The Thought Leadership Manual

Doing thought leadership – that is, creating and publicising insights that will be of interest to your clients. • Being a thought leader – that is, being widely recognised and rated for your interesting insights and knowledge, and having the credibility to influence others (generally from having done a lot of thought leadership to earn this recogni

‘thought leader’: a knowledgeable and influential person whom clients trust and turn to for advice – a very powerful position to be in.

You will recall our definition of thought leadership: • Original ideas • With important implications • Backed by evidence • Clearly expressed • Publicly discussed • That strongly influence the opinions of others

– Colourful stories, analogies and metaphors

in the project is to have a brainstorm on ‘what would you expect an expert on this subject to know?’

It is going to be the implications of your findings that are the interesting bits – explore them, and also the implications of the implications!

You believe the perceived wisdom to be outdated or otherwise suspect. • You are likely to be in a position to suggest practical steps to tackling the problem or opportunity identified.

5– Think visually

Original ideas • With important implications • Backed by evidence • Clearly expressed • Publicly discussed • Strongly influencing the opinions of others

Thought leadership projects are great opportunities to actually do something in partnership with clients – something that’s not selling and not chargeable hours.