Paul Hobcraft says:

I had ‘tucked this away’ in my files but thought you might like to take a look and contribute to your thinking Stefan. It comes from sourceconsulting. com and i leave it ‘as is’.

What makes good Thought Leadership?

The clients of consulting firms are inundated with information and analysis from every direction. Unquestionably, the vast majority is binned or deleted instantly. So what are the factors likely to attract a client’s attention? When, if at all, will an article, book or survey by a consulting firm prompt a client to make contact with the authors and perhaps even buy their services?

• Appeal: For a client to hang on to a piece of thought leadership, even for a few seconds, they instantly have to be able to recognise it as being relevant to their work. And, because most executives have a very narrow definition of what is relevant, it is comparatively rare for a “generic” piece of thought leadership – something designed to apply to any sector – to be seen as relevant. Bankers want to read about people development issues in banks, not across industry as a whole; retailers want to see how other retailers have improved their technology infrastructure.

• Differentiation: Where consultants excel is in pouring old wine into new bottles and re-labelling them. Clients are, indeed, looking for something different, but experience and cynicism has taught them to regard any thought leadership piece that trumpets its own originality with considerable scepticism. They complain that, despite its pretensions, most material produced by consulting firms is indistinguishable from that produced by their competitors: most thought “leading” is in fact thought “following”. With a little more time invested in seeing things from a client’s perspective – how one firm’s output sits alongside its rivals’ – consulting firms could significantly improve the level of differentiation achieved.

• Practical application: Occasionally management ideas do capture the imagination of executives. Customer relationship management is a good example: although the thinking produced on it in the early days was comparatively abstract, almost all managers could relate to the idea of re-connecting with their customers. But for the vast majority of thought leadership, it is the practical application which will attract people’s attention: not only do they want to know it’s something relevant to them and that it has something new to say on a particular problem, they also want to know what they can do. This is not the same as ending an otherwise interesting thought piece with a series of diagrams illustrating a complex consulting process: detailed frameworks have to be balanced with quick wins.

• Quality of thinking: Whether a client buys into the idea a consulting firm is trying to put across also depends on the evidence. Clients don’t take a consulting firm’s word; increasingly, they’re sceptical of the testimonials of a small number of supportive clients. Surveys are helpful, although they are too often focused on executives’ attitudes rather than actions, but what clients would really like to see is a wealth of named companies whose experience reinforces the message the consulting firm is trying to get across.

• But not a hard sell: It goes (almost) without saying: the more a client believes a consulting firm is trying to sell it something, the more likely they are to reject the ideas the firm is putting across.

http://sourceforconsulting.com/whitespace/what_makes_good_thought_leadership.html

Edward says:

This post got me thinking

I agree about the knowledge and expertise as prerequistes and about the true differentiation being the originality of thought.

It was more on the need for a thought leader to be recognised and to have a following.

In this time of instant content distribution through blogs and social media has it become easier for thought leaders to have their voice heard or is there now too much noise?

I find myself applying more filters to the information that is broadcast and value those who can help me do that almost as much as the thought leaders themselves.

(kinda a compliment Stefan!)

Ed

CV Harquail says:

Stephan, for me the surprise in your list is “have enough edge to force people to have an opinion”. I think that it’s easy to confuse being a thought leader with being an expert…. Experts know a lot and are available to be consulted; thought leaders are going in a particular direction — so it’s both the expertise and the direction that matter.

interesting to muse on….

Jan Willem van Eck says:

Stephan, I’d like to add: you must have a constant –once a week?- flow of thoughts and be able to communicate these in a ‘when he/she talks, we listen’ mode. I read about the T-shaped people in your book, thought that it might apply to thought leaders as well.

Cheers,
Jw.

Steven Spenser says:

“Thought leadership” gets a lot of buzz these days, but it’s really just plain old reputation-building & management. Any comprehensive PR plan presumably would already include many of the usual TL planks I outline below. Assuming you already have a Web site, the basics also include:

01) Corporate public-speaking appearances where your CEO is the main attraction–e.g., unveiling a new product benefiting consumers or certain demographic groups; announcing research results or programs launched; announcing significant philanthropic grants, etc.
02) Be a featured speaker on national industry-conference panels
03) Get invited to prestigious international symposia (e.g., Davos)
04) Present your own seminars and…
05) …turn those seminars into Webinars
06) Make civic speeches at (corporate) publicity events benefiting local communities
07) Write newspaper op-eds
08) Provide guest editorials on local TV newscasts
09) Offer articles to professional journals, association newsletters and consumer
pubs
10) Offer those same articles to Web sites
11) Write a regular column for print or the Web
12) Broadcast a regular column on a radio show
13) Have a regular feature as a contributor on a local or national TV program
14) Create your own local public-access TV program
15) Secure TV and radio interviews on corporate initiatives or subjects related to your CEO’s expertise
16) Appear with incumbent politicians at their events and speak in favor of their
legislation
17) Offer municipal, state or congressional testimony
18) Write legislation and seek a state legislator or Congresscritter to sponsor it
19) In states permitting citizen-sponsored legislation, launch your own initiative or
publicly support someone else’s
20) Offer topical commentary for national TV newscasts and NPR
21) Be listed in expert-source directories
22) Secure listings in Web sites’ professional-resource directories
23) Respond to HARO, ProfNet and Reporter Connection requests for interviewees
24) Introduce yourself to journalists and offer yourself as a resource and/or expert for particular subjects. (Pre-Internet, you could have created and sent your own Rolodex card; nowadays, an e-mail or written letter will suffice.) Mail or e-mail useful clippings, articles and other information.
25) Strike up a correspondence, whether snail mail or e-mail, with influencers. Tell them how much you liked their recent work, offer thoughtful comments on it, and send them info they might be interested in or be able to use. Once they reply favorably, seek later to meet in person when in town. This may get you invitations to their appearances, private functions, etc.
26) Build credibility by becoming a subject-matter guide at About.com or an editor at
DMOZ.org…
27) …and by creating a Wikipedia page about a subject
28) Write a book (with or without a ghostwriter—but keep the ghost’s participation
secret to preserve your expert authority); self-publish it if you can’t interest a national publisher
29) Write and promote an eBook
30) Do book tours
31) Do a civic public-speaking road show (with or without other speakers)
32) Join local business or civic groups and network extensively at their events; volunteer for their committees
33) Speak at business- or civic-lecture programs by local groups such as Rotary, Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Business Association, CityClub, Municipal League, League of Women Voters, local international-affairs groups, veterans groups, PRSA, IABC, etc.
34) Create videos for posting on YouTube et. al. (either in-house or from public
speeches), and offer them as streaming video or video-on-demand at your Web site
35) Create podcasts and vcasts (video podcasts) from your articles, op-eds and
speeches
36) Write a blog and offer it via RSS; promote it on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and
other social-media sites, as well as via e-mail to subscribers
37) Create a vlog (video blog)
38) Create a moblog (mobile-video blog)
39) Participate in social-media sites by contributing thoughtful comments and useful information (in hopes of third-party tweets or recommending e-mails linking to your statements)
40) Lurk, then participate in topical online fora (newsgroups, bulletin boards, user groups) such as Google Groups and Yahoo Newsgroups; be sure to include your URL in your e-mail sig
41) Participate in mailing lists, the Internet’s (e-mailed) topical chain letters/
discussion groups. (Not as many exist these days, but they’re full of self-selected
audiences dedicated to particular topics.)
42) Provide comments at others’ blogs
43) Provide commentary on topical subjects via Twitter
44) Provide useful info via retweets
45) Have a professional-appearing LinkedIn profile and update its status regularly
46) Have a professionally designed Facebook profile and update it regularly
47) Contribute to LinkedIn discussions
48) Contribute answers to LinkedIn Questions
49) Write a regular print newsletter
50) Write a regular e-mail newsletter
51) Become a philanthropist and make speeches at each large public donation,
unveiling or program launch
52) Create a national or international humanitarian program (a la Bill Gates and Ted Turner) that enlists the participation of prominent businesspeople and/or celebrities
53) Become a spokesperson for a national or international charity
54) Go on international (press) tours highlighting the charity’s efforts or to bring
attention to a significant humanitarian issue
55) Make your own TV and radio public-service announcements for important issues and/or nonprofits
56) Make a (public-affairs) documentary or be featured in someone else’s film
57) Appear in support of a candidate
58) Run for public office
59) If you’re a wealthy businessperson, make a large donation to a political party; parlay your influence into a government position as an ambassador, trade representative or special envoy
60) Become a UN Goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, WHO (World Health Organization), UNESCO (Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization), FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), UNHCR (High Commission for Refugees), UNFPA (Population Fund) or UNIDO (Industrial Development Organization)

Steven Spenser says:

Stefan,

I described at least 20 tactics involving social media in my 60-item list, and I can see I failed to mention more, such as become a guest blogger; contributing (not necessarily your own content) to social-news sites such as Digg & Reddit; to social-discovery sites such as StumbleUpon; to social-bookmarking sites such as Delicious; starting your own LinkedIn Group; creating your own YouTube Channel; securing the top result ranking for your own name in Google; creating a Google Profile; getting nominated for industry prizes; getting awards; and creating and giving your own awards.

At any rate, devoting one-third of the original list to social media is not what I would call giving social media “a pretty low priority.”

The list was assembled, in no particular order and without regard to priority, BTW.