Semantics of leadership

Jack Lundee approached me a little while back about a guest blog.  He is an avid blogger on Everything Left.

He describes his blog as a “blog to relay the latest Liberal-based current events and political news to its readers.”

In this post he has analysed what he believes it takes to be a leader - I believe that these echo the characteristics needed
to be a thought leader.

In order to really understand what it takes to be a leader, one must really sit down and analyze the various characteristics of somebody who leads.

Classically, a leader can be defined as a person who is followed by others. I believe a leader must have the following
traits:

Trustworthiness

Whether you’re Doug Band of the Clinton Global Initiative or a regular door-to-door salesman, you must always be honest. Honesty, integrity and trustworthiness are significant qualities of a leader simply because without them, nobody would
consider addressing that person as somebody who they’d follow. In other words, you can’t build character by lying, cheating and stealing – Dishonesty simply does not make an impression on anybody.

Respectfulness

And you’re character is of course dependent on how you perceive and treat others, as well as your self. If you have an angry or self-defeating attitude, you’re likely to behave that way. This eventually leads to a loss of respect.

Perseverance

A leader must always be ready to fail.

Having the strength and courage to carry on through these mistrials is greatly consistent of a powerful leader. Again, you don’t have to be a world leader to preserver and overcome. Leaders can and usually will find the strength to pursue their visions, goals and good will towards others, even if they’ve experience some sort of adversity that normally would hold somebody back.

Benevolence

Most leadership theorists tend to leave this trait out, but I find it of great value to somebody entertaining a leadership position. The Dalai Lama once stated, “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” With kindness also comes compassion. And if you’re passionate about something, you’re probably one of the best kinds of leaders who do by example.

Ability to Lead by Example

Leaders always lead by example. I have yet to come across somebody who I consider a leader that didn’t lead by example. A
great illustration of this would be Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Gandhi was not only the leader of an enormous peace
movement, but he also played a role as an activist. Let’s keep in mind that this commitment to “action,” had nothing to do with violence or upheaval.  Gandhi simply led by using things like fasting as political protest. This gathered him thousands upon thousands of followers.

Ability to Inspire and Influence

In accordance, Gandhi was able to influence and inspire. In fact, Martin Luther King actually pulled writings and referenced Gandhi in developing his own theories on non-violence. If somebody who you consider a “leader” has yet to inspire you or make you want to reach higher, perhaps it’s time to start idolizing someone else.

Intelligence

Last but not least, a good leader must be smart. Most of the time, if you’re smart, you’ll be in good shape. Even if you’ve done some deceitful things and hurt people in the past, with intelligence comes the realization that “It’s time to make a change, and stick with that change.” Intelligence can go a long way in terms of impacting yourself and others.

It certainly will attract followers, but without possessing some of these other traits, it’s useless in itself. You can be the smartest person in the world, and lead a life of consolatory confinement if you’re unable to maintain positive relationships with others, and these relationships are earned through honesty, respect, influence, kindness, courage, and determination.

By: Jack Lundee of Shades of Green and Everything Left.

Einstein’s great insight for thought leadership

Einstein offers great insights for thought leaders

In a guest post on Problogger,  

http://tiny.cc/mfjhz  Graham Phoenix of Male eXperience talks about rogue bloggers and there are some delightful insights and some inherent tips for thought leaders.

In particular, Albert Einstein’s quote stands out like a beacon for any person or business wanting to be a thought leader:  “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.”
—Albert Einstein.

Thought leaders don’ play it safe

Merely playing safe is not going to help you as a thought leader and is a sure-fire path to mediocrity and obscurity.  To this end Corbett Barr, from Think Traffic in Graham’s post had this to say:  “I’m saying you have to look fear in the eye, realize that fear is hiding some of your richest potential material, punch fear in the face and take whatever it was hiding from you and put that in your writing.”

The same applies to you if you want to be a thought leader.  It is indeed a tough challenge for many corporations but there are also many who get it right – think Virgin, IBM, Deloitte, Booze & Company and Apple to mention a few.

What should your thought leadership be doing?

Your thought leadership position should:

·         Challenge and raise questions in your field of expertise around new thinking and new ways of doing things

·         Stretch your clients to think “What if?”

·         Frame the debate and create conversations

·         Provide new insights to a particular topic area/sector/area of expertise, and most importantly;

·         Hone in on the challenges and issues your clients or your targets face now and into the future.

By doing this you will be taking a leaf out of Einstein’s book and choosing to express your opinions courageously and honestly.

Thought leaders must have a genuine story to tell

A few years ago, Amy O’Meara, Amnesty International’s USA Director of Business and Human Rights, had the following message for businesses: ‘Show us that you are trying…and we will take you seriously and work with you over time to help you become socially responsible. It’s cool to be green but don’t exaggerate…have a genuine story to tell.”

For me, in those few sentences aimed at companies and their corporate social responsibility programs, she inadvertently delivered a message to prospective thought leaders and company thought leadership programs - have a genuine story to tell.

True thought leadership absolutely is about being genuine. The quick-fix research packaged as thought leadership in order to drive a bit of media coverage really isn’t going to cut it in the long run.  It may help drive a great PR campaign but please don’t label it as thought leadership.  

There are some excellent examples of companies that have well and truly integrated their thought leadership into their businesses, aligned them with their values as an organisation and importantly linked them to the needs of their customers.  They do it because they genuinely care about the issues and challenges their customers face.

In the process they take one step ahead of the competition and set themselves apart as the ‘go to’  experts in their field.

Without a genuinue story to tell, this very quickly falls short as the conversations you, your business leaders and your sales staff have with your customers will not reflect the depth that a true thought leadership position should deliver in the chosen topic in your sector.

Those campaigns with genuine intent reap real, long-term benefits:

Think long and hard about any thought leadership campain upon which you embark and ask yourself:

• Is it genuine i.e. goes it go to our values and what we want to be as a business?
• Is it compelling for our customers/clients i.e. does it deliver them insights to help them?
• Is it compelling for our own staff?
• Will it differentiate our brand from our competitors?
• Is it something on which we can deliver?
• Does it have senior management buy-in?
• Does it have a champion/s?
• Can we put budget behind this?
• What are the measurement criteria?

A view into the soul of a thought leader

Chris Brogan epitomises a true thought leader: "..the more I share, the more business comes my way..."

I don’t think I’ve seen anybody encapsulate the essence of true thought leadership the way Chris Brogan has in his latest blog post.

I have quoted it here in part but I highly recommend you visit his blog to see the rest.  Simply put he epitomises the mentality a thought leader should have at the purest level.  No wonder he is a thought leader in his space.  Go Chris!

 ”Sometimes, I’m asked why I give away all of my ‘how I do it’ information. I’m asked whether this gives others the ability to compete directly with me. Frankly, I don’t worry about competition. I worry that there aren’t enough people executing effectively for companies. I’ve got plenty of work to do as it is. New Marketing Labs picks up plenty of clients and has even when I give away all my major points and ideas.

“I feed the system because I believe you can take something I’ve started, run with it, and advance the whole space. I give you all that I can because I know that you’ve got your own ideas, and maybe components of mine will help you.

“Oh, and the more I share, the more business comes my way. It’s a built in reciprocal loop. ” Chris Brogan

Throughout my postings on thought leadership you will notice I talk often about having an abundance mentality.  Many people struggle with this when it comes to thought leadership, however,  as Chris so rightly points out ‘the more I share, the more business comes my way..”. 

That ladies and gentlemen is the Eureka moment of thought leadership.  That is what it is all about.

Thank you Chris.

The characteristics of a thought leader

I have identified some of the broad characteristics of a thought leader as follows.

A thought leader is someone who:

1.      Expert – is an expert in their field and has a unique point of view

2.      Shares information – is willing to engage with and share insights and information with their audiences through speaking, social media, writing, mainstream media, etc

3.      Big picture – is refreshingly candid and understands the bigger picture and where they and their brands fit into their consumers’ lives and how they can add value or insights to their consumers beyond merely selling them a product or service

4.      Passionate – believes passionately in what they do or the space which they occupy

5.      Social responsibility – sometimes feels a moral or social responsibility to deliver something of value to the community in which they sell or operate 

6.      Expects nothing in return – Is prepared to engage with their stakeholders and share information and insights and literally expect nothing in return in the immediate future

7.      Values based – has long-term vision and often secures their space by anchoring their business in values-based behaviour which shows an understanding of their most important audiences

8.      Motivates – is able to motivate people to look at and to do things differently.

Please let me know if there are any other characteristics I should add to this list