Interactions: A Great Source of Inspiration for Thought Leaders

by Stefan Lindegaard

Your blog is up and running and you are so ready to share your thoughts and ideas with others. The first blog posts come out nicely as you can simply tap into your notes and mental drawer and write about issues that you have been wondering about for a long time.

Who said writing is difficult? That is until you have emptied your brain and gone through all of your notes. Now you suddenly have difficulties finding inspiration for writing more blog posts. What should you do?

You should find ways in which you can tap into and interact with your chosen community. Think LinkedIn. Join groups that are relevant for you, listen to the conversations and participate yourself. When you start engaging in these conversations, you will...

The Power of Storytelling, Other Lessons from Lance Armstrong

by Stefan Lindegaard

I have no doubt that Lance Armstrong used doping to win many of his races, but besides the many questions on that matter, we can also look at Armstrong in the view of thought leadership and ask ourselves what lessons we can learn.

One is quite clear to me. It seems as if you can build and maintain a strong personal brand even if you are accused of lying and breaking the law as long as you have a great compelling story to tell. Yes, Armstrong might be quite unique in this sense, but it nevertheless shows us the importance of having a mission and great story to tell.

Too often, we see aspiring thought leaders, who look like the guy next door. They have no unique...

Corporate Thought Leadership: A Cisco Example

by Stefan Lindegaard

I am a strong advocate for more focus on corporate leadership positions and thus I was glad to read two interesting articles today.

In Org Chart Innovation, Leigh Buchanan suggests some new titles that companies should add to their org chart. One is thought leader and this is what Buchanan wrote:

“Thought Leader. Industries and societies have thought leaders; so why not companies?

Maybe it’s a title for the founder who hands off operation of the business to a professional CEO so he can blue-sky the future. Maybe it’s the scary-brilliant vice president or technician whose brain is forever making wild-sounding connections that turn out to be revelations. Maybe it’s an add-on for the CEO who understands the trajectory of her industry the way Simon Schama understands art history.

The...

Great Reads on Failure: Help Build a Collection of Insights

by Stefan Lindegaard

As I continue to look into the ideas of smartfailing and failsourcing, I want to build a collection of articles with insights on how we can become better at learning through failure.

As a start, I have posted the below 8 articles. It would be great if you can add more articles by posting a comment. I will then update this post frequently.

When Failure is Intolerable by Scott Anthony

Welcome Failure by Paul Sloane

Lessons from Google Wave and Microsoft Kin by Scott Berkun

Learning from Failure: What Scientists Know about Innovation by Kris Halvorsen

The Failure of Failure by Michael Schrage

Safe-fail Probes by David Snowden

Are You Squandering Your Intelligent Failures? by Rita McGrath

Failing to Learn and Learning to Fail (Intelligently) by Mark Cannon

I look forward to your contributions.

Smartfailing – a concept for learning through failure

by Stefan Lindegaard

We need to become better at learning through failure, but the word failure itself is so negatively loaded. How can we create a new concept and vocabulary on the intersection of failure and learning?

This is my input based on my early thoughts and great input from Twitter conversations (#failsourcing):

Smartfailing – a new concept for learning through failure

Failsourcing – the process in which you learn from your own and others failures

Fail Capital – the learning you extract from failsourcing

Return on Failure – the ratio of the actions you take and investments you make once you know your fail capital

The key element is to learn from failure. Your input is highly appreciated. For your inspiration, the Twitter conversation spurred great comments including these:

Hutch Carpenter @bhc3 ‘Failsourcing’ –...

MUST READ: Thought Leadership and Social Media Tools

by Stefan Lindegaard

I have just read a very interesting report by the Bloom Group on how consulting companies have begun using social media tools to develop thought leadership positions.

Check this link: Thought Leadership Rewired: How Consulting Firms are Using Social Media to Market Their Ideas.

The key findings:

• Consulting firms are quickly expanding their budgets for social media.

• Social media will increasingly complement traditional thought leadership marketing channels.

• Other social media tools are gaining on traditional techniques.

• Running out of content and determining how to use it as a marketing tool are the two biggest concerns about social media.

• Effective thought leadership programs use research-based content.

Some snippets I liked in particular:

“In addition, a thought leadership microsite helps a consulting firm keep its content “in play” – continually findable on the Web, as opposed to...

Key Questions for Aspiring Thought Leaders

by Stefan Lindegaard

A key objective of this blog is to get into conversations with aspiring thought leaders and I think one frequent conversation topic will be on what it takes to become a thought leader.

As another conversation starter on this topic, I am working on a list of questions that thought leaders should consider when they start their journey.

This is work in progress and I look forward to hearing your comments.

You need to deliver sharp insights that make a difference. What makes what you bring to the table worthwhile for others? How can you create such insights frequently over time?

How will you share your sharp insights? How will you engage into conversations with your audience? Do you really have the time for this? This takes just as much time...

Sharp Insights: What Everyone Wants

by Stefan Lindegaard

Sharp insights that can help others develop personally as well as professionally. This is what everyone craves for and as a thought leader many will look in your direction for this.

A thought leader should look at insights in two ways. The first is about creating your own original insights and the other is about promoting insights that your community desires. On the latter, it is not only about promoting your own insights but also those of others if they are relevant to your community.

When it comes to creating insights this is the test where thought leaders rise above the pack. Almost every consultant or expert within a corporation is capable of producing content. The big question is whether you can move beyond mere content and...

Phil McKinney: HP’s Corporate Thought Leader

by Stefan Lindegaard

Can you work in a large corporation and still be a thought leader? Definitely!

One great example is Phil McKinney, who in his “day job” is the vice president and chief technology officer for Hewlett-Packard’s (HP) Personal Systems Group.

He is responsible for long-range strategic planning and research and development (R&D) for all of the company’s PC product lines, including displays, mobile devices, notebooks, desktops and workstations.

Besides this, Phil is a highly sought out speaker on creativity and innovation and its impact on business, industries, economies and society.

He creates his own original insights that he shares through his communication platforms – his talks, his blog, his podcast, Twitter, Facebook and his LinkedIn group.

In short, Phil is a great example on how to be a corporate thought leader.

There is no doubt...

Thought Leadership: What Is It and How To Do It?

by Stefan Lindegaard

According to Wikipedia, a thought leader is a futurist or person who is recognized for innovative ideas and demonstrates the confidence to promote or share those ideas as actionable distilled insights

How does this apply to the real world? I am still thinking on this, but here are my early reflections:

• You need to be original in your thinking.

• You must have enough edge to force people to have an opinion.

• You must address issues that broaden everyone’s horizon.

• You must act as a gate-keeper that finds and share relevant information.

• You need to build a following that buy into and help spread your ideas.

What do you think? What can you add?