Is thought leadership really useless jargon?

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My apologies for not posting anything for some weeks but I’m just back from a wonderful trip to South Africa after emigrating to Australia six years ago.   

I took a decision not to take my Blackberry, not to look at e mails, not to twitter and not to blog.  Pretty radical for someone who can never put his Blackberry down but I highly recommend it - it’s quite liberating.

Before I left, a work contact of mine, Glen Frost, who is rapidly emerging as a thought leader in his own right in the PR and Marketing conferencing world in Australia  www.frocomm.com/  alerted me to an article in Media Asia http://www.media.asia/ wherein David Wolf the CEO of Wolf Group Asia http://www.wolfgroupasia.com/  says that thought leadership should be declared useless jargon.  I attach a pdf of the article here - unfortunately you have to subscribe to Media Asia and cannot view the article online.

Well David’s article certainly raised the hackles for someone as passionate about the subject of thought leadership as I am.  Before I share with you my response to David’s article I would first like to say that I think it’s fantastic that people like David are even bothering to talk about thought leadership - it means it is a term and a practice that is well and truly alive albeit not always in a form that is palatable for people like David.

Why thought leadership should not be declared ‘useless jargon’ 

In his September issue article ‘Thought leadership should be declared useless jargon’, David Wolf raises some excellent points but fluffs his main line.  Just because people misuse the term Public Relations or Advertising doesn’t mean we should turn them into nebulous descriptors like: “How we help companies build their brand and engage with their stakeholders.”

In the same way nor should we dump the term thought leadership for David’s generic label:  “…help our companies and clients lead an industry agenda and deliver genuine insights”.

The fact that David has written about thought leadership is a good sign – it means it has traction, the industry is taking note.  I know a lot of clients are crying out for it.

But sadly David is right, it is often misused.  That, however, doesn’t mean you should suddenly declare it useless jargon.

A more constructive approach would be for the marketing industry to educate ourselves and our clients about the true meaning and value of thought leadership, how one can identify or best package the company’s IP or point-of-view and in the process add real value to the company’s stakeholders.

By taking the high road, recognising what true thought leadership is really about and applying tighter discipline and rigour around the term and its processes we can allow it to take its rightful place in the marketing mix.

There are too many great thought leadership campaigns out there for it to be dismissed so easily.