3 Reasons Your Thought Leadership Strategy Isn’t Working – Yet!

I recently had the pleasure of giving a talk on Thought Leadership to the Quorum Initiative ladies in Washington D.C. It was such a great discussion, but there was so much more to talk about! Here are some thoughts we got to, and some we didn’t, to keep the conversation going.

Thought leadership is often talked about and rarely explored as a career advancement strategy. What is it anyway? Is it just having good ideas and talking about them? Simply, no. Being opinionated is just that and it builds your reputation as an opinionated person. There’s nothing wrong with being opinionated, but if you want to BE influential then you have to build a reputation – a personal brand – around ideas that influence. And if you want to be a thought leader you have to give your ideas more thought than the average idea!

Why bother? Influential people whose ideas shape decisions stand out in the leadership selection process. They attract sponsors who want to help them (and their ideas) get good jobs. They position you well in salary negotiations when you’re making the case for your value. They can also help you build a following on social media and become a sought-after speaker at industry events. For women especially, thought leadership provides you an authentic avenue to speak up and demonstrate your leadership value and potential beyond talking yourself up and producing good results. (Beware getting yourself into the results trap, where they love your work so much they don’t want to move you.)

If all these benefits aren’t flowing to you when you put your ideas out there, it means you’re probably not building thought leadership into your career strategy in a strategic way. Here are the three biggest mistakes I see mid – and even senior level leaders – make.

#1-Your Big Ideas Aren’t Big Enough

Influential ideas that you get credit for have to stand out as something other than “tweaks” to the group think going on in your world. They have to make people really think! They have to help others adjust their perspective, look at issues in a new way and open avenues for change. They have to encourage others to lean in and say, “tell me more.”

Little ideas don’t do this. Big ones do. Big ideas are connected to larger goals, often addressing issues beyond just the problem at hand. For example, if the problem is that customer satisfaction in Division A is in a tailspin, a little idea is to do follow up interviews with unhappy customers. It’s a good idea but it only adds information to the problem without creating the chance for a solution. A big idea (one of many) would be to run an experiment to empower customer service reps in Division A to gather more information on the first call and do whatever it takes to make unhappy customers into happy customers right then and there. This big idea revolutionized ecommerce and made Zappos a household name.

Coming up with the right kind of big ideas is a skill and a strategy. It involves understanding your audience, their goals, your goals, expertise and passion and – most importantly – the white space no one is looking at that provides an opportunity for you to step in and add value. Learning to make your ideas big enough takes a little practice, but it is a skill you can learn.

#2 – (In)Consistency and Unconsciousness are the Hobgoblins of Your Personal Brand

To be influential you have to put your reputation and intellectual capital behind only a few ideas at a time, and stick with them consistently so people associate you with the good idea. That’s the first step in becoming known for an idea that’s having influence. (Otherwise you’re just that opinionated person a bunch of ideas.)

So the question is, what ideas to you care enough about to stick with? What’s so important to you that you want to be known for it? What are the underlying principles you stand for that emerge through all your ideas, big and small? Can you explain these principles to those you’re trying to influence? To be consistent and explicit, you must be conscious about what you’re doing. You must be intentional.

At our event in D.C. Meg provided a wonderful example of this strategy in practice. She comes up with new ideas for client development all the time. Some are accepted and some are shot down, but over time, she becomes known for the big idea of Innovation because she consistently stands for new and innovative approaches to landing new business. Being known for Innovative strategies gives her a platform to take it up a level by being vocal about the value of innovation? Now she can lead by teaching others to come up with innovative approaches, so that THEY come up with the ideas, spurred by her example of innovation? When others adopt your ideas and approaches you know you’re influencing them. Being conscious that you’re teaching them – by example and by more direct methods – is a key part of helping them learn and adopt your approach. (And I have every confidence that Meg is doing this!)

#3 – You Don’t Welcome The Pushback

The best idea in the world won’t do your career strategy or anyone else any good if no one knows about it. Far too often, good ideas die in our heads or in our hearts the moment someone says, “we can’t do that,” or “that will never work.” Big ideas get a lot of pushback! If you won’t take some heat, your ideas will flame out for sure.

People who influence through their ideas stand by them, but they know they and their ideas are not one and the same. They don’t take personally the intellectual debate about the idea. They know their reputation isn’t just about the ideas but how well they lead with them. They don’t get stuck on being right, but instead they guide (lead!) the exploration that their ideas generate until decisions are made. They are gracious in success and failure. They listen to others, adapt and change their approaches, but even in failure they are unapologetic in their championship of the underlying principles of their ideas. This is a personal development skill. It’s requires a certain amount of emotional mastery, which pays off on many levels. In fact, thought leadership is a fantastic way to mature your overall leadership style and demonstrate that you’re ready for the big leagues in other ways as well.

I have seen so many promising leaders struggle to overcome these three challenges that I’ve put together a simple coaching program to help everyone (at every level) address these issues, tap into the power of their own big ideas, lead through influence and develop a career advancement strategy designed to raise their personal brand profile. I am offering Quorum Initiative members and friends bonus personal coaching sessions worth $200-600 when you sign up by October 15, 2013. Learn more here and I look forward to helping you put the power of thought leadership into your career!

Link: www.inpowercoaching.com/in/quorum-offer

Dana was a presenter at The Quorum Initiative’s event in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, September 24th.  She is a research-based consultant, coach and advocate for women’s leadership strategies that produce business results. In launching InPower Women, a Forbes Top 100 web site for women, she found her message of “In”Powerment resonating strongly with professional women. Her articles are also featured and syndicated today on several sites including The National Journal’s Next America, Smartbrief on Leadership, Take The Lead and she’s gained a warm reception as a motivational speaker to women’s groups helping women understand what the research says about how to gain more power instantaneously [Watch her TEDx Talk for an example.] Dana is a regular host for Executive Leader’s Radio, the #1 business talk show in the mid-atlantic states. Read her full bio and follow Dana:  LinkedIn  Google+  Twitter RSS