Thought-leaders need thoughts – and leadership

Martha Raupp

Martha Raupp is a guest blogger.

Martha Raupp has a 20-year career in global marketing, communications and business consulting, and is the Australian Tech Practice Director at Burson-Marsteller.

Cogito ergo sum - I think therefore I am - can’t even nominally be extended to “I think leadership, therefore I am a leader.” Yet, nearly 400 years after Descartes penned the notion, businesspeople around the globe are doing exactly that.

How many times a day do you hear of ‘thought leadership’?

“We need to be a thought leader in SOA,” says the CEO. “We need to show thought leadership around single customer view,” says the marketing director. “We are the thought leader in CRM,” says Vendor 1. And Vendor 2. And so on.

But ask yourself: Do you have the breadth and depth in service oriented architecture (SOA)? Can you be called upon at a moment’s notice to do an in-depth interview around single customer view? How could any one vendor be a thought leader in a category that has hundreds of competitors?

Let’s agree that thought leadership is important, that it results in a more favourable market position, and boosts an individual’s profile. And let’s further agree to work on the premise that thought leadership is something you should be doing.

So the question is, how? Do you have to have a big profile in the media? What about speaking at events? How about writing a book? No one else is doing it, so you could be an instant leader, right?

Well-placed media articles across both industry and trade media are a very good component, so if you’re not yet engaged with your communication leader, that’s a good place to start. Likewise for speaking, although I can count on one hand the number of CIOs I know who are keen speakers, and if they are, it’s usually only on one or two topics. By the way, speak-leaders are not necessarily thought-leaders.

If the notion of writing a book appeals to you however, contemplate why it is nobody is doing it!

#1 Have the right frame of mind

It’s a truism that you cannot have thoughts if you’re not thinking. So before you get involved with the media or speak, or do anything else, the first step of being a thought leader is to make time to think. Put yourself in the frame of mind where you see clearly, and the big picture comes into view.

While some people feel setting aside a half hour every day works, others find taking a few minutes after each meeting, conversation, or email works, to do a quick ‘big picture’ check on what just happened, and tease out any notions that could be interesting to a wider audience.

Have you seen a pattern in projects, for example, that no one else seems to notice? Have you seen vendors make the same mistake over and over? What about internally — are there lessons other execs could learn about better engagement? What about your own staff — what are the top two things you would change in your staff if you had the power of a genie to snap your fingers and make it so?

Be brave and reveal a bit of yourself. If there’s an issue that comes up repeatedly and you’re not able to crack it, many other CIOs might be awake at night wrestling with the same thing. Imagine the thought leadership position you will be in by being the one who first raises the question. (And you can pose the question as a hypothetical. Your peers will appreciate it.)

#2 Use a sustainable forum

If your organisation has a community forum, intranet, Yammer, Sharepoint or other forum, use it. For external purposes, if you’re not yet on it, get on LinkedIn, the dominant B2B social media platform. Do your profile properly – not too short, not too detailed – and start connecting to people. Once your profile is established, and you’ve got some connections, look for a few groups to join, and start contributing to some discussions, or start your own.

#3 Freedom through thought leadership

By definition, leaders set the agenda rather than follow it. This doesn’t always fit easily with corporate policy. On the one hand, you need to stick within your corporate guidelines, but, at the same time, know what are guidelines and what are steadfast rules. Not that you’ll be looking to push boundaries, but some executives use their organisation’s policies as an excuse not to be involved. You have to have some leeway in expressing your thoughts. Are your organisation’s policies such that you can freely post a topic on a discussion forum like LinkedIn? Or this one?

#4 Bring it all together

LinkedIn, internal communities, media, speaking, and other outlets are just channels for your thoughts. Once you have the thoughts, and have started using the various channels, make sure to link to them from other sites, the corporate Twitter account for example, and start building up the bank of information.

Today, it’s not enough to just think. Today, to think is only the first step. Gathering your thoughts and sharing the best of them with the appropriate audience is one big step towards being a thought leader.

Tags: IT, leadership, LinkedIn, thought leadership