Peter Drucker, the first modern thought leader for careers and business, was a slow, thoughtful speaker with the ability to occasionally toss in crisp, memorable zingers before the term sound bites was a popular notion. But he was followed by a wave of consultants and motivational speakers – Tom Peters, Michael Hammer and Tony Robbins among them – who were known for their bombastic, spellbinding styles and entrenched our notion of what a thought leader should be.
New Zealand consultant and thought leader Christina Wedgwood challenges the notion, however, that you must be bold and brassy to be able to share good ideas and make things better, be it within your own organization or the world at large.
“While there’s no doubt that slick marketing can be convincing, and that performative shows work well to connect with audiences, you don’t have to bend yourself to fit the mould. Your authentic, self-aligned brand of thought leadership will allow you to show up in a sustainable and empowered way,” she writes in Better: A more authentic path for the reluctant thought leader.
Success is not about extroversion or introversion. Presence and charisma is part of the deal but more complicated than we think. Communication skills are, of course, necessary. But the most important element is probably authenticity. If you have good ideas and are authentic – and willing to move past your internal critic suggesting you are an imposter – you can engage and excite others.
We will all benefit from expanding our notion of who can be a thought leader. Currently, she notes, we are hurt by being susceptible to charismatic and enchanting people who excel at selling a vision but who may be incompetent, lack purpose or not be well-meaning. “Putting on a good show distracts us, for a while at least, from the fact that we’ve been had,” she says.
At the core, thought leaders simply need a clear conviction that something could be better, a commitment to working toward making things better and a genuine and generous desire to help others move forward. She highlights four qualities for achieving that: A willingness to embrace complexity; acknowledge uncertainty; be non-threatening, inclusive and collaborative; and rather than being fixed, be willing to continually evolve and improve.
Simplification is sometimes necessary for the audience to be able to understand a complex world. But she warns that when it comes to ideas, simplification can sometimes go too far: “We lose something when we simplify thinking down to within an inch of its life. We lose the nuance, the light and shade.” We also lose some of the truth. We therefore need to stop the downward spiral of simplification in our world. “We need more of you to lead the charge – and put forward arguments that consider multiple angles and different perspectives,” says Ms. Wedgwood.
She calls on thought leaders to identify and resist oversimplification in the information they are consuming and in the patterns of their own thinking. Identify what you would be inclined to believe on a topic and then, vitally, how you can move past such comfortable thinking. Notice when you have adopted a position too easily. Look beyond the obvious, digging deeper. But still keep in mind as your thinking becomes complicated that you must crystallize it into something workable.
As you share, acknowledge uncertainty. That’s more realistic to an audience. It also invites people to engage and share. Ask questions. You can all learn together. “It’s possible to increase the effectiveness of your position, and increase your persuasive power, by coming at things less forcefully,” she says. Collaboration is vital. And ideas and thinking – above all for thought leaders – must continually evolve.
So must our notion of what a thought leader is and who is capable of assuming that role. A broader canvas allows us to paint a more comprehensive picture.
Quick hits
- A survey found 14 per cent of Americans counter procrastination by imagining they are on a game show.
- The most effective negotiation tactic, according to a study by artificial intelligence of various behaviours in hundreds of hours of negotiation recordings, is to ask open-ended questions. They prompt responses that are roughly twice as long and twice as informative as close-ended questions or non-question statements.
- Author Mark Manson packs a lot in these crisp statements: “Beliefs are theories. Actions are experiments. Emotions are feedback. Life is a science and its objective is growth.”
Harvey Schachter is a Kingston-based writer specializing in management issues. He, along with Sheelagh Whittaker, former CEO of both EDS Canada and Cancom, are the authors of When Harvey Didn’t Meet Sheelagh: Emails on Leadership.