What is a Thought Leader, Really?

Thought leadership is a term that gets thrown around a lot these days. With the explosion of thought leadership content and content marketing in the last few years, the need for everyone to establish themselves as experts in their fields to drive traffic, sales, or followers has grown exponentially. But many people have striven to take things one step further: to not only be exceptional at what they do, but also to be the best and the most innovative in their field. They have worked to become thought leaders. But what does thought leader actually mean, and is it even a new idea?

Does it just mean you're active on social media and have a big following on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn?

What does it mean to be a true thought leader?

Basically, you've got to put yourself in the spotlight, get a dedicated readership made up of your target audience, prove you are the best in your area of expertise, provide valuable insights, build an online community, share big ideas, cozy up with industry experts, land guest posts on big blogs, follow the latest trends, release case studies and high-quality or valuable content, and build your personal brand. This long term road map is the most effective way to becoming a thought leader in your particular niche.

The Origins of Thought Leadership

While you may have only heard the terms thought leader or thought leadership in the last few years, it isn’t a completely novel concept. In 1997, economist and researcher Joel Kurtzman published Thought Leaders: Insights on the Future of Business, a book that compiled interviews and profiles of business leaders discussing (as you may have guessed) the future of business in the 21st century. Here, the term thought leaders is used to describe the titans of business at the time who were offering their thoughts on the future of their industries—not quite the definition we are familiar with today.

Then in 2006 came The Art of Original Thinking: The Making of a Thought Leader by author and speaker Jan Phillips, a guidebook to becoming a thought leader in the way we think about it today. This was followed in 2014 by Denise Brosseau’s Ready to Be a Thought Leader? How to Increase Your Influence, Impact, and Success, another how-to guide on becoming a thought leader, which opened the floodgates of new books on thought leadership being published every year. Now, when you search for thought leadership books on Amazon, there are over 10,000 results; limit that to books on Business & Money and there are over 7,000. So while the idea of being or becoming a thought leader is one that has been around for nearly two decades at this point, it is only in the last ten years or so that people have begun the push to cracking the code on how to become one and then successfully implementing those practices into their work on a regular basis.

What is a thought leader? Is it more than being an influencer?

Here’s the definition of a thought leader according to Brosseau, who is also the founder of Thought Leadership Lab:

Thought leaders are the informed opinion leaders and the go-to people in their field of expertise. They become the trusted sources who move and inspire people with innovative ideas; turn ideas into reality, and know and show how to replicate their success. Over time, they create a dedicated group of friends, fans and followers to help them replicate and scale their ideas into sustainable change not just in one company but in an industry, niche or across an entire ecosystem.

Now, let’s unpack all of that. “Informed opinion leaders” suggests that not only are thought leaders knowledgeable, trustworthy, and skilled at what they do, but people look to them for their unique and personal opinions on things related to their field. Likewise, they “inspire people with innovative ideas.” The key word here is innovative, arguably what separates a thought leader from someone who is merely financially successful. A thought leader is someone who has learned, developed, created, or put into practice a novel or specific way of doing the thing that they do that also leads to success. The fact that they have done so also assumes that they have the education, experience and expertise that comes along with the time it takes to develop something on their own, which serves to bolster their credibility. And not only are they able to apply this novel idea to their own company or business, but they are able to help others “replicate and scale their ideas into sustainable change not just in one company but in an industry, niche or across an entire ecosystem.”

That’s right: In order to become a thought leader, the platform you are creating has to be replicable. And it is a platform, much like that of a politician. In fact, being a thought leader is similar to being a politician in more ways than one. Your platform must be, if not immediately relatable to others in your industry (or constituency), then reasonably achievable. If people feel like the only way to relate to you or replicate your success would be to win the lottery or discover that a long-lost aunt has left them her estate, then you are not a thought leader. But if your approach or strategy is one to which they can draw a line, however long, from where they are currently in their life or career, and that line looks relatively straight, then you have achieved thought leader status.

The Importance of Communication

One thing that cannot be overlooked in describing and defining thought leadership is the importance of exceptional communication skills. Don't you want to show up as the first result on Google? After all, you could be the smartest, most creative, most innovative person in the world, and if you can’t explain to someone else how to replicate what you are doing then you will never be able to achieve thought leader status in your industry. Now, that’s not to say that what you do has to be simple, it just has to be full of authenticity and position you as a subject matter expert. You merely have to communicate it in such a way that it feels simple for someone else to understand, regardless of whether they have spent years in the same industry as you or are learning about your subject matter for the first time. It must also feel simple for someone else to achieve, assuming that they are willing to put in the work to do so. You have to show them you can see things from their point of view, or that they should see things from your point of view.

No matter whether your audience is made up of laypeople or peers, the ability to make your work or your ideas sound compelling is also incredibly important. While it’s true that there are subjects and industries and businesses that lack the pizzazz of other flashier, more exciting endeavors (though that doesn’t make them any less valid or valuable) a thought leader is someone who can make anyone stop, listen, and wonder about what they have to say. You also need to be able to do this in multiple formats, whether in speeches, lectures, books, or interviews. And you must be able to condense or expand your platform to fit said format without losing sight of the primary message.

Thought leaders do not exist in vacuums. The transition from brilliant and successful businessperson to thought leader only begins when you are able to share your ideas and methods with the masses, which only happens when you can communicate them effectively. And the transition is only complete when people begin to seek you out to share said ideas and methods—or, as Brosseau put it, when you become one of the “go-to people in your field of expertise.”

Thought Leadership Strategy and Book Publishing

There are a few best practices when becoming a recognized thought leader. The first is the broadest, and it could take years: Put in the time, work, and effort to gain the experience required to cultivate the platform that is unique to you. From there, you need to get your thoughts and your message out into the world and there are a number of ways you can do this. You can give talks or lectures, host a podcast, put videos online, write an email newsletter or blog post, or conduct interviews. But apart from physically getting in front of your peers and colleagues to share your work, publishing a book is a great way to become a thought leader. Being able to say that you have written a book about your work or your method and then being able to refer people to your book to use as a learning tool can help take you to thought leader status in record time. You could take the time to draft a proposal, find an agent, and then try to get your book traditionally published, or you could self-publish with help from a team like the experts at Raab & Co.