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The publication you’re reading this from is full of thought leadership. Take a look around and you’ll see executives and contributors taking readers on a (hopefully) journey of discovery, delivering news, trends, metrics, and actionable strategies on every topic.
But to what end?
I’ve been in executive brand management for 12 years. In that time, I’ve seen thought leadership campaigns that achieve nothing, and a single article that shapes an industry. Earlier this year, I noticed a shift. It was what I can only describe as a global “paralysis” to the never-ending monotony of thought leadership content. Perhaps generative AI has saturated the market with content, or maybe B2B and B2C audiences have simply grown fatigued. It wasn’t either.
A Harris Poll on the ROI of thought leadership shows that marketing leaders see a gap between the importance of thought leadership and its effectiveness. The report states:“Nine in 10 executives believe thought leadership is important for building authority, yet only 20% actually use it to their advantage.” This isn’t a gap, it’s a chasm.
Related: How to Strengthen Your Brand Through Thought Leadership
Over the past few months, I’ve been working on my Curiosity Project, interviewing 72 C-suite executives about their thought leadership efforts. From these conversations, I’ve noticed a big gap between what executive thought leadership has and what it is not. was And that Required.
The results of the 72 interviews are as follows:
- 83% of executives feel that thought leadership has no limited purpose or measurable impact.
- 92% of executives want thought leadership to attract new customers, talent, and investment that directly impacts growth.
After some thought, I came up with a new definition of executive thought leadership.
“Thought leadership is defined as executives who are subject matter experts publishing media content to external or internal audiences to support frontline needs, thereby directly improving organizational outcomes and growth.”
This model has more in common with servant leadership than anything PR-related: Identify the load points in each department and support the individuals who carry out that work. In other words, executive thought leadership has become much more intentional.
Breaking down the definition gives you clear strategies and programs for thought leadership.
1. Managers who are experts in a particular fieldWho are these executives? Are they experts in the field they are speaking about?
Often, this will be the CEO or founder. But not always. For a healthcare company, it might be the Chief Medical Officer. If the goal is around talent and culture, it might be the Chief People Officer. For a technology company, perhaps the Chief Technology Officer is the best person to talk to on this topic.
2. Supporting the needs of the frontlineWhat department in your company needs support? HR, sales, finance, operations?
People in the field have much more data than executives, so the first step to getting clarity on what needs to be addressed is to:
- Ask your team about the most common requests they receive from customers, stakeholders, and partners. Highlight the ones that cause the most stress.
- Collect data from anywhere: external and internal stakeholders, employees, customers, etc.
- Tabulate your findings to identify the most common contributing factors and funnels of low- to high-volume issues.
- Create a topical roadmap that answers each of these questions.
Example: A founder whose main job is to build a strong internship program. Ask: “What would interns want to know when they are hired? Articles, case studies, white papers, technical documentation, recruiting materials, playbooks, visual guides, anything that would help interns get up to speed on your organization faster?”
By creating more targeted thought leadership content, executives can drive measurable outcomes and support their organization’s efforts.
Related: How to develop stronger, more engaging thought leadership
3. Create media content for external or internal audiences. What type of content will solve the identified problem and lead to growth? Who is your audience?
Following in the footsteps of former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, 6 Page Concept Summarize complex information in the form of a story. Create a presentation that solves a specific problem by:
Identify who you want to absorb your thought leadership content:
- To ensure you are reaching the right audience, ask these questions: If they saw this and took action, would it solve a problem or growth goal for your department?
- Analyze your main pain points (you can find this in step 2).
- Formulate all solutions, insights, benefits, and industry metrics/statistics related to the problem.
- Organize this material into a six-page (minimum) executive essay.
- Repurpose it into dozens (if not hundreds) of social campaigns, white papers, medium articles, blog posts, newsletters, downloadable content, and funnel pages.
We need to move away from the way we’ve thought about thought leadership. The industry is saturated with PR and “salesy” thought leadership that doesn’t move the needle on metrics within a company. The new model – intentional thought leadership – is completely tied to the desired end goal. The only way to achieve the end goal is to listen to your employees internally. If that means speaking to 10 people or 1,000 people, that’s how you create an executive thought leadership campaign.
Related: How do you scale your thought leadership content?
A New Era of Thought Leadership
Imagine an account executive receiving the perfect media asset from the CEO that will be featured in a major publication and speak directly to the prospect’s pain point.
This thought leadership provides support from the top and creates a consistent, cohesive message across the organization – a critical resource tool to guide every department within the company.