How to Become a Thought Leader Without Having Any Thoughts

Thought leadership is frequently misunderstood as the public expression of useful, original ideas. This unnecessarily raises the barrier to entry. In practice, all you need is a headshot, a publishing schedule and the courage to describe familiar things as a paradigm shift.

Your first task is to choose a subject sufficiently broad that nobody can establish whether you understand it. Leadership, disruption and the future of work are reliable options. “The future of leadership in a disrupted world of work” should comfortably sustain a consultancy.

Convert ordinary life into a framework

Missed a train? Write about timing. Bought a sandwich? Write about customer experience. Lost your keys? Write about the dangers of siloed knowledge. No event is too minor to support an unsolicited business lesson.

Present the lesson in three stages and give it an acronym. The acronym should be memorable enough to print on a slide and vague enough to apply to anything. We recommend ACT: Assess, Consider, Think. In exceptional circumstances, you may do these in a different order.

Make your formatting do the thinking

Open with a short sentence. Follow it with a shorter one. Leave a blank line. The reader should have to scroll three times before encountering a claim that could reasonably be disputed.

Use “Read that again” after the least remarkable sentence. This transfers responsibility for its lack of impact to the reader. End with “Agree?” to encourage engagement from people who are also trying to become thought leaders.

Develop a proprietary position

A strong position is both obvious and mildly oppositional. “People matter more than spreadsheets” performs well, particularly with executives who have just approved a spreadsheet-led reduction in people.

If anyone asks for evidence, explain that you are sharing a perspective, not writing an academic paper. If anyone shares evidence, explain that the world is changing faster than the research.

Monetise the clarity

Once you have repeated the framework enough times, launch a masterclass in which you explain it more slowly. Follow this with a book in which you explain it at greater length. Then give a keynote about how important it is to communicate simply.

By this stage, you may accidentally have a thought. Resist the temptation to publish it immediately. First consider whether it fits the content pillars.