What's New About You?

Recently on Twitter, I Retweeted @AlexGoodall with a quote from Thoreau, "How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live."

The Thoreau quote greatly exemplifies why I suggest you go through the initial three phases outlined in previous posts. You truly need to have developed an expertise and lead before you will be a successful thought leader. And in most cases, I find leaders have been so busy leading that the initial phases give clarity and insight to what you want to be known for and how you want to help others.

So far in our thought leadership preparation process, you have determined your commitment level or that of your company, you have taken time to do a real self evaluation of your assets and you have begun to develop or fine-tune your skills. Now we are ready to get down to thought leadership.

So, what's your platform? Generally when you develop a thought leadership platform, you are focusing on a niche area of which you can stand out. You need to determine exactly what you stand for and what you don't? Are you going to be preaching to the choir where leadership is all that is needed or are you going to have to evangelize for a while. Are you focused mostly B2B or are you consumer focused? We find it helpful to develop a thought leadership platform vision statement and checklist to provide ongoing focus.

Here are some questions that I discuss with my clients:

• Can you take a stand? What is it? What are the limits?
  
• What do you have to say that is different?
• How do you stand out from the competition?
• Who else is saying what you are saying?
• How much are you willing to share with others?
• Do you have an outside view to give you perspective?
• How will you continue to have fresh incite and stay a thought leaders?
  

Ultimately, why should anyone listen to you? What is the value you are adding? Are you making a statement that is new or are you just regurgitating thoughts of others? You may be an expert on a topic but you are not a leader in that topic until you can take the information that is out there and put it with the knowledge and experience you have to develop a path for others to follow that is new, foreshadows the future and teaches others.