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The publication you’re reading this in is filled with thought leadership. Look around—you’ll find executives and writers who take you on a journey of discovery (I hope), bringing you news, trends, metrics, and actionable strategies on every topic possible.
But what is the purpose?
I’ve been in executive brand management for 12 years. During that point, I’ve seen thought leadership campaigns that didn’t achieve anything and one-off articles that shape an industry. Earlier this yr, I noticed a shift. I could only describe it as a global “numbness” to infinite, monotonous thought leadership content. Maybe it was generative AI driving content saturation in the marketplace, or perhaps B2B and B2C audiences were simply exhausted. Neither turned out to be the cause.
The Harris Poll on Return on Investment for Thought Leadership finds that marketing leaders see a disconnect between the importance of thought leadership and its effectiveness. The report stated that“9 out of 10 executives believe thought leadership is key to building authority, but only 20% are effective.” It’s not a gap, it’s a chasm.
Over the past few months, I have been involved in a curiosity project and interviewed 72 CEOs about their thought leadership initiatives. It was from these conversations that I noticed there was a serious disconnect between what thought leaders thought was and what is it should be.
Here are the results of those 72 interviews:
- 83% of executives imagine thought leadership has no defined purpose or measurable impact.
- 92% of executives want thought leadership to draw recent customers, talent, or investment that can directly impact growth.
After some thought, I created a recent definition of executive thought leadership:
“Thought leadership is defined as the publishing of media content, for external or internal audiences, by an executive who is an expert in a specific field, to support the needs of the front line, thereby directly improving organizational performance and growth.”
This model has much more in common with servant leadership than anything PR-related. It identifies the tension points in each department and supports the people doing the work. In other words, executive thought leadership has turn out to be much more purposeful.
If we break down the definition into its component parts, we have a clear strategy and agenda for thought leadership.
1. An individual in a managerial position who is an expert in a specific field. Who are these directors? Are they experts in the field they are chatting with?
In many cases, it’ll be the CEO or founder. But not all the time. In a healthcare company, it is likely to be the CMO; if the goals are about talent and culture, it is likely to be the CRO; in a technology company, perhaps the CTO is the best person to talk to those issues.
2. Supporting the needs of the front line. Which departments of the company need support? People, sales, finance, operations?
People on the ground have much more data than management. So, as a first step to getting clear on what to debate:
- Ask your teams about the biggest demands they hear from customers, stakeholders, and partners. Focus on what causes them the most stress.
- Collect data from all entities, including external and internal stakeholders, employees and customers.
- Present your findings in tabular form to discover common denominators and highlight the funnel of low- and high-volume issues.
- Create a roadmap that addresses each of those issues.
Example: A founder whose primary responsibility is to build a strong internship program. Ask, “What do interns want to know when you bring them on board? Is there anything that would help them understand the organization faster—an article, case studies, white paper, white papers, introductory materials, a handbook, or a visual guide?”
By creating more targeted thought leadership content, executives can drive measurable results and support organizational initiatives.
3. Creating multimedia content for external and internal audiences. What kind of content will solve identified problems and drive growth? Who is the audience?
Take a cue from former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and use his six-page concept distill complex information into a narrative. Develop support materials that address specific problems by:
Decide who should receive your thought leadership content:
- To make sure you reach the right audience, ask yourself: If they saw this and took motion, wouldn’t it solve your departments’ problems or achieve your growth goals?
- Breaking down their most important issues into their prime aspects (you could find them in Step 2);
- Develop all solutions, insights, advantages, industry metrics/statistics related to the problem;
- Convert this material into an executive essay of at least six pages;
- Reuse them in dozens (if not lots of) of social campaigns, white papers, press releases, blog posts, newsletters, downloads, and sales funnel pages.
We have to let go of what we thought was thought leadership. The industry has turn out to be saturated with PR or “sales” thought leadership, and it doesn’t change any of the metrics in the company. The recent model—intentional thought leadership—is completely tethered to a desired end goal. The only method to achieve those end goals is to take heed to the people in the company. If which means talking to 10 people or 1,000 people, that’s the way you’re going to build your executive-level thought leadership campaign.
A New Era of Thought Leadership
Imagine if your customer support managers had a perfect media piece from the CEO, published in a popular magazine, that directly addressed a prospect’s challenges.
Such thought leadership provides support from the top and creates a coherent and consistent message throughout the organization. It is a significant resource tool that can guide every department in the company.