New, revised definition of thought leadership

• Share
• Tweet

On this blog you will find a few definitions of thought leadership including my own – click on the Definitions of thought leadership to right of this piece under Categories to see the others.  However, like anything, as I learn more about the topic my definition changes slightly.

So here is my latest definition:

 “Thought leadership is about delivering new ideas and content to your target publics based on deep insights into the business issues and challenges they face.  In the process, the value you deliver should go well beyond merely selling your product or service.  Your thought leadership point of view should differentiate you from your competitors, establish you as the ‘go to’ expert in that field and position you as a trusted advisor – all with the intent of underpinning the sale.”  Craig Badings   

3 Responses to “New, revised definition of thought leadership”

1. Stephen G Diorio says:

   September 14, 2010 at 09:17

   Can you adapt the definition to include organizations, or in your view is thought leadership only attributed to an individual?
2. craig says:

   September 14, 2010 at 09:24

   Stephen, the definition can absolutely be applied to an organisation. I have found, however, that sharing information with an abundance mentality is often really difficult culturally for a lot of organisations. The result is very few are viewed as thought leaders or use thought leadership the way it should be used.
3. Thought Leadership - CLAIMING CONTENT CURATION IS THOUGHT LEADERSHIP IS LIKE PLAGIARISM says:

   July 18, 2011 at 17:21

   [...] which, unfortunately, is severely limiting in terms of where thought leadership has now moved (you can check out a whole lot of definitions here in this blog).  Karan goes on to argue that curation is about authoring context and he maintains that is [...]