Paging a Tidy Haired Thought Leader

[ElyDave]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42791874

Any further interpretation from our resident Tidy Haired Thought Leader? 

[Wowbagger]

Is a Though Leader like a rabbi? 

[ElyDave]

bugger - and you can't change the thread name. 


Perhaps I've invented a whole new discipline - I'm staking my claim now, I want my fair cut.

[C-3PO]

bugger - and you can't change the thread name. 


Perhaps I've invented a whole new discipline - I'm staking my claim now, I want my fair cut.

Indeed not, master, but I can.

[citoyen]

Coincidentally, I was pondering the difference between 'thought leaders' and 'influencers' following the recent story about the Youtuber and the Dublin hotel.

As I understand it, a thought leader is someone with genuine experience and expertise in their field. The term may be new-ish but the job has existed since the days of Socrates. It's perhaps a way for senior people in a given industry to continue to be useful even if they aren't suited to a management role. I can think of plenty of people in my line of work who have effectively been thought leaders long before the term became fashionable. They're more likely to be called 'editorial consultant' or 'creative director' or something along those lines.

An influencer is a self-appointed position and doesn't have the same implication of experience. Generally, the only expertise you need to be an influencer is to be young and good looking. I suspect you don't even need to have tidy hair, or need to be able to draw kittens.

[citoyen]

Also: you know what makes me go eugh? Lazy articles that simply list currently fashionable jargon terms without offering any insight or even possess a scrap of wit.

Just no.

As I believe the kids say.

[Redlight]

In the corporate world, "thought leadership" is often little more than a fancy way of saying "opinion".  The trouble is, too many of the people put forward as masters of thought leadership can offer neither.

Here's a little anecdote...

Several years ago, I was commissioned to write a "thought leadership" piece for the CEO of a global company, to appear in the Financial Times. His PR person had sold in the idea to the FT and the copy was due two weeks later.  He was a busy man, so to solicit his thoughts I got 15 minutes to interview him in the back of his limo as he was driven to a meeting, during which time he also took a couple of phone calls.  It was pretty clear that he had (a) given the topic very little thought at all and (b) had no strong opinions on it.

But a deadline is a deadline so I took what I had, did a bit of on line research, spoke to the PR person to get the "corporate position", and wrote my 800 words.  The position it took was not controversial but it was distinct from that taken by some others in the same sector and well-supported by evidence. It went, via the PR, to the CEO, who said it was spot-on and approved it for publication.

Job done - or so I thought.

Then the PR had cold feet and decided that a few other senior bods in the company should see the piece before it went to the FT. Person A suggested a few changes; person B a few more. Person C disagreed with the conclusion. Person D asked why the piece was being written at all.  And so on.

After numerous re-drafts, the piece that was eventually cleared to be sent to the paper bore no relation to the first version and, more importantly, no trace of the few thoughts that the CEO did have. In fact, it said nothing at all.

Unsurprisingly, the FT rejected it.  But at least I still got paid 

[ian]

I'm intrigued what the initial thread title was (the perils of being on eastern standard time).

Thought leadership is like being a ninja. It's a skill learnt through devoted study in mountain top aeries. Though admittedly there's a lot more business casual than orange robes. Ninja, of course, can kill you by a stealthy strike. Thought leaders, on the other hand, kill your will to live with poorly aspected and crowded 130-slide Powerpoint decks. Less a bullet-pointed synopsis, more the aftermath of an informational spree killing.

Anyway, in my role it's pretty much this – I managed to wheedle my way out of a management role some years ago and wasn't planning on taking a pay cut.

As I understand it, a thought leader is someone with genuine experience and expertise in their field. The term may be new-ish but the job has existed since the days of Socrates. It's perhaps a way for senior people in a given industry to continue to be useful even if they aren't suited to a management role. I can think of plenty of people in my line of work who have effectively been thought leaders long before the term became fashionable. They're more likely to be called 'editorial consultant' or 'creative director' or something along those lines.

Influencers are just people on social media with enough followers that they think they can blag free stuff. You give me a pair of shoes/a copy of your book/a stay at your hotel and you get some exposure. It's all a bit cynical since it's not generally like they're attempting to review any of this stuff or say anything useful, informative, or entertaining about it, it's all a means-to-an-end, you give me stuff and I'll give you views and clicks.

Of course, there is a lot of bullshit in the business world. I regularly read stuff from consultants on the management and marketing side which is words randomly assembled. There's a trend towards trying to look clever mostly to justify that someone has paid a lot of money for a report so expect to get 100 pages for waffle and pie charts. Also the dreaded MBA. I'll be candid, whenever I see those letters loitering after a name, my heart sinks like a torpedoed cruise liner.

And, of course, sometimes I'm just the only person in the building who knows how to connect the projector and select an appropriate display resolution.

[rogerzilla]

A common reason for sacking consultant firms is that they are "not as strong as we would like on thought leadership", i.e. we didn't know what to do so we hired them, and it turns out they don't know either.

[rr]

See also change managers

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