Thought leadership is the expression of ideas that demonstrate you have expertise in a particular field, area, or topic. Many executives and business leaders strive to become a thought leader in their respective fields. It takes dedication, patience, strategy, and education. Most thought leaders not only have a command of their subject area, they are passionate about it and eager to share their knowledge with others to benefit a company, organization, or cause.

Aren’t All Business Leaders “Thought Leaders”?

Utilizing content marketing, social media, and other means to increase your authority and influence are key for successful thought leadership. But, the definition of thought leadership is innovative thinking full of insight, information and inspiration, which is why many thought leaders are invited to speak at conferences and graduations, why they have many social media followers, why they become LinkedIn experts, and why their content marketing is widely followed.

Aren’t Influencers Thought Leaders?

Expertise, insight, and a valuable perspective are elements that lead to thought leadership status. To be an effective thought leader is to possess a depth of knowledge no one else has. There are several key benefits to this. It:<ul><li>Qualifies you as a reliable source of insight and information that can successfully influence others</li><li>Boosts your industry presence and builds your brand</li><li>Establishes credibility in your field</li><li>Encourages you to focus on what you know best and look for opportunities to express it frequently</li><li>Offers unique guidance and inspires innovation</li><li>Encourages forward thanking</li></ul>

What Is The Value Of Thought Leadership?

Steve Jobs believed that “you always had to be a little different to buy an Apple computer.” This thought inspired Apple’s “Think Different” advertising campaign, featuring real “geniuses” whose “crazy” ideas had a profound impact on the world. Many CEOs like Jobs are known for thought leadership because of their authority in an area, their ability to define important terms for the future, and more.

An Example Of A Real Thought Leader

Fran Blanche fancies herself a “geek girl who makes stuff.” She had the foresight to combine her engineering background and “goofball” personality in weekly how-to videos (“Fran in the Lab”) that feature her fiddling with electronic components—something she knows like the back of her hand. Fran’s formula works. She’s amassed (to date) 242,000 subscribers to her YouTube channel. Co-founders and founders of organizations and groups often fit the definition of thought leadership because they are changing the area where they have experience.

An entry-level assistant for an online lifestyle publication expresses an interest in writing about fashion. His editor assigns him small pieces at first then much larger ones after the assistant’s writing skills and expertise blossom. He ultimately lands his own weekly fashion column, which helps boost readership by 30%, and gains him a huge following as a thought leader in the fashion industry.

Thought leaders are the informed opinion leaders in their field of expertise. But at what point can an individual or business consider themselves a thought leader and start producing thought leadership content? It takes time, skill, and tenacity to be able to be considered a recognized thought leader. For example, Steve Jobs didn't become a thought leader overnight. First he had an idea, and worked to hone it for years. He built a company that slowly over time, started to be successful. It was then that he was able to step into a thought leadership role and inspire people with his story.

Who Should Produce Thought Leadership Content?

You'll need to have more than a LinkedIn profile to become a thought leader. You'll need to have proven your experience and understanding in a field in tangible ways to show to others that you are a voice to listen to.You don't have to be Steve Jobs to become a thought leader. You can start researching and developing yourself in your current field. You can start writing articles and sharing them with others to get opinions, build a following on social media, and slowly begin proving yourself as an expert in your field.

You Better Work, Thought Leader

To establish yourself as a trusted figure in any field takes a lot of dedication, hard work, and time. Thought leaders are continually building their experience and credibility. Consider the <a href="https://www.wgu.edu/blog/11-principles-leadership2006.html">principles of leadership </a>and the following best practices of today’s successful thought leaders as you build your own leadership career.

Thought Leadership Strategy

Clearly defining your niche or specific area of expertise can help you build your brand, establish credibility in your field, and raise your profile. For example, a garden author focuses her work entirely on what she knows best—succulents—and, as a result of the clout she’s built within the industry, is often invited to speak at major home and garden shows and write for popular publications.

Enunciate Your Area Of Expertise

It’s perfectly fine to share your opinion on a wide variety of subjects to show you are a present, well-rounded professional. But the beauty about thought leadership is that success can come from streamlining your focus to a single specialty. Practicality and common sense can attest to the fact that covering too many topics can be much harder to manage and risks creating an impression of being scatterbrained or unfocused. Who wants a leader whose thoughts are “all over the place”?

Go Deep On A Few Topics vs. Many

The best thought leaders continually stay current on what’s happening in their fields, which is especially crucial in faster-evolving industries like technology. This gives them the opportunity to recognize and analyze patterns and trends in the market, which can inspire strategies for achieving business solutions. Keeping up with the latest industry news can also spur unique insight that the business leader can use to the company’s advantage.

Keep Up With The Latest

Unafraid to admit what they don’t know, true thought leaders make a conscious effort to understand and listen to what others have to say. This is a tried-and-true way to stay connected with peers in your field and expand your knowledge on a topic. The more people a leader listens to increases the probability of more ideas being shared, which is usually a good thing. In addition to harnessing the power of “listening to,” effective leaders also recognize the value of inviting others to “listen in.”

Listen To And Listen In

A CEO for a Fortune 500 company invites rank-and-file employees to join her and listen in on meetings where senior management give her business updates. Her thinking behind this? It encourages employees to share their opinions, increases the chances of a good idea being expressed, and creates a greater culture of inclusion and transparency that makes employees feel they are valued.

An Example Of Listening In

While it’s true that a thought leader’s success can be attributed to a razor-sharp focus in a particular area, it’s important to draw from multiple sources within this area to increase the chances of a good idea springing up. According to Simon Sinek, best-known for his “Three Golden Circles” TED Talk, “leaders who can connect information from a number of sources are generally well positioned to create ideas that are informed by the needs of the marketplace. Credibility combines that expertise with a measure of humility, honesty, and an appreciation for the human aspect of leading people.”

Draw Inspiration From Multiple Sources

Clients, prospects, the business, and the media are your audiences, so use them as a barometer of how effective your thought leadership content is. If they’re not convinced, it’s time to revisit your approach to idea generation.<ul><li>Clients. Make your content more about them than what you’re offering.</li><li>Prospects. Be the first to find emerging themes and bring insights to the table that nobody else has.</li><li>The business. Align your content with the expertise you offer.</li><li>The media. Try your ideas out with a journalist while you’re in the development phase. </li></ul>

Consider The Audience Test

Like all approaches to leadership, thought leadership has drawbacks. One potential pitfall may be a limited perspective. For instance, if business leaders are overly rigid or too focused on their areas of expertise, they risk missing out on ideas that could help support their endeavors. Also, since thought leaders tend to put themselves out there and often introduce a less popular way of thinking, they are bound to have detractors. A challenge? Certainly, because they need to be prepared to argue and defend their ideas.

The Challenges Of Thought Leadership

It’s an honorable goal for someone to aspire to be a thought leader.<a href="https://www.wgu.edu/online-degree-programs.html">Online classes and degree programs </a>provide an excellent way for business leaders and marketers, for instance, to expand their knowledge and perhaps specialize in a new related discipline. After all, being recognized as a go-to authority—a trusted source for one’s ability to inspire others with their ideas and bring those ideas to life—is empowering on its own and even more empowering when it motivates thought leaders to try and replicate their successes.

Thought Leadership Empowers Both The Leaders And The Led

Genuine thought leaders are influencers somewhere, but not necessarily on social media or an online platform. They use social media; they are not born of them. They can be quite a popular breed of leader because they are driven to stretch people’s minds, encouraging and even daring them to think deeply, differently, and in one direction: Forward.If, like them, you dare to think deeply, differently, and forward, thought leadership is definitely the way to have an incredible, potentially game-changing career.

A Career In Thought Leadership

"A thought leader is recognized by peers, customers and industry experts as someone who deeply understands the business they are in, the needs of their customers and the broader marketplace in which they operate. They have distinctively original ideas, unique points of view and new insights."

For those looking to be thought leaders and for those looking to find thought leaders, here is what a thought leader is, before this term too gets usurped and defamed. Spoiler alert: thought leader is something others call you; if you call yourself a thought leader, you almost certainly aren’t one.

Thought leadership is innovative thinking full of insight, information, and inspiration. To be a thought leader is to demonstrate you have an expertise in a particular area within your field. 

career

Career

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

communication

Communication

business

Business

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

What Is Thought Leadership?

Mentoring and coaching activities look similar, but the impetus is different. In mentoring relationships, usually the mentee sets the agenda. In a coaching relationship, usually the coach sets the agenda. Coaching also tends to be more formal and more transactional. (People hire coaches, not mentors.)Sponsorship is very different. A sponsor uses their authority and influence to create opportunities and recognition to advance someone’s career.

Mentoring, coaching, or sponsoring?  

One way to think about the distinction is whether there are direct consequences to following or ignoring advice. Mentors advise; coaches assess. This is one reason why people often seek mentors outside the management chain. It’s hard to trust a manager to separate these two roles. Senior individual contributors – while they may also coach – are often better positioned to provide consequence-free advice.Code review is a pervasive example of coaching being confused with mentoring. Code review is part of the job. Every time I review someone’s code, I might find opportunities for teachable moments

Concrete Examples

I’ve found that these conversations fall into three broad categories, ranging from the strategic to the tactical:<ul><li>Goals - figuring out what they really want</li><li>Situations - handling the unfamiliar or difficult</li><li>Skills - getting promoted</li></ul>In all three areas, I think that <a href="https://www.radicalcandor.com/our-approach/">radical candor </a>– caring personally while challenging directly – is essential to effective mentoring. You have to have someone’s best interest in mind and you have to be willing to help them see uncomfortable truths. If that’s not in your personality or you don’t feel that way towards a prospective mentee, then please send them elsewhere

3 Levels Of Mentor Conversations

To help someone understand their goals, ask questions that help them reflect on their current situation, consider potential futures, and chart a course from one to another.In the simplest form, it’s the “where do you see yourself in five years?" question, but that’s a big leap for most people. Instead, probe for how well they understand their current situation . What’s going well? What’s not going well? What about your role do you enjoy the most? What’s most frustrating? If you could change one thing, what would it be and why?

To mentor goals, ask questions

Faced with the question “what should I do?" , tell a personal story instead.First, sharing a related experience reassures a mentee that they’re not alone. Second, they engage the listener’s brain, helping them focus more completely on what they’re being told rather than their own problems. Third, they let a mentee consider a situation through an abstraction – to enable them to see more objectively and consider different perspectives. A story is a teaching tool but you leave the decisions up to them.

To mentor situations, tell stories

Let them take the lead without being prescriptive. You can still be sounding board for their ideas and help them wargame an approach to what they’re dealing with. Even without a story to guide them, having someone in their corner is valuable support.

If You Have No Stories

First, you have to observe the mentee’s activities or output. For coding skills, code review or pair programming would work. For communication skills, sit it on a meeting they expect to actively participate in or watch them practice a presentation. For technical writing, read what they’ve written.The most important thing you can do is provide actionable feedback . This means being specific about your observations of their work. It also means providing direction about what they could have done differently or what they need to learn or practice in order to improve.

To mentor skills, observe them in action

Sometimes, you see someone that you think has potential, but they’re not where they ought to be and they aren’t seeking advice. You could approach them – tell them you think they have potential and offer to mentor them. If your company has a formal mentoring program, you could sign up. If they don’t, you could invite people to come to you. That doesn’t have to be a formal declaration “hey, if anyone wants to work with me as a mentor, let me know ”. It could be as simple as announcing office hours for anyone who wants to talk and seeing what happens.

What if you want to mentor, but people don’t ask?

There’s one take away I’d like you to have: mentoring is about listening. Resist the temptation to offer unsolicited advice. Listen to what they’re asking about. Goals? Situations? Or skills? Then listen (or observe) before sharing your questions, stories, or feedback.If you’ve read this far, you may realize that nothing I’ve said is specific to software engineering. Mentoring is a general skill; your experience makes it industry-specific.

Start with listening.

teamwork

Teamwork

softwareengineering

Software Engineering

How to mentor software engineers

Every piece of writing goes through five stages:<ol><li class="ql-align-justify">Brainstorm — Come up with ideas that support your topic.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Outline — Organize the ideas in a clear and logical structure.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Write — Explain and turn the ideas into sentences and paragraphs.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Edit — Strenghten your writing. Make sentences concise. Make connections between ideas clear and explicit.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Proofread — Fix grammar, spelling, and formatting mistakes.</li></ol>

The writing process

Combine the pre-writing steps and organize ideas as you find them.Use Deepstash to survey existing ideas on your topic and quickly find the ones you're interested in. This is also where your stashed ideas come in handy.

Outline as you brainstorm

Start writing the parts that you've already worked out in your mind. This builds momentum and helps you determine what to write in the other sections.

Write what you already know

Editing slows you down and distracts you from actually writing. Postpone editing for after you have a first complete draft.

Don't edit as you write

Your goal is to keep the writing flow going. Whenever you reach a point where you don't know what words to use, how to connect paragraphs, or how to express an idea, leave a placeholder and move on.The placeholder can be anything that stands out e.g. TODO, TK, !!!.

Use placeholders

Use these handy tips that can improve your writing speed and help you avoid writer’s block for all of your writing projects.

writing

Reading & Writing

problemsolving

Problem Solving

Speed Up Your Writing Process

Just because something is readable, doesn't mean it's understandable. Context is an important part of understanding what you read.According to the <a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/#reading-level">Web Content and Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)</a>, text isn't readable if it requires more than a lower secondary level of education.Just because something is readable, doesn't mean it's understandable. Context is an important part of understanding what you read. It's especially important for user experience (UX) copy.

The Importance Of Context

<ul><li>Users may not understand jargon, idioms, or other figurative languages. This might be because they're neurodiverse, like users with autism spectrum disorder. Or it might be because they aren't native English speakers. Translation tools like Google Translate are often literal.</li><li>Users with vision impairments like low vision or color vision impairment may not see all or any graphics on the page. If those graphics provide context, these users won't get it.</li><li>Users with hearing impairments may miss audio elements in a video.</li></ul>

The Limitations Of Reading And Understanding

Here are a few quick tips for adding more context to your writing:<ul><li>Expand acronyms and abbreviations when they first appear.</li><li>Provide a glossary for context, if required.</li><li>Avoid using idiomatic language that can be exclusive.</li><li>Avoid using unnecessarily technical language or jargon.</li></ul>

Filling Your Content With Context

<ul><li>Use consistent words, terms, and phrases. Synonyms are great for creative writing. They aren't great for accessibility. </li><li>Use simple words and phrases. </li><li>Specify the language of the page. This helps users who are using assistive technologies. It lets the tool know what language it's reading. You can do this by adding a lang attribute to the HTML tag.</li><li>Avoid noun strings. Noun strings are clusters of nouns. </li><li>If something's ambiguous, change it. No reference here, just my own two cents. </li></ul>

Tips For Accessible Writing

product

Product & Design

The importance of context in UX copy

The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.

Theodore Roosevelt — ‘The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.’

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

“The most important single ingredient in the for...”

It seems pretty logical, and it is, but when someone is moving their mouse around their computer screen, their eyes tend to follow. A <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/634067.634234">paper</a> out of Carnegie Mellon University studied this to determine exactly how much a person’s eyes match their mouse movements.

Your eyes follow your mouse

84% of the times that a region was visited by a mouse cursor, it was also visited by (users’) eye gaze. In addition, 88% of regions that were not gazed by the eye were also not visited by a mouse cursor.

Tracking user’s eye movements is essentially impossible without special equipment and testing, but if you can capture their mouse and show that it matches their eyes pretty closely, you have some rather solid data.If you want to know exactly how people are using your website, you can run focus groups and do other testing to get a very good look at it. However, for a fraction of the price and effort you can use tools like heatmaps and be confident that the results are 80%+ the same as if you were able to track their eyes.

Tracking the mouse

It seems pretty logical, and it is, but when someone is moving their mouse around their computer screen, their eyes tend to follow. A paper out of Carnegie Mellon University studied this to determine exactly how much a person's eyes match their mouse movements. They found: 84% of the times…

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

<ul><li>Being angry or <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/the-mental-health-effects-of-holding-a-grudge-5176186">holding a grudge </a>can be exhausting. Finding a way to achieve forgiveness or resolution around the situation prompting your anger can help neutralize the situation and preserve your energy.</li></ul>If you <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/conflict-resolution-skills-for-healthy-relationships-3144953">resolve your differences </a>with the person you’re arguing with, you can direct your energy toward reconciling with them instead. This can help you reconnect with them and feel close to them again.

Pros:Anger Can Be Exhausting 

<ul><li>Angry emotions tend to linger more at night than during the day, when you can be distracted and busy yourself with other tasks. Taking your anger to bed can cause you to dwell on the situation and make it into a much bigger issue, which can cause you to feel worse and drag the problem into the next day.</li></ul>This is true, they tend to catastrophize and go down a dark hole with their anger. Having hours to think about their frustration while sitting awake in bed at night can be problematic because it can cause them to pour gasoline on an already rampant fire.

Pros: Anger Can Build Overnight

<ul><li><a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-anger-5120208">Being angry </a>at night can disrupt your sleep. It can make it hard for you to fall asleep, lead to poor sleep quality, and make you more prone to nightmares.</li></ul>It’s important to remember that anger isn’t helping you or making you ‘win’ in a given situation. In the end, your anger does far more harm to you than to the other person, robbing you of your peace and sleep.

Pros: Anger Can Disrupt Your Sleep 

<ul><li>Sometimes people can be <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/impulsive-behavior-and-bpd-425483">impulsive </a>when they’re angry. This includes saying things they don’t mean and being hurtful to the other person. Taking space and committing to revisiting the situation at a later time when your anger levels have reduced can be productive in some situations.</li></ul>The intensity of your emotions may reduce with time. This can give you time to process your emotions, think about the situation more deeply, and see if your emotional reaction or position on the situation changes with time.

Cons: Anger Can Cause You To React Impula

<ul><li>It is important to note that anger can be a natural response—often a valid one—to a difficult situation. It is a valuable emotion that you must give yourself and the people around you permission to feel; it is not something to avoid.</li></ul>It is fine to feel angry and you don’t need to feel pressure to cap the length of your anger, which could only cause it to arise in other situations. Instead of focusing on your anger, it may be more helpful to focus on the <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/what-does-it-mean-to-be-triggered-4175432">trigger or stimulus </a>for the emotion.

Cons: Anger Is Not Something To Avoid

According to Dr. Romanoff, the “Never go to bed angry” rule does not work in a one-size-fits all manner. Whether or not you should follow it depends on many factors, such as the cause of your anger, your temperament, and the circumstances.

Should You Follow This Rule? 

<ul><li>Communicate: The first step is to try to find a way to <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/managing-conflict-in-relationships-communication-tips-3144967">communicate with the other person </a>. If it does not seem likely that a resolution will be reached, be honest with each other and hit the pause button on the argument. </li><li>Use your anger as a guide: <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/constructive-anger-2797286">Anger can be a useful emotion </a>that can guide you to locate your boundaries, speak to your values, solve problems, and provide information about what you need from the other person</li></ul>

Tips From Dr.Romanoff

<ul><li>Commit to finding a resolution: It’s important to commit to resolving the issue instead of merely trying to avoid conflict. This means recognizing the emotions that are behind your anger in order to engage in more honest communication with the other person to move forward. </li><li>Seek support and comfort: It can be helpful to call a friend and vent about the situation, getting validation or another viewpoint of the situation through their eyes. Distract yourself by doing something comforting, such as baking your favorite dessert, watching your favorite show, or engaging in some self-care.</li></ul>

You may have heard the saying "never go to bed angry." This article explores the psychological implications of this practice and discusses whether you should follow it.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

mentalhealth

Mental Health

loveandrelationships

Love & Relationships

“Never Go to Bed Angry:”The Pros and Cons of This Practice

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.

Vagg

Popular quotes from Goodreads members. Oscar Wilde: ‘Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.’, Marilyn Monroe: ‘I'm selfish, impatient and a little ...

Popular Quotes

Most people hesitate to say hello – or smile – when they see someone unfamiliar. Why do we hesitate to greet a stranger?If you greet a stranger with a smile or a ‘hello’, there’s a 98% chance that she or he will smile back and say hello. Both of you will probably feel better having exchanged smiles. And who knows, it might open a surprise door.But there’s a 2% chance that the person will snub you. Not smile back. Look the other way. Make you feel sheepish. Look stupid even. That’s only a 2% probability of that happening – but the fear of looking stupid, stops us from saying hello, and smiling.

2:98 Rule

And it’s not just about strangers and elevators. It’s about life. Asking for favours, switching jobs, making investments, chasing your dreams. Focus on the 98% probability of things going right. Not the 2% risk of failure. Give yourself the chance to win in the game of life.

When To Apply The Rule

Realizing that fear and possibilities are 2 sides of the same coin. We tend to be risk averse and tend to focus more on fear. This is a reminder to flip the script in our heads. Use the 2:98 rule.

The elevator door opens to let you in. And as you enter the lift, you see an unfamiliar face inside.

The 2:98 Rule. Which side are you on?

<ul><li>Digest, you are no longer a part of your current firm and your monthly in-hand will completely be dried up in the next couple of months (depending on your firm’s HR policy) if you don’t have any secondary source of income. The sooner you train your mind and body with this reality the better your chances become to fight.</li><li>Pro Tip: Don’t spend your resources in getting back to the HR/Managers as this won’t be of any help since the decision is already made and there are very fine to no chances of rebuttable.</li></ul>

Digest, you are a part of layoff program

Be honest with yourself, family, friends and professional network. There’s no harm in announcing (probably on all your social handles) that you are open for opportunities, who knows what’s waiting for you on the other side. If you want to change your industry, business role or even upgrade yourself, this would be the best time to hit that nail.Pro Tip: Make sure you keep conversing with your family and friends, if condition allows, schedule a visit to the ones with whom you love spending time. Keeping your mind at peace and relaxed will def help creative solutions to flow in.

Be Honest!

Can’t emphasise enough the importance of sending cold emails, LinkedIn connection requests or maybe joining Facebook groups. Remember, before sending any cold text it is important to gain understanding about the firm, role, etc, and prepare your job application/resume in accordance with the company’s vision and requirement.Pro Tip: Create cover letters, resumes (and customise your resume as per need of the role for which you are applying) briefly explaining your skillsets and how this you would be able to connect dots for your career/personal progression if you join this role/company.

Send cold emails to all the recruiters/connections in your network.

Interesting to read if you are ever a part of layoff program and are now ready to bounce back! 

With changing market conditions and business requirements, firms do bulk layoffs to keep striving for their core objectives. Here are ways to bounce back!

Guide to Bounce Back if you are a part of any layoff program

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