Thought leadership model missing one critical piece

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One critical piece missing from this thought leadership model

I really like Shane Gibson’s thought leadership model pictured above. 

It’s simple yet has some good depth to its structure.  In particular I like the inner circle elements of creator, contributor and networker.  However, like any model there are always gaps.  The glaring one for me in this model (no offence Shane – if you had to add everything it would lose the point) is the lack of reference or focus on the client/target audience.

Why? Because thought leadership without a focus on your end audience is not going to deliver the  business outcomes you want.

Thought leadership has to be a business tool

Every thought leadership campaign should have a customer/client focus and should have specific outcomes and therefore measurements that can be applied.

Creating great content is not good enough.

Curating awesome content is not good enough.

Making your content look great is a waste of effort time and money.

In fact don’t bother wasting your time unless there is a very specific client focus around your thought leadership content and it has at its centre the need to address the issues and challenges your audience face now and into the future.

Thought leadership requires research

Before you start your thought leadership campaign you can save yourself and lot of time and effort by first researching your audience, their issues, their current and future challenges.

It is this sort of research that will uncover your thought leadership opportunity and the ability, as Shane’s one segment so aptly describes, to have ‘relevant, engaging conversations.’

We should not forget that rule no1 of any thought leadership campaign is that it should first and foremost be a business driver with measurable outcomes.

I would love to hear your thoughts.  Please download my free e book top right of this page.  Follow me on twitter @thoughtstrategy and join me on LinkedIn.