Lessons on thought leadership: my best takeaways from the book "thought leadership practice"
When you are positioned as a thought leader in your field, everything gets easier.
Hi, it’s Mark. 👋
Welcome to my bi-weekly newsletter — a blend of actionable how-tos, book takeaways, and content breakdowns.
Today, I’m sharing my best takeaways from the book Thought Leadership Practice.
Enjoy!
We have a “copycat” problem.
“Currently there is a great ‘blanding’ in the marketplace as traditional companies sell ‘same same’ products and services as each other, trying to compete on price. This is a foolish game. Only the biggest businesses with the greatest purchasing power and seemingly infinite capital reserves can compete by offering the lowest price.”
“To survive in this new environment, leaders will need to evolve their businesses faster than the pace of change. They need to be thought leaders.”
Old thinking can’t solve old problems
“Whether it’s generating fresh drinking water in Africa or re-inventing collapsed industries in Detroit, we need new thinking to help solve established problems.”
As Einstein said, ‘The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them.’
We need the point-of-view of subject-matter experts (SMEs).
“As will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas says, ‘When Google is your professor and Wikipedia is your encyclopedia, you can become a kitchen expert in almost anything. The problem with kitchen experts is that they don’t always have the wisdom to know the difference between good and bad information. This is where subject-matter experts come in. We need someone who can help us sift the information we discover and help make it relevant to our world. Thought leaders are, at their core, meaning makers.”
“...the information is now available to us all, it’s the ability to draw meaning and application that is of higher value. It’s at this exact distinction that you start to take what you know and make it more valuable to others. You go from knowing stuff to being known for knowing stuff.”
“Knowledge is not a competitive advantage — knowing how to apply that knowledge to achieve a specific, desired outcome is!”
“You need to know more than the obvious answer to any given questions. You need to be able to create new insights and repurpose old insights so that they are relevant. This is thought leadership.”
Why become a thought leader
“When you are positioned as a thought leader in your field, everything gets easier.
Referrals, recommendations and positioning make growing your business almost effortless. When you get these dynamics working in your business, you begin to leverage reputation to pull business in the door.”
[...]
“Positioning yourself as a thought leader will get you ten times more business when compared to someone who is not using any of these strategies.”“People trust informed people, and expertise and authority are true business currencies.”
Positioning = enhanced reputation = 10x sales
“Referrals are great; recommendations are even better. A recommendation occurs when your clients or business network members take an active role in you getting business.
The difference is that a referral is passive, e.g. ‘You should work with Scott Stein’, while a recommendation is active, e.g. ‘Let me call Scott now and see when he can see you to discuss this.’
Here’s a visual model of the likelihood of winning sales:
What’s a thought leader?
Someone who has a “unique perspective based around the subject they are an expert in — when they build on the existing thinking in their field.”
“As a subject-matter expert, you know something that others don’t. Often, you are being asked to share that information with others. Maybe you are asked to speak. Perhaps someone suggests you write a book. It could be that people are always calling to pick your brain, buy you lunch or shout you a coffee. When we hear or see this happening, we know that this person has the potential to be a thought leader; they simply may not have recognized it yet.”
“...this may require a move from being a subject-matter expert who knows something to becoming a trusted advisor who is known for knowing something.”
Create an idea bank
“The thing that differentiates a thought leader’s approach from others is the demand it places on you to come up with great ideas first. Its quality of idea before the size of the market. It’s absolutely not about internet marketing with ‘keyword searches’ or ‘click-generated revenue’.”
“We recommend that you create a number of folders of intellectual property that capture ideas that you can use. This is more than a way to keep a number of ideas together, it will allow you to further develop and commercialize these ideas.”
“Most people will have a number of topics that they want to create or to clarify their expertise in. For one person they may want to be viewed as an expert in innovation. Another person may want to be known for inspiration and storytelling. Regardless of what your expertise is, we recommend that you start to capture a number of thoughts, articles and book summaries on these topics and put these in individual folders to help provide you with more background and to create a working library that you can continue referring back to.”
Thought leadership is not just about regurgitating existing information, but also adding something new to the conversation.
“Most people will have a number of topics that they want to create or to clarify their expertise in. For one person they may want to be viewed as an expert in innovation. Another person may want to be known for inspiration and storytelling.
Regardless of what your expertise is, we recommend that you start to capture a number of thoughts, articles and book summaries on these topics and put these in individual folders to help provide you with more background and to create a working library that you can continue referring back to.”
52 distinct ideas for each subject area
Each folder is like a deck of cards. Each card represents one thought leadership idea.
“Ideally each IP folder you create would have at least 52 distinct ideas that are fully formed and fully thought out around a specific topic that you want to become an expert in. Although this sounds simple, it is no quick and easy task. The quality of the thinking needs to meet the criteria we described earlier and ensure full spectrum thinking.
Because of this rigor and depth of thinking, we call this a ‘Commercial PhD.’ This can earn you the right to identify yourself as an expert because of the quality of thought that is relevant, thorough, elegant and unique.”
Focus on quantity first over quality.
“If you use a deck of 52 playing cards as an analogy you can start to understand that each folder of ideas will have a range of ideas that will have different values.
Some ideas that you capture will be incredible and when others see them they are inspired — these would be considered your Ace, King or Queen cards. As you are exploring your ideas you will also have a number of ideas that are not as fabulous.
They may either be not as clear and not as valuable, or they may simply be good ideas that support your great ideas. At this stage it is important to go for quantity to ensure that you identify as many thoughts around a topic as possible — and you will then use the IP Snapshot process to add quality to the idea.”
The IP Snapshot Framework
“Each idea or point should be able to be captured on a single sheet of paper. It creates a depth around your ideas and forces you to create messages with substance and balance.”
“When you first think of any idea it’s typically incomplete. It’s like looking at an object from one point of view and determining that the shape of the object is a circle, it’s only when you travel around the object and get some perspective that you see it’s actually a sphere. It’s the same thing with your ideas — you need to travel around them and get some perspective. This makes your thinking more robust and your ideas able to be leveraged.”
“Your ideas should dance across the full spectrum of left-brain logic through to right-brain creativity, and then from concrete, specific examples up to high-order contextual ideas.”
[...]
“We need to have our ideas available so they appeal to both logos and pathos.
When people sit down to craft their message it can be a battle between putting in too much information, which results in the essence of the idea being lost, or transmitting so simple a message that it is not seen as practical or relevant by those listening to it.
Thought leaders are positioned as experts because of their ability to capture their expertise and share it with others.”
Customize content, not context
“Constantly review your Folders, particularly in the content area. It is the content that changes most, not the concept or the context.
If you clearly think out concepts and can represent them in any context, all you need to worry about is what content you will use to create a connection with your audience. Getting good at this allows you to repeat key ideas over and over, with people hearing them again as if for the first time.
An idea is created, not innate. To have an idea is to create a document that can be better read than said. That’s like saying you write a performance, but of course, you don’t. You write a song and then you create a performance.”
Checklist of a thought leadership idea
1. Is it relevant: It meets a need and solves a problem.
2. Is it thorough: It has a depth of meaning that stands on its own.
3. Is it elegant: It is captured in a way that is simple and clean.
4. Is it unique: It adds insights or value in new ways.
3 ways to find ideas to capture
Method 1. Identify what you already know
“Generate at least 5-7 things that you know to be true about the topic and place these on a wall. Move them around and look for any correlation that you can find between the ideas that can assist you in generating your idea. Try to identify the big word that is at the essence of the point that you are trying to make.”
“From here you can start creating models that show the relationship between a number of the concepts that you are thinking around. You can then look at possible metaphors and case studies and stories to complete your pink sheet. Remember, it can take time for your ideas to land, so be patient and allow the process to occur!”
Method 2. Use quotes for inspiration
“...identify a quote that you find inspirational or sums up the point that you want to explore and develop ideas around.
When you are creating your IP Snapshots and layering your content you can refer back to this original thinker and show how you are expanding on their initial thought. You can Google these quotes or principles to identify what others have said about this topic. You then start expanding on this simple thought with your additional ideas and thoughts. Feel free to use the post-it-note method we described earlier to help you capture this.”
Method 3: Conduct a literature review of the best sellers
“Books that are best sellers have captured an idea in a way that others understand, admire and support. These best-selling books can also be used as a way to generate your ideas. This is not dissimilar to someone writing a thesis for their master’s degree when they conduct a review of the literature to identify and build upon the ideas that others have already published.
Someone that is an expert needs to have background knowledge and understanding of how others view the same particular idea. So your review of best sellers needs to be across three categories: current, contemporary and classic.”
“When reading these best sellers read at a higher level of understanding.
A basic reader will read a book and think: ‘That is interesting.’
A teacher will read a book and start thinking: ‘How can I teach that?’A thought leader will read a book, highlight the relevant points, and start asking themselves: ‘What do I think about this?’”
The “Yes, And,” and “Yes, But” Framework
“We use a simple technique when rethinking established ideas. As you come across an idea in a book or blog, ask yourself not: ‘What are they saying?’ but rather: ‘What do I think about that?’ Often original thinking will come from a ‘yes AND’ or a ‘yes BUT’ place.
One method to use is to have two pads of paper available when you read a book. At the top of one pad label it: ‘And,’ and at the top of the other label it: ‘But.’
As you read through the books, capture your thoughts on these pads of paper and capture them on one or the other. If it is something you agree with and want to expand on, then you capture it in the ‘And’ pad. If there is something that you disagree with or want to contradict, write it on the ‘But’ pad.”
It is in the contributions and contradictions to existing ideas that you can add your piece to an existing thought. Thought leaders don’t just read or highlight the books they read, they add to them.
You can take these ideas—which are now your ideas—and capture them as the key points that you want to expand on. Once again you can use the IP Snapshot to start filling in your structure around these ideas.”
If you found my takeaways useful, you’d love reading the book even more.
Enjoy!