Thought leadership
There are a lot of questions about what thought leadership is and how to achieve it. On this page, we give you all the answers!
Thought leadership meaning
Literally translated, thought leadership means thought leadership, but it doesn't actually make the term any clearer. The problem is that thought leadership translates rather poorly into Dutch. In our opinion, the word knowledge leadership comes closest to the actual meaning, because thought leadership is largely about knowledge.
Thought leadership means that a person or a company is seen as a knowledge leader within a certain field.
The company or person is then called a thought leader .
The words "is seen" in the above definition are very important. A self-proclaimed thought leader has no value; others must see you that way. So the unofficial designation must be earned! You are only truly a thought leader when other people within the field recognize you as such.
Objective thought leadership
Why would a person or an organization want to propagate thought leadership? If you ask ten different people this, you will probably get ten different answers. The bottom line, of course, is that organizations believe they have a commercial interest in doing so (in the long run).
The main objective for thought leadership is distinctiveness. In addition, thought leadership builds trust with your target audience. The more relevant insights you share as a thought leader, the more evidence you provide that you understand customer challenges and are able to provide solutions to them.
In a world where differentiation on products and services is becoming increasingly difficult, thought leadership offers new opportunities.
Building thought leadership
The key question now is: how do you consistently convey thought leadership so that the market will (h)recognize you in that role.
It is notable that thought leaders often have the following competencies and skills:
- Forward-thinking
- Visionary
- Charismatic
- Innovative
- Inspiring
- Breaking the status quo
In short, thought leaders have two defining characteristics:
- They have an (innovative) vision.
- They propagate this vision through knowledge sharing.
It helps when an organization has charismatic spokespeople who continuously propagate the vision, inspiring and motivating potential customers.
Thought leadership strategy
The problem with thought leadership is that it is often underestimated. It's not something that the marketing department invents and "briefly" realizes. The entire organization has to get on board with this.
Dr. Mignon van Halderen and Kym Kettler-Paddock describe in their article, A Company to Follow, that driving thought leadership should be a strategic choice. It is a positioning strategy that must be consistent with the corporate strategy. In addition, the necessary expertise on the topic must be present in the organization.
Van Halderen and Kettler-Paddock also warn of the dangers of wanting to propagate thought leadership. If this is done incorrectly, for example with too little depth or commitment, then you run the risk of the market viewing it as a PR stunt or marketing campaign. You will then not achieve your goal and will never be seen as a true thought leader.
To properly drive thought leadership, van Halderen and Kettler-Paddock offer a thought leadership framework with the following steps:
Step 1: diagnosis of potential
The first step is to determine the potential for thought leadership. Here it is important to critically examine whether the organization has what it takes to achieve thought leadership. Four questions play a central role here:
- What themes really resonate with our customers?
- Do we have an innovative perspective on these themes?
- Does this fit with our knowledge and expertise?
- Do we have the right resources to seriously embed this perspective into business strategy and execution?
Step 2: formulating an innovative vision
The innovative vision is the core of the thought leadership strategy. It is therefore crucial that this vision is well formulated and consistently propagated throughout the organization.
Employees must carry this vision. This will make the organization "breathe" the vision, so to speak.
Step 3: sharing knowledge
Sharing knowledge is crucial to a thought leadership strategy. The knowledge you share is directly linked to the organization's innovative vision.
There are several ways to share knowledge. In content marketing and inbound marketing, we particularly share knowledge online:
- White papers
- (Blog) articles
- Manuals
- Checklists
- Webinars
- videos
- Case studies
What's important here is that you really invest in sharing knowledge. Make sure this knowledge is deep content. The knowledge in the organization lies with subject matter experts, such as consultants. Not all experts are used to sharing knowledge (openly). They also need to be given time for it by their managers. This is one of the reasons that thought leadership cannot be a marketing party.
In addition, not all aspects of the theme you have chosen will be cut and dried for the employees in your organization. Conducting research can help with this, but also consider bringing in outside experts. This greatly increases your credibility!
Step 4: start a community around the theme
Not the easiest step in the roadmap, but it is enormously powerful when you are able to start a community around the thought leadership theme. On this platform, you yourself play a central, facilitating role. The ultimate result is that the people who participate in this network will associate your company with the theme.
To get the community off the ground, it is necessary to have external experts on the theme participate, this stimulates involvement.
These can be different people:
- Specialists in a field
- Industry specialists
- Opinion leaders
- Trend watchers
- Peers
- Professors or professors
Setting up a community also offers other ancillary benefits. For example, you always have access to a source of knowledge and build relationships with people who can take you further in the thought leadership theme.
Step 5: Turn innovative perspective into action
Propagating thought leadership goes beyond just sharing knowledge. The organization must continuously take action on the theme and achieve results in doing so.
Therefore, share results you have achieved with (or for) customers. Hard numbers work best. For example, write case studies where you calculate how much your customer saved or gained by engaging with your organization. Of course, these facts should be based on hard facts.
Thought leadership example
One of the most famous examples of thought leadership is that of Apple, or rather Steve Jobs.
If Steve Jobs is associated with anything, it is his innovative ideas. When he announced that he wanted to create a computer with a closed system, his technicians looked at him as if he were crazy. What, consumers want computers that can run as many applications as possible and hardware they can upgrade themselves?
Jobs didn't think so. An open system means that both hardware and software developers have to make concessions (take each other's capabilities into account), and Jobs wasn't in favor of that. Against all odds, he went for a completely closed system. The rest is history.
To propagate his thought leadership, Jobs chose mainly to make great presentations. According to Simon Sinek, Jobs was successful because he always started by telling the "why" behind the product. He then went into detail about how he managed to achieve this and only at the last did he tell exactly what he was introducing.
His charismatic but unassuming appearance helped him achieve success. Jobs also made many statements that were very innovative (at the time) and went against the status quo. His vision was validated by results - products, which were exactly in line with what Jobs stood for.
Do you also propagate thought leadership?
In this article, you've read that propagating thought leadership is not easy and requires investment. However, it is also a powerful way to add value at a time when differentiation is becoming increasingly difficult.
Have you become enthusiastic about thought leadership? Inbound marketing and a thought leadership strategy go very well together. Spar with one of our inbound marketing consultants about the application of inbound in your organization. We are happy to help you on your way. Call 085-7608181 or use the chat (bottom right) on this page.
