A compelling piece of thought leadership

Over the last few years, a new term has become inscribed into the professional services lexicon: “thought leadership”.

It’s an attractive term for a tool that is proving to be increasingly important in exhibiting the primacy of a firm’s, a practice’s or an individual’s expertise in an ever more crowded marketplace. And in business environments beset by risk, any executive tasked with making corporate decisions surely seeks advice from the leading thinkers in the field before taking action.

But what does “thought leadership” mean? I have often heard firms (misguidedly) use it as a generic term for their reputation development tools, encompassing (amongst other things) placed newspaper articles, press releases, surveys or seminar presentations.

While, if handled correctly, these items of thought capital can be advantageous in establishing a visible presence in a market, genuine and compelling thought leadership goes beyond opinions and analysis by introducing new ideas and new solutions to the business community.

And if the author has already established a strong reputation, such thought leadership can result in an elevation to guru status, inspiring a loyal following as well as an intrigued following of executives who wish to share in – and take advantage of – such an innovative new approach.

So over the forthcoming weeks, I’m going to take a closer look at the concepts of thought leadership and reputation development in the professional services, including:

• the different types of reputation development tools available
• planning and writing an effective reputation building piece
• how to promote it and how to use it; and
  
• how to move from expert to guru to rainmaker

the Heresiarch
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