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Thought leadership plays a central role in many businesses’ marketing strategies. Initiatives targeting the most critical shifts in their industry. Shifts where they have a concrete interest in influencing customers and essential stakeholders of the ecosystem. 

The thought leadership scene has evolved with digital channels, a shift accelerated during the pandemic. This post is the second in a series for aspiring thought leaders who want to bridge the past to shape conversations in the physical and digital worlds. 

🪩 The evolution ahead: The role and potential of thought leadership is well researched and practiced by businesses today. The evolution of thought leadership is a moving target, where you as a practitioner need to be ready for the changes ahead, summarized as: 

• insights guiding customers in a hybrid/digital world 
• conversations shaped in digital channels
• original and well-articulated vs. AI-generated Content
• foundational facts, outcomes, and proof points are growing in importance.
• influencing not only customers but also the broader ecosystem
• volatile markets shaped by multi-faceted disruptions in macro economy, technology, business model, and regulatory levels 

📝 Content conveying insights: The content assets you use to communicate your thought leadership insights play a vital role. Research reports and slide decks for face-to-face communication were anchors in the past. 

In the future, you can consider adding a few assets with modular design and shorter development cycles: 

• Executive talk tracks – outlining your critical points for verbal/video communication 
• Crisp executive briefs – what most people invest time in reading 
• Community newsletters – delivered frequently and centered around building and nurturing communities. 

Expect thought leadership content assets to face shorter development cycles, shorter time for consumption, and an expectation of a regular publishing cadence. 

🧠 Thought leaders: The thoughts powering your Thought Leadership remain front and center. Businesses wanting to be perceived as thought leaders make it clear who is responsible for thinking, formulating relevant thoughts, and expressing point-of-views. 

Clear and well-formulated thoughts will make your leadership stand out. A multi-stage process where you 

• formulate initial thoughts for internal vetting and anchoring
• refine initial thought in teams with subject matter experts 
• convey thoughts to customers and ecosystem stakeholders 

Thought leadership requires high-quality initial thoughts to frame a theme or topic and collaborations to craft a sharp point of view. 

⛽️ research as fuel: All forms of thought leadership rely on research as fuel. Research comes from two primary sources: 

1 Primary research with analysis and facts collected in a research project. Success comes from formulating succinct questions and finding great sources to provide input. 

2 Collaborations with customers and partners, generating key questions and proven assumptions to build upon. 

Rapidly evolving markets and shorter cycle times increase the importance of the second approach. Succeeding in this game requires tight collaboration between sales and marketing teams. Hunting down unanswered questions and assumptions you have validated is crucial for the quality of your thought leadership insights. 

Scenes for delivery: The stages and channels for delivering your thought leadership insights are evolving. Theatrical deliveries at conferences and in one-on-one customer meetings remain relevant but insufficient.

In a hybrid world, your thought leaders should prepare to master the following: 

🎨 a broader spectrum of channels and stages of physical and virtual nature 

🎬 filmed appearances, for live-o-tape deliveries and social media channels 

⏱️ delivery in shorter windows of time, like the norm for executives

🌎 reach extended through digital channels, allowing great thought leadership to penetrate accounts deeper, reach further, and scale out quickly

Great thought leaders have leveraged the pandemic to influence the two-dimensional digital world and explore the possibilities with the more immersive 3D stages coming into play. 

Digital networkers: Thought leadership on digital platforms demands more from your Thought Leaders. To leverage their full potential, they need to grow into digital networkers by: 

🧑🏻‍💻develop a personal brand aligned with their expertise and sphere of influence 

🪢 proactively build their digital networks as a complement to your company’s digital networks 

☕️ engage in digital conversations, one-on-one in virtual coffees, or through comments on social media posts. 

A poor digital presence devalues your efforts across the first four areas, and a strong presence will be the new norm for excellent thought leadership. 

Essential questions: for you and your team to penetrate further 

1. Which of the five thought leadership areas outlined here represent our strengths and weaknesses? 
2. What thought leadership goals can we pursue in the next 12 months? 
3. Which ones require focus to enhance our thought leadership initiatives? 
4. Which shortcomings do we need to address at a later stage? 

Additional reading suggestions: deeper insights on the leading edge for development of thought leadership 

• The Sophisticated Marketer’s Guide to Thought Leadership [point-of-view paper] – by LinkedIn
• How to be a thought leader in the digital age [article] – by Forbes 
• Why thought leadership strategy is important to digital transformation [blogpost] – by Third stage consultin