How people become thought leadership practitioners, and a look at the future of the field.
An interview with Peter Winick and Bill Sherman about thought leadership past, present, and future.
To celebrate our 400th episode, our two hosts Peter Winick and Bill Sherman disperse insights they’ve gained having spoken to hundreds of thought leaders over decades of working in the field.
We start with a look at the widely varied paths to thought leadership. There are no schools, no set career path to follow to become a thought leader. Unlike becoming a doctor or lawyer, thought leadership is often the second act of a career. People branch into it once they’ve become a subject matter expert, have conquered many challenges of their own, and have developed a unique voice that needs to be heard.
With no set route, thought leadership practitioners are often faced with experimentation as they create content and sharpen their message. Bill talks about the need to simply get content out and not be afraid of failure. Ideas need to take root, and you need defined goals in order to measure its success. Thought leadership practitioners need to shepherd their ideas, constantly look for new ways to present them, and find their best audience.
Looking around the corner, Bill and Peter discuss the drivers that will change thought leadership over the next few years. We examine how publishing will continue to shift its place in a thought leader’s toolbox, and the bar for quality content is only going to get higher as publishing becomes a simple, even easy, task. In addition, we learn why a visible digital footprint adds glue to business proposals and engagements, and why lack of visibility will be a major career impediment in the next few years. We want to thank all of our listeners for joining us over the last 400 episodes, and we look forward to bringing you more great content and exciting guests in the future.
Three Key Takeaways:
- Don’t wait for your thought leadership to be perfect. Put it out there, and if it falls short, use that as a learning opportunity.
- Your message needs to be independent of the modality. Build a strong foundation of ideas instead of focusing on how to “hack the algorithm” of the platform.
- The cost and ease of publishing is allowing a flood of new ideas to enter the milieu. This signal-to-noise ratio can only be overcome with high-quality content and good marketing.
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And if you need help scaling organizational thought leadership, contact Thought Leadership Leverage or reach out to Bill Sherman on Linkedin!
