Is thought leadership right for you?

Whether you're working in-house or client side, thought leadership has become an established way for businesses to carve out a distinct identity, foster trust and engage audiences. But is it the right time for your business to invest in thought leadership? And if it is, what pitfalls should we as communications professionals avoid? 

Here’s why you might pursue a thought leadership approach - and how to do it effectively. 

The significance of thought leadership 

Thought leadership is no longer merely a buzzword. For businesses looking to establish credibility and drive engagement, it’s now a well-trodden path. Here’s some of the justifications you might have heard for investing in thought leadership: 

• Prove your expertise: Thought leadership provides an opportunity to showcase the depth of expertise and topical proficiency within your business. 
   
• Build trust: Trust is key for establishing and maintaining relationships with your customers. And people are more likely to trust people than faceless corporate content. 
   
• Elevate your brand: By humanising the brand and bringing the individuals behind it to life, thought leadership can elevate your business and differentiate it from competitors. 

Working out whether thought leadership works for you 

Though there are clear benefits to these strategies, they are merely one of many tools in the communications toolbox. Before getting swept up in the buzz, do some critical evaluation. 

• Remind yourself of your goals: Not just your communications goals, but the fundamental goals of your business. Thought leadership initiatives should align with broader strategic objectives to ensure relevance and impact - and to ensure that you are fulfilling the business’s most pressing communications needs. 
   
• Identify the obstacles to your goals: What’s holding your business back from achieving its goals? Is there a clear pathway from a thought leadership strategy to those obstacles being overcome? 
   
• Exploring alternative approaches: Ask yourself what you might do if you weren’t pursuing thought leadership work. Recognising that this tactic may not be the most effective avenue can help you unearth some powerful ideas - even if you do end up going with a thought leadership project. 

Work with leadership to avoid this one common mistake 

Remember that effective thought leadership requires collaboration between the communications function and organisational leaders. It’s not enough to rely on your key messages - you need to humanise them by leveraging real insights from company leadership. 

• Start by forgetting what you know: Part of our job is to understand company strategy, shape and consistently reflect effective messages, and keep our asks from company leadership to a minimum. But for now, put that in a box and... 
   
• Talk to your leaders! Understanding leadership perspectives can only happen with a conversation. Engage your organisation’s leaders, ask them about the business’s goals and challenges and build a better understanding of their perspectives. 
   
• Capture personal narratives: Yes, you’ve probably worked hard on corporate messaging, but what personal stories can your leadership add to the mix? Remember that those anecdotes are your key to humanising the brand. They’ll add meat to the bones of the overall company messaging and make your thought leadership efforts truly impactful. 

Thought leadership is a strategic tool for businesses to establish credibility, build trust and differentiate themselves in a competitive market. But to drive meaningful engagement and secure business growth, communications professionals need to carefully align our thought leadership initiatives with strategic objectives. 

The only way to do that well is to take the time needed to collaborate with organisational leaders. After all, what’s a thought leadership campaign without a solid understanding of what your business leaders think? 

Joe Peach is the senior brand and communications manager at Prolific, a data provider for industry researchers, academia and technologists training artificial intelligence models.