader. Thought leaders push the limits of things, look and plan ahead and develop multiple strategies for the future. 

While I don’t claim to be a superstar or experienced, I think that I am an emerging thought leader in a few different areas. In addition to seeing the future big picture, I think thought leaders really can change the direction of certain trends or overall practices. Things that are in place “just because” can be changed to be more efficient, or just make more sense for the current situation, time, environment, etc. Not all things should be changed “just because” either. I think thought leaders can identify those things that can be done better and actually come up with a solution to make it better. 

My last thought about thought leaders is that they don’t merely identify issues or trends. Thought leaders DO things, STRIVE to do things and ACHIEVE results. Just identifying something is less than half of the battle. Strategizing ways to leverage a trend or solution is the hardest thing to accomplish, and I believe true thought leaders do this. Any thoughts on thought leadership?

Corporate Controversial

I was contemplating what topic I wanted to cover today with this entry and I went through a series of options. I tend to like writing about things that I wish I had done differently or something that was an unexpected obstacle so that others may avoid it. I always appreciated hearing those types of commentaries from others so that I can at least attempt to have a smoother time, whatever the situation is or was. This entry will be a little different though. It is something that I don’t struggle with, but that I get in trouble a lot for.

If you have ever met me in “real-life” you know that I am confrontational, have a voice and often controversial. While I don’t try to be this way, and I try to harness it as much as I physically can, it just is my personality. I don’t mind when people tend to not agree with me, and I don’t mind receiving feedback to “rein it in” (though the initial session is always tense…). While I think there is a balance to everything, and that my way is typically pretty abrupt, I think that losing this part of me can be detrimental to my identity, career, etc. And I think that losing your voice can be detrimental to everyone. 

I think in the United States, because of the way professionalism is defined, that people tend to fall in line to keep their jobs (why wouldn’t they?) which can result in a sense of groupthink when it comes to handling issues, planning for the future, or just maintaining the business. I think this is one reason that American businesses are struggling when compared to foreign businesses regarding things such as creativity, innovation and vision. There are multiple antecedents that can be to blame for these types of problems: traditional education, the economy, differences between generations, etc. I think one of the big reasons is simply that people are scared or not willing to speak up.  

This is especially true when we look at the norm for corporate professionalism.  The norm is that you highly respect your leadership, you dress a certain way, and you sugarcoat anything that may make your superiors “lose face.” While I understand that leadership deserves respect, I think that people’s definitions of respect can be problematic when attempting to run a business. Respect should never mean agreeing with everything they say. It should never mean that you can’t display an appropriate level of passion around your ideas. Respect also doesn’t mean that you should agree when your ideas are shot down. 

I’ve experienced all of these definitions of respect in various jobs and when questioned, no one ever wants to talk about it. They just want to believe that people (like me) are trying to hurt or undermine them. I just never understand why they don’t see it as people trying to HELP them. Attempting to do new and different things to set this business apart from others, even if they are unconventional are at least worth a dignified conversation rather than a blanket NO. 

I don’t believe that anyone in history made it to the books by being a complete follower. If we desire to be “thought leaders” of the world, then let people BECOME those people. If we continue this norm of falling into place and following explicit directions, then where will the next crop of leaders come from? Once they get to a leadership position, no new ideas will emerge, because that creativity and innovative spirit has never been cultivated. Those things are like muscles and need to be stretched, trained and strengthened. I believe that even though it may be difficult and frustrating most of the time that attempting innovation and attempting to reach a vision is necessary for an individual’s professional development.