Some ways to start writing thought leadership
4 ways in, at least one of which might not be full cringe to you.
Hi strategists-
My coaching model is to collaborate with strategists in their work in progress. For a lot of them, that work in progress is a resumé - which, ultimately is a narrative about them designed to persuade, exactly like a strategy. If you’d like some work on yours let me know. I’m happy to have a look and give you some initial impressions (for free). If it makes sense, we can look at a program of a few sessions together to make your resumé a more effective door opener for you.
Whether you love the job you have now, or the one you want to have next, thought leadership can help you build your profile, expertise and perspective - all of which are good for your career. So that’s what I’m writing about today.
-Mike
Some ways to start writing thought leadership
Before I talk about how to do thought leadership, I should talk first about why - which is the problem thought leadership can solve. And then I need to talk about what thought leadership is - explaining how to do something without telling you what it is is like doing a strategy without understanding your goal.
So why create thought leadership in the first place? There are two categories of benefits of creating thought leadership - external and internal:
The external benefits of creating thought leadership are that they help position a strategist as an expert on something. I’ve seen it work with:
A discipline: e.g. business strategy or employer brands or naming
A type of business: e.g. startups or B2B or restaurants
A certain type of customer: e.g. first-time mothers or gamers or sports fans
A business problem: e.g. rebranding or transformation
A strategic input: culture or geopolitics or psychology
This perceived expertise makes it easier for clients, CSOs and resource managers to see a strategist as being the right person for certain kinds of projects. It helps us sell work if we’re independents, or be assigned projects if we’re internal.
The internal benefits of creating thought leadership is that you actually become the expert you’re perceived to be. We all have topics we can claim familiarity or facility with, but writing about them forces a level of accountability and clarity of thought that lifts experience into expertise.
I suppose you can be an expert without writing about something, but it’s really hard to write about something without ending up an expert in the process.
So when strategists come to be interested in building a point of view or narrowing down into an area of expertise, creating thought leadership is often one of my first recommendations.
But don’t worry - creating thought leadership doesn’t (necessarily) mean 1000 words a day of unique and thought. I think of thought leadership simply as content that’s valuable for a defined audience. That content can take a lot of different shapes, depending on what the strategist is good at - or at least comfortable with to start.
Usually when I ask strategists what kind of content they’re comfortable creating they think about formats: "I like to write,” or “I’m good with video” or “I make great memes.” Format is useful, until you think about what you’re going to fill that format with.
So think also about what kind of thought leader you’re most capable of being right now:
The Archivist: This kind of thought leader aggregates content. Sometimes the aim is to be thorough, but often it’s content edited through a specific lens. Either can help establish the author as an expert, because the act of aggregating results in far more reading of a specific topic than most other people.
The Amplifier: Here the content is still someone else’s, but you’re helping it find a wider audience and - by virtue of the content in aggregate you’re sharing - build your profile as an arbiter of good content within your niche. This is where a lot of podcasters play, where the expertise comes from guests, but is ascribed to the host in the process. Written interviews also do this, as do LinkedIn accounts that share others’ work and talk about why it’s good.
The Philosopher: This kind of thought leader is advancing original thoughts and theories. They often have a sharp point of view on their topic and therefore present as credible experts. This expertise comes with time and a lot of repetitions - usually in writing. Most authors of books you find valuable are Philosophers (though of course many Philosophers will never write a book).
The Alchemist: This type of thought leadership contributes to a body of expertise by developing tools and assets for others to use. In our world it might be a new brand framework or a research study or data set.
First, these aren’t mutually exclusive. For example, someone could be an Amplifier who shares interesting ideas, but builds on them to create something new like a Philosopher.
Second, they’re also not permanent. I’ve known a lot of strategists who start creating thought leadership as an Archivist, and evolve into another type as their baseline knowledge on their topic increases.
The point in laying these out is to help you see which type of content you’d most be able to create without feeling full cringe. Because if it’s not something you can - and want to - do regularly, you won’t do it. As long as it’s valuable to an audience you define - and all of these are - it can do the work you need it to do for your career. But only if you can commit to creating it again and again.
Strategy in brief
Your client is someone you’re working with, not for. Success is invariably a collaboration - the result of something you’ve built together.
Thanks for reading all these words and subscribing (to even more words). If you know any other strategists or strategy-adjacent folks who might like this newsletter that button is for you.
About The Strategy Coach Company
I’m Mike May and I founded the Strategy Coach Company to help brand and agency strategists get better at their job while doing their job. I provide 1:1 coaching, collaboration, real-time feedback and thought partnership on actual work in progress, because I know that’s the best way to get better at doing strategy, and at being a strategist. You can learn more at StrategyCoach.co, connect with me on LinkedIn, or just reply to this newsletter.