Remember to turn on the light

I know y'all are thinking - WOW two posts in two days? Or maybe not, but I'm liking having some time to think and write, so I'm happy to share it with you! Yesterday's post was about keeping it real - having that tough conversation with yourself in a negative time to turn that situation around for the better. Today's thoughts are about how to get to that positive and run with it.

One thing that has been a constant for me is that I'm a very independent person who sometimes (often) gets lost in my day to day tasks and forgets to connect with my friends and family. Social media sites give me a quick way to check in and I can text and such asking how things are going, but I mean really CONNECT. Connecting to me is talking with the person about what they and I are passionate about. They might not be the same, but doing so brings you to such a great place. I have a couple of examples of how I chose to start this Monday out - by connecting.

Since I have some extra time, I've been more thoughtful in my day job tasks and initiatives. I was contemplating the best way to do launch a new piece of collateral that we created (it is SUPER cool, so stay tuned for how we launch it) in a timely manner. One thing about my organization and the industry that we are in is that everything is very fast paced - it's necessary for the operations sides of things. While it is important to execute in a timely fashion, I didn't want to sacrifice this great piece of collateral - I didn't want it to get lost in the shuffle of Monday posts. So Sunday, I was thinking about the best way to do this and had a few ideas, but wasn't sure what would be the best way. So what do I do? I call my friend Jill to talk through them. I've worked with her for a long time and see her as being a great thinker and doer - she sees things others don't AND I also wanted to catch up with her on a personal level. That conversation not only helped with one task, but might have offered a great opportunity for her AND me, simply from a phone call. I drove into work feeling great, confident and like I had a good purpose for today.

Halfway through my morning, I texted my friend, Jenna from high school just to chat. She popped into my head and I thought I'd say hello. I ended up talking with her for just under two hours while I was doing my day to day tasks about anything and everything that was going on with our lives, how past events lead to them, our feelings about current events, travel, etc. I haven't spoken with her in person for a while now and she gave me even more of a purpose for my day than I had talking with Jill. I also remembered that I DO have a great friend sitting in a different state that I can lean on when I need it and I think Jenna realized that I can be that person for her too. Even though we are far apart, we still can be supportive through happy and difficult times and events.

I named this post after one of my FAVORITE Harry Potter quotes by Albus Dumbledore (even though Severus Snape is the best character of all time). Remembering to turn on the light is huge. I'm not even in a "darkest of time" scenario, but I was forgetting to turn on the light. I was struggling to find purpose and direction, but didn't remember that I can turn on the smallest of lights that can help me find my way. For me, the way to turn on that light is to connect. To actually sit down and give time to the people who care about me and who I care about - with no other purpose than to say hello and see what's up. When you're stuck in a situation, find the switch, and turn on the light.

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?