Thought Leadership

What is thought leadership? 


Thought leadership is founded in expertise – a thought leader is a person who has expertise in a particular field, and the necessary skills to communicate this expertise in a compelling, inspiring way.

In effect, thought leadership represents the evolution of leadership, from being concerned with directing activities in the present to seeking to articulate and shape the future through the power of information and ideas.

As an activity, thought leadership involves the ownership of a topic through extensive experience and expertise. It’s an issue-led undertaking that focuses on relevant (and sometimes controversial) matters, and presents these in a fresh and interesting way. Thought leaders are the original influencers, in that they offer insights and valuable perspectives that can energize others, or lead to challenges being tackled with renewed vigor.

Ultimately, the aim of this behavior is to inspire change. Corollaries to this are growing an audience, and evolving this audience into a conversational community.

Requirements for thought leadership

Having determined their area of expertise, though leaders need to identify their audience and choose effective platforms that provide targeted reach. This allows them to not only illustrate their expertise, but also to build relationships based on empathy and a shared desire for positive change.
There are many facets to thought leadership, and not everyone who has an opinion and a willingness to share it counts as a thought leader. Achieving recognition as a thought leader begins with gaining expertise in a given subject, but this is just the beginning.

Communications skills are vital – a message is worthless if it cannot be expressed in ways that inspire and inform people. The world is a noisy place, and it can be hard to make yourself heard above the din of many competing voices.

Effective thought leaders therefore need to be consistent, and they need to build and maintain a presence that gives them reach. To do this, they require certain key personality attributes: tenacity, passion and generosity. Why generosity? Because ultimately, thought leadership is about sharing. It’s an act of giving, although it is not always completely altruistic – thought leadership focuses on articulating the change you want to see in the world.

The success of relationships with audiences largely depend on the degree of authenticity you can bring to a conversation. Where people detect a lack of genuine expertise or care, the thought leadership project is doomed to fail.

Challenges of thought leadership

By definition, you cannot be an expert in everything. Expertise requires intense focus, but this in turn can limit your perspective. Depth and breadth are essentially incompatible in this scenario, and thought leaders must be careful that their deep focus does not prevent them being aware of the bigger picture, and of changing thinking in the wider sphere. Lack of awareness of changing opinions can lead to your thought leadership content becoming dated or even irrelevant. Equally, a lack of focus will make your content generic and less valuable.

Personal benefits of being a thought leader

When you take on this role, you can take advantage of your increased profile (although this isn’t automatic – you have to work at it). Your profile and your personal brand go hand in hand: as you raise both, you’ll gain recognition. Success as a thought leader can bring enhanced focus in all areas of your life, as you begin to concentrate on what matters most to you, and what is most rewarding.

As a thought leader, you will find an outlet for your natural generosity, and you’ll be contributing to conversations that help to unleash energy and investment, and spark a ripple effect of positive outcomes.
Business benefits of being a thought leader

In addition to growing your personal brand, thought leadership can become a key pillar of your business growth strategy. Before you can benefit from the business aspects of this strategy, you need to ensure that you have what it takes to be a thought leader.

These attributes include expertise (the sine qua non of thought leadership). Building on this expertise will lend your ideas authority and this in turn will boost their impact. Standing out from the crowd requires charisma and passion, and also relevance – the topic on which you are sharing actionable insights must be one that people are interested in, and one where changing what people think can really have an impact.

Requirements of thought leadership 


A successful thought leadership strategy can only be implemented by someone who has established themselves as a thought leader. The opinions they express need to be backed by solid data obtained from research, and shared through an omnichannel approach to communications.

Spontaneous acts of thought leadership can have value in crisis situations, but this activity is most effective when it forms part of an overarching communications strategy. Thought leadership works best when it is integrated into an overall growth strategy, whether the goal is to grow a business or a personal brand.

The effectiveness of thought leadership in this regard means that many people now aspire to being a thought leader. However, simply designating yourself as such is not enough – being regarded as a thought leader by your peers comes with multiple requirements.

Dedication is essential, as is passion – you need to believe in the change you are advocating, and you need to be sufficiently committed to work towards it consistently over time. As we have seen, thought leadership requires a strategic, planned approach using metrics and milestones to measure progress.

Naturally, to be an effective thought leader you must have mastery of your subject, and the ability to leverage your experience and expertise into radical new ways of looking at problems or situations.

To be recognized as a thought leader, you need to combine seemingly contradictory traits: authority, enthusiasm and generosity. Ultimately, you need to add value for your audience by making your innovative ideas accessible.

As a thought leader, you will almost certainly fall into one of several categories: an advocate for  action on a particular issue (women’s rights, for example, or social entrepreneurship); a game changer looking to disrupt and adjust the bigger picture; or even a brand ambassador (although being remunerated for promoting a product or service may detract from your credibility).

Thought leadership toolbox 


We’ve already looked at who you will need to be as a thought leadership, but what tools will you need to succeed in these roles. First and foremost, you need content, and it needs to be original, relatable and accessible. You need a platform (or platforms) where people can find and engage with your content. Linked to this is the need for effective communication strategies (such as inbound marketing) that will drive people to your content and enable you to participate in and lead the conversation around your thought leadership topic.

Creating your thought leadership space


The internet is a very noisy and crowded place. To get noticed, you need to establish your own niche – a space where you can leverage your particular expertise without immediately being in competition with other thought leaders.

The best way to do this is to have a big idea – one that is entirely original to you, and which you (and others) may find to be audacious or even slightly frightening. In fact, if your big idea isn’t at least a little scary, then it probably isn’t big enough.

You also need to find your niche. In zoology, a niche is an ecosystem in which you are especially well adapted to survive and thrive, and in which you possess distinct advantages over your competition. The flipside of this is that if you venture beyond your niche, you will find yourself in a niche for which you are less well-equipped than other species (or other thought leaders) are better equipped.

Evolutionary theory posits that a degree of specialization is required to establish a competitive advantage over other species. However, excessive specialization can lead to extinction if a species is unable to rapidly adapt to changing conditions. This same dilemma faces all would-be thought leadership candidates.

Knowing your own capabilities (and limitations) is one side of the thought leadership triangle; knowing your subject is a given, and the third side of the triangle is knowing your audience. Audience insights will help you tailor your content and ensure it is relatable, relevant and valuable.

Maintaining appeal 


As a thought leader, you need to remain current by keeping up to date with developments in your area of specialty, and related fields. In keeping with the emphasis on authenticity, it’s important to also admit to what you don’t know. This can help you seem more relatable, and also creates opportunities for engagement with your audience.

Making thought leadership work

Thought leadership does not happen in a vacuum – the context is just as important as the content you produce. Effective use of SEO will make your content easier to find (if it doesn’t reach the intended audience, you’re not achieving any form of leadership). Content marketing strategies will make your audience aware of what is available, and make your offering more compelling.

Your content cannot be generic; it must be tailored to your audience, and you can only do this if you are aware of their needs and interests. Ideal thought leadership content must be:
•       Unique – there is no value in duplicating other people’s ideas.
•       Inspiring – it must have an impact on others.
•       Consistently well thought out, original and applicable to multiple formats/channels.

Before you seek to position yourself as a thought leader, you need to take a look in the mirror and ask yourself the questions below. If you cannot answer all five in the affirmative, you are unlikely to succeed as a thought leader.
1.         Do I have genuine expertise in this area?
2.         Are my thoughts and opinions original, and will they add value to the debate?
3.         Do I have the skills and means to effectively communicate my ideas?
4.         Do I genuinely believe in my ideas and opinions?
5.         Am I prepared to defend them if they are countered or attacked?

Women as thought leaders 


Thought leadership can be an effective technique for women who are looking to disrupt the status quo and shatter the glass ceiling. In traditional societies women can lack influence – and  thought leadership offers an opportunity to drive by achieving reach and influence beyond the bounds of traditional communications technologies and networks.

Thought leadership can play a key role in achieving women’s empowerment goals by connecting women to each other and to sources of business finance and ideas.

Female thought leaders face many of the same obstacles that women encounter elsewhere in life, which is why access to internet connectivity and platforms is so important (and has been identified as such by the World Bank). However, thought leadership – particularly in its online forms – offers a fast-track to women’s increased participation in formal economic activities through forging connections and being inspired.

Thought leadership offers women (including female entrepreneurs) the opportunity to establish their credibility and increase the representation of women in areas where they have historically been marginalized.

Risks for female thought leaders 


As with any activity, thought leadership comes with risks (and not just for women). When you ‘put yourself out there’, you’re exposing your ideas  to the opinions of others, and to the likelihood of being judged.

The risks of engaging in thought leadership can be mitigated by viewing this endeavor in the correct way. Thought leadership is not simply a way to sell more products in the short term; instead, it needs to be seen as part of your ongoing brand-building or enterprise growth journey.

As a thought leader, you will face scrutiny from your audience ranging from fact checking to having excerpts of your content taken out of context. Your thought leadership content could be used as ammunition in online debates or be repurposed by proponents of attitudes or beliefs that may be at odds with your own.

Also, as a professional thought leader, you need to be aware of the danger of ‘spillover’ from your professional life into your personal life. Experienced thought leader Jessica Sato has written insightfully on what she refers to the ‘dark side’ of thought leadership. She highlights the danger of overexposure and the related risk of creative burnout. Feeling trapped on the content treadmill is something that can damage the quality of your output and your enthusiasm for sharing it.

While people may be hungry for your thought leadership content, there is a fine line between exposure and overexposure. Thought leadership by definition involves putting your ideas into the public arena and this comes with an inherent risk of negative feedback. In the febrile atmosphere of social media, this can, in some cases, become very heated very quickly.

Choosing a channel

While online content platforms offer unmatched reach potential, in-person delivery combines the power of ideas with the impact potential of real human interactions. As a thought leader, you will be seeking to build an audience; creating in-person events will deepen your relationship with your followers and add value to their experience of your content.

Interacting in person adds authenticity and promotes a more conversational, collaborative approach to projecting and driving positive change. This is a tacit recognition that no matter how revolutionary your ideas, you cannot change the world alone. Effective thought leadership is about providing the spark, not the blaze.

Thought leadership trends for 2025 


As thought leadership continues to mature, we can see trends playing a role in determining which thought leaders manage to successfully carve out a share of mind.

Audiences are placing an ever-higher value on authenticity – even the slightest hint of insincerity can be fatal to your chances of building a reputation as a thought leader. A potentially contradictory trend is the polarization of opinions, and the algorithmic rewarding of bolder, more outspoken content.

This can create a trap for thought leaders – in the quest to create bolder content, you may be tempted to express opinions that are actually more outspoken than those you in fact hold – which in turn creates the danger of being called out for being less than authentic.

To gain views you need to be bold; to retain an audience, you need to be true to yourself. Boldness does not have to involve extreme or unfounded views – more confident or experienced thought leaders will translate the requirement for boldness into brilliant ideas, superbly delivered.

Influencers versus thought leaders 


Influencers and thought leaders differ in their degree of reach and authority. Thought leaders typically rely on authority to achieve reach; influencers achieve authority through reach (that is, by building up an audience of followers across multiple platforms).

However, this form of authority is often purely numerical – the fact that the audience members for influencers are referred to as fans or followers speaks to the connection being more emotional than functional.

Influencers tend to be self-styled experts, but do not necessarily have the actual depth of experience and expertise which are the requirements for true thought leadership. Whereas thought leaders seek to inspire change, influencers tend to be motivated more by self-interest, whether they are seeking fame, fortune or both.

Recognition is important to both kinds of content generators, but cynicism around influencers is largely related to their more mercenary motivations – their own enrichment through brand ambassadorships or outright sales pitches. Because of their commercial obligations to sponsors, question marks are often raised as to their true degree of impartiality.

Social media channels (especially Instagram and TikTok) are awash with influencers, and the space has become very competitive. The potential rewards are linked to content performance metrics, and this has led some influencers to take risks in order to get noticed.

In part due to the ongoing cost of living crisis, a new phenomenon has emerged: ‘influencer fatigue’. Fans increasingly feel that the lifestyles enjoyed (or at least portrayed) by influencers are unattainable, and this erodes their relatability.

The feeling that many influencers are out of touch with their fans and not aligned with the concerns of ordinary people has led some brands to move away from using their services. This trend has been accelerated by high-profile cases of influencers posting content that is at odds with a brand’s stated values, or the ‘resurfacing’ of historical content that shows celebrities in a less than flattering light.

Instead, brands are turning to ‘micro-influencers’ and ‘nano-influencers’ – people with much lower profiles but who have a deeper, more genuine connection with their (albeit smaller) audiences.

Given the negativity surrounding some aspects of influencer culture, it’s important that, as a thought leader, you clearly distinguish yourself from influencers. True, as a thought leader you are seeking to influence people in that you are seeking to drive changes in the way that people think about and address certain issues. However, you are not necessarily looking to influence people’s purchasing decisions in the short term.

A key difference between thought leaders and influencers is that thought leaders are motivated by altruism – thought leadership is a more generous endeavor, centered on sharing. Influencers in contrast often have more selfish motives to do with raising their profile and personal enrichment.

Thought leadership and inbound marketing 


There is of course a gray area where thought leadership can be used to create commercial advantages through promoting products or services. Thought leadership can be an excellent way to promote business growth – the posting of relevant, valuable content has distinct SEO advantages, and can form the basis for content marketing activities.
Ideally, thought leadership should be about sharing ideas rather than selling products. However, it has given rise to a new form of marketing known as inbound marketing, which uses content as the ‘fuel’ for a more customer-centric approach to marketing. We’ll look at inbound marketing in a future article.