Thought leadership can help you grow personally as well as professionally. Developing thought leadership is a great way to create personal and professional growth for yourself and others. It can help you stand out in your industry and build credibility and brand awareness for your business. However, great content means nothing if you aren’t reaching enough people to make it worth your time. It’s difficult to grow a thought leadership platform, but there are a few actions you can take that will help you get more recognition and create a larger audience for your work.
Here is what you should do to avoid common mistakes that thought leaders make:
Use 'We' instead of ‘I’.
Have you ever taken a look at high-profile thought leaders within your industry and noticed they all seem to be using "we" instead of "I"? Although it may seem like a simple note to self and something that wouldn’t be noticed by most people—the truth is that most people do notice it. By showing your audience that you work with a team, it brings your writing style, choices and experiences to life. It also allows you to highlight the team members who have worked so hard with you in order to become an expert in your field.
You must specialize—not generalize.
Are you interested in building authority and trust with your audience? The most successful thought leaders in the world are specialized in specific topics. They have learned everything there is to know about their specialty and are known as an authority on that topic. This is one reason why they're so successful—they are viewed as a guru on their selected topics, which means their opinion is not only respected by others but also sought after.
Do not publish poor content.
Even though the publishing of content is a consistent and continual piece to your reputation maintenance, it isn’t meant to be thoughtless. When you keep up with your peers by churning out poor content on the spot, it looks like you planned it that way. While you aren’t able to fully plan out your publishing schedule, you can have the right expectations about what types of content are important and how you want them to be perceived. If you roll out a poor-quality piece aligned with how you portray the company, your reputation will suffer.
Never share a theory without practice.
Nothing is more frustrating than investing time into reading a book or an article only to read “this is just my opinion” at the conclusion of the article. If you are using your influence to be a thought leader and publicize your ideas, you should not share theories without practice. Insight is generally more valuable and people respond differently when they read insights versus opinions. They are open to insights because they are backed with data, whereas opinions are usually considered subjective and are attacked if they don’t align with the reader's beliefs.
Align your content with your leadership purpose.
We all want to create content that stands out. This may seem like a simple task, but when starting out it can be hard to know what to focus on first. Anyone can share content; creating content that stands out and garners attention is a different matter. Whether it’s blog posts, emails, infographics, webinars, or videos—the first step is to determine your purpose. This will help you decide what mediums you should use and how to create content that provides value to your audience.
Do not sell yourself too hard.
The biggest mistake you can make is to come across as sales-y. People follow thought leaders because they expect them to be an expert. When you try to sell yourself as the thought leader, it will not work. Instead, position yourself as a thought leader by providing the people in your niche with valuable information through blog posts and webinars. Through this, in time, readers will start trusting you more and following you. Then you can introduce yourself more as an expert.
Share your personal failures with your audience.
It's not easy to talk about failure. Lots of people are scared to share their mistakes not because they can’t handle the backlash, but because they may think they lack credibility. We do not judge leaders based on how fast they fail. Instead, we evaluate and judge leaders based on how well they recover from failure. In fact, authentic, humanized leaders benefit from sharing failures. People can see them as compassionate and humble.
Strive to be yourself—not someone or something you are not.
You can be a thought leader, a great speaker, or an excellent writer, but if you are not authentic no one will want to listen to you. Being yourself as a thought leader might not be something that you typically think of, but instead of creating the impression that you are a know-it-all who knows everything about the subject, it's much better to be yourself. Once you figure out who you are as a leader, you will naturally draw in followers and readers. It’s how you build your tribe and establish meaningful relationships with others.