The Thought About 'Thought Leadership'

Because the minute everyone decides they want to become a "thought leader", we run into a rather fundamental question:

Why would anyone listen? Yes, the leader wants to share.

But why should the audience care? Unless you're a certain Sundar Pichai or Uday Kotak, chances are people aren't waking up every morning wondering what you have to say.

And that's not a bad thing. It simply means you have to earn the attention.

This is where I think thought leadership gets confused with personal branding. Personal branding is not about putting a leader's name, photograph and designation out there and publishing three posts a week.

It is not a content calendar.

It is not a series of inspirational quotes.

And it certainly isn't a corporate press release disguised as a LinkedIn post.

Ultimately, personal branding is about building a point of view that people actually want to hear. So, it boils down to the same fundamental thinking that works well on social:

Go deep on insights. Don't make it salesy. Add value. Give real anecdotes. Don't make it superficial.

The human quotient in the content is perhaps the biggest X factor.

Tell me what you learnt from losing a client.

Tell me why you changed your mind about something.

Tell me what surprised you when you entered the industry.

Tell me about the person who taught you something important.

Tell me what nobody tells you about running a business.

Tell me what you got wrong.

These are the things people connect with. Not because they are perfectly written, but because they are real.

And above all, make it authentic.

These tenets are easier said than done. Agreed. Because the temptation in corporate environments is always to polish.

Polish the language. Polish the opinion. Polish the anecdote. Polish away anything remotely controversial.

Until eventually, you have a beautifully written post that sounds like it could have been written by absolutely anyone. And that, to me, defeats the entire purpose.

A leader's greatest asset on social isn't necessarily their designation. It is their lived experience. The 20 years they have spent making decisions.

The mistakes they have made. The conversations they have had. The patterns they have observed. The things they believe that others may disagree with.

That is the raw material for thought leadership.

Which is also why I worry when thought leadership gets completely outsourced.

Outsourcing the craft is one thing. Outsourcing the thinking is another.

A good partner should absolutely help structure the thought, identify themes, sharpen the writing, understand the platform, look at what is resonating and ensure consistency.

But outsourcing a page to someone who superficially updates it like it's a calendar, without the involvement or approval of the "leader", and without making it sound like her/his voice, could end up doing more harm than good.

Because eventually, audiences can tell.

They can tell when something has been manufactured.

They can tell when a person doesn't actually speak that way.

They can tell when an opinion has been written by committee.

And they can definitely tell when the leader hasn't even read the post. This is where the role of a personal branding agency needs to be understood differently. The job isn't to manufacture a personality or fill a content calendar.

It is to uncover what is genuinely interesting about the person, find the stories and points of view worth sharing, and help articulate them in a way that connects with an audience. The agency should be the amplifier, not the author of the person.

And sometimes, the best advice an agency can give a leader is:
"Don't post this." Or even: "You don't have anything interesting to say this week. That's okay."

Because thought leadership doesn't need to be constant. In fact, I'd argue that sometimes less is more. Speak when you have something worth saying. 

Don't speak because the content calendar says Tuesday is a LinkedIn day.

Don't manufacture wisdom because someone in HR has decided that the leadership team needs to "build their profiles".

Don't turn every company milestone into a personal leadership lesson.

And please, don't make every post end with a conveniently packaged five-point framework.

Because thought leadership doesn't need to be constant. In fact, I'd argue that sometimes less is more.

So, So, here's my two cents:
Speak only when you have something interesting to say.
Put the audience first.
Make it real.
People can see through everything.
And truly connect, because it's something you genuinely care about.

Thought leadership, after all, isn't about being seen as a thought leader.

It's about having thoughts worth leading with. But doing it just because the Head of HR thinks leaders should be on LinkedIn, and doing it without putting the leader's soul into the game? No thank you.