The term ‘thought leader’ is potentially very powerful.
It is also potentially dangerous. Just like any buzzword, the term ‘thought leader’ has spread rapidly, and is sometimes misunderstood and often misinterpreted.
The concept of thought leadership was first developed in academia, with ‘social ecologist’ Peter Drucker thought to be the first to use it circa 1990. Since then, it has spread to management and business, and you have probably heard it used a few times.
Don’t get too excited about the term itself because, as we speak, it’s already on the way out. Search for ‘thought leadership’ on the web and you will find more scathing criticism than support.
To be a 'REAL' thought leader, one needs extensive Reach, effective Engagement with customers and the wider marketplace, acknowledged Authority in a specific subject area and the Longevity to stay in the customer’s mind long enough to make an impact
There may be nothing wrong with the concept but overuse and abuse of the term has poisoned people’s perceptions of it.
We need a new approach and a more scientific filter to divide real thought leaders from pretenders to the throne. In an effort to create such a filter, I have studied what the most impressive and outstanding leaders do, including over 100 clients of mine who have written and published extensively.
Their characteristics fall into four logical groups or attributes, conveniently making up the word REAL. So I feel perfectly justified in my challenge to ‘get REAL’.
To be a REAL thought leader, one needs extensive Reach, effective Engagement with customers and the wider marketplace, acknowledged Authority in a specific subject area and the Longevity to stay in the customer’s mind long enough to make an impact (and ideally much longer than the competition).
R for Reach
Reach is a completely measurable factor. You can count how many countries someone does business in, how many customers they have, how many connections on LinkedIn, friends on Facebook or followers on Twitter.
You can count the number of books and articles they have written and published, as well as numbers of copies sold, downloaded and viewed. Anyone can therefore extend their reach with a good strategy, and, in fact, that is the objective of most business owners.
The exceptional ones are the ones who achieve that goal.
E for Engagement
Engagement is a little harder to measure, but has an even greater impact. Although this term is also overused, there is currently no better way to describe the way you communicate with your customer, including the style, tone, relationship and trust factors.
It is my belief that more business owners sabotage their success by poor engagement than any other mistakes they make.
REAL thought leaders know how to engage with their customers in ways that create trust, which in turn generates business. They make engagement part of their strategy.
A for Authority
Authority is often bestowed on the leader by the market, but it starts with a series of coordinated activities that can be 100% controlled by that leader. For example, they spend time thinking through the message to put out into the market, including the exact space they want to play in, their views on their subject and the kind of influence they want to have.
Being a real authority means being bold and opinionated, and unafraid to stand by one’s point of view. After all, that’s what makes people take time out of their busy schedules to pay attention to you.
They want to hear what you have to say, not some wishy-washy, politically correct, innocuous waffle that is indistinguishable from so many other opinions on the given topic.
L is for Longevity
Finally, Longevity should be a goal for every business person, not just aspiring thought leaders. Even to stay in someone’s mind is a huge challenge in this day of information overload and stress.
So you need to be relevant and timely with your content, and regularly remind customers of your existence. Regular updates, newsletters, blogs, emails and even the old-fashioned letter or phone call will all help, as long as you reinforce your central message every time you can, and add value to that person’s life.
Without a doubt, the best longevity tool of all is still a quality book in print. There is a reason why certain books get pulled off the shelf often and are well-thumbed, dog-eared and highlighted.
So there you are. Four elements which, when executed well and complementing each other, can raise you in the customer’s eye to a position of a real thought leader in your space.
A bit simplistic? Maybe. But considering the alternative is a vague, fuzzy idea with no specific or measurable criteria, I know which one I’d rather subscribe to.
One word of caution, though: never call yourself a thought leader. That’s arrogant and dangerous.
Do your job right and get all four aspects of REAL working for you through writing, publishing and speaking, and you will soon see others writing, publishing and speaking about you, and start referring to you as a thought leader, which will give you considerable influence.
