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You are pursuing a leadership position for a thought leadership initiative and are preparing for your final interviews. Here are 50 questions you can nail with the proper preparations. 

Thought leadership 101

The term thought leadership appears broadly, and the initial questions likely address your interpretation of the term: 

• What does thought leadership mean to you? 
• What is the primary purpose of thought leadership? 
• What is the best organizational home for a thought leadership program? 
• What outcomes do quality thought leadership deliver? 
• What is critical to win customer trust in your thought leadership program? 

👥 Target audiences for thought leadership 

Excellent thought leadership starts with an outside-in-centric approach, with clarity on target audiences and their needs. 

• Which personas should we target with our thought leadership initiatives? 
• What are these stakeholders primarily interested in?
• What do we know about how these types of stakeholders consume content? 
• How would you prioritize between face-to-face and digital interactions? 
• How do you ensure these essentials reach executive audiences that are decision-makers and write the checks? 

🔦 Essential insights to build from

Business insights are the grains required to grow meaningful thought leadership.

• Where do you look for insights for your thought leadership initiatives? 
• Who in the organization are essential liaisons for insight gathering? 
• Which type of facts are most valuable? 
• How do you structure insights as they mature? 
• How do you weigh the importance of the captured insights? 

🚰 Sources for insights to tap into 

Thought leadership relies on business insights as the grain that makes quality assets stand out. Where to hunt for insights is a non-trivial area where you can expect questions like: 

• How can you structure insight gathering from customer interactions? 
• How do primary research initiatives lead to valuable insights? 
• What parts of the insight gathering are possible to outsource? 
• Which key questions must you ask to find the most useful insights? 
• How would you log insights for use across all thought leadership initiatives? 

🧠 Sharp thought leaders 

Excellent thought leadership relies on sharp thought leaders spending enough time drilling deep into problems. Expect questions on how you work with and groom thought leaders: 

• What type of profiles have the best chance of succeeding as thought leaders? 
• What do you expect from thought leaders in your organization? 
• How do you motivate thought leaders to contribute? 
• What type of content do you expect thought leaders to create? 
• How do you make them take an active role in the promotion side of the job?

💵 Bought leadership 

Even large organizations consider outsourcing development for parts of their thought leadership initiatives. 

• What makes thought leadership initiatives with third parties different from an all-in-house initiative? 
• When would you pursue a third party for insight generation? 
• What type of third parties have you worked with in previous roles? 
• What do you use to decide on publishing under your own or the third-party brand? 
• What are the limitations you see for bridging between third-party insights and your own ability to deliver on the value proposition? 

🔄 Cross-organization execution 

Unlocking the total value of your thought leadership proposition requires extensive cross-organization collaborations. The execution capabilities are where thought leadership battles are won or lost: 

• How do you package the insights gained with light-house customers? 
• How do you train and scale human resources beyond the team involved in the lighthouse project? 
• How would you manage the customizations needed to fit adjacent segments and customers? 
• How can you estimate the addressable market that you could target? 
• Which competitors represent your most significant threats? 

# Success metrics 

Thought leadership represents a long game, from initial insight gathering to scaling up toward meaningful revenues. Nevertheless, you will have to deliver toward relevant metrics to establish your initiative: 

• Which lead measures make sense to point towards to demonstrate early market success? 
• Which lag measures are central to revenue growth?
• Which metrics should we consider when B2B sales cycles exceed our yearly planning cycles? 
• Which metrics are vital to position thought leadership as a revenue driver? 
• Which metrics can be applied to secure innovation and get enough room to happen? 

🔦 Focus on low-hanging thought leadership fruits 

New leaders for thought leadership programs face an immediate challenge in delivering short-term results for programs representing a long game. Expect questions to prove you have what it takes to pay straight out of the gate: 

• What have been cornerstones in your previous 100-day plans for thought leadership initiatives? 
• How do you plan to demonstrate value to sales teams quickly? 
• What are your experiences with insights that have a short time to impact? 
• Which relationships do you need support with in establishing from the start? 
• Which metrics shall we measure initial success towards? 

❓Great questions for you to ask 

Spend the last five questions of your preparation on areas where you seek information. All thought leaders want to ensure that the ones to whom you will dedicate your time, energy, and passion are serious about thought leadership. 

• In which areas is the company dependent on excellent thought leadership? 
• Where is the center of gravity for thought leadership organized today? 
• What thought leadership research happens in-house today, and who does it?
• What impact must thought leadership deliver in one and three years, respectively? 
• Are thought leadership budgets increasing or decreasing in the coming 18-24 months? 

Bottom line: Clear answers to these questions will make you stand out in your interview, and areas where you need help finding answers are good candidates for your next personal development plan.