5 Thought Leadership Best Practices to Build Trust
When Rosalind Brewer speaks, people listen.
Brewer’s had quite the career, serving as CEO of Sam’s Club, COO of Starbucks, and CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, a stint that saw her become the third Black female in history to lead a Fortune 500 company.
Behind her success lies a common factor — the ability to cultivate trust with key stakeholders by sharing her authentic voice and vision. In other words: thought leadership.
If you’re looking to connect with your audience on a deeper level and build trusting relationships, thought leadership can help. Read on to learn more about this strategic approach to executive communications — and what you can do to get started on your own thought leadership journey.
What is thought leadership?
Thought leadership is the proactive process of positioning yourself as an expert in your field by regularly sharing original insights, best practices, and industry advice that resonate with your audience. When done correctly, thought leadership builds authority and influence without coming across as salesy.
More and more business leaders are embracing thought leadership because it positions executives as go-to experts in their fields. It’s a way to organically shape the industry conversation — or even drive it.
When done correctly, thought leadership helps executives build brand equity in both themselves and the organizations they lead. This, in turn, leads to more opportunities, more customers, and a healthier bottom line.
Believe it or not, 70% of C-suite leaders agree that thought leadership content has made them reconsider existing supplier relationships!
Thought leadership best practices
Unfortunately, you can’t just decide to flip the proverbial thought leadership switch on and expect great results. In fact, 71% of decision-makers say that over half of thought leadership content they read is more or less a waste of time.
By following these battle-tested best practices, you can increase the chances your thought leadership content rises to the top — opening the floodgates of opportunity.
Best practice #1: Start with a strategic assessment
The first step to becoming a thought leader is conducting a strategic assessment. Before kicking things off, you’ll want to understand your audience, your goals, and whatever opportunities might exist in the market. You’ll also want to take stock of your own strengths and weaknesses, which can help you define your unique point of view — one that helps you stand out from the noise. At this point, creating a personal branding canvas can be particularly helpful.
When Satya Nadella took over as CEO of Microsoft, he spent time assessing the company’s culture and overall direction, as well as the role his public voice could play. Recognizing that the company was somewhat stuck, Nadella branded himself as a tech innovator and ambassador, helping transform the Microsoft’s image in the public eye.
This reimagining of a tech behemoth proved to be successful. Shares of Microsoft are up more than 1,100% since Nadella became CEO in February 2014.
Best practice #2: Pick your lane and stick to it
What are you uniquely qualified to speak about? Where do your passions and expertise converge? What is your unique value proposition that doesn’t apply to anyone else?
After you’ve strategically assessed the lay of the land, it’s time to narrow your focus on a single lane and stay in it.
For example, Mark Cuban can talk about anything — sports, crypto, entertainment, you name it — and, to be fair, sometimes he does. But, the billionaire always returns to the familiar lane of entrepreneurship, startups, and the future of business. His face is synonymous with hard-driving business acumen in large part because he hammers home that theme in everything from his Shark Tank appearances to media interviews and social posts.
The thought leadership and media landscape is incredibly noisy. To cut through the cacophony, you actually have to deliver insight and value
Best practice #3: Invest time in quality content
The thought leadership and media landscape is incredibly noisy. To cut through the cacophony, you actually have to deliver insight and value — which is why there’s no substitute for quality thought leadership content. This can take a wide array of forms — from social posts and op-eds to books and keynote speeches. But to stand out, it’s got to be good.
Though super busy as a general partner of VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, Ben Horowitz still devotes plenty of time to creating next-level content. Not only does he regularly share insights you won’t find anywhere else through his company’s blog, he also wrote a book you might have heard of, The Hard Thing About Hard Things, which aims to help founders navigate complex business problems.
Horowitz’s commitment to producing high-quality thought leadership content has solidified his reputation across Silicon Valley and beyond. It’s a key reason why his firm has been able to forge relationships with brand-name startups like Airbnb, Slack, Instacart, and Robinhood.
Best practice #4: Engage with your audience and build a community
Thought leadership isn’t a one-way street. Yes, to build an audience of targeted, influential followers, you need to publish a steady stream of content. But you also need to invest time engaging with your community and making them feel valued and heard.
To do this, you can respond to comments on social media, participate in online forums and group discussions, say yes when invited to speak on podcasts, and provide free resources like newsletters and white papers.
Or you can follow in the footsteps of Reid Hoffman.
Not only does the founder of LinkedIn regularly engage with thought leadership content on the network, he also hosts his own podcast, Masters of Scale, where he invites founders, authors, and other influential speakers to sit down for conversations.
By responding to his audience on social channels and building a community of high-achieving individuals who share their insights with listeners, Hoffman creates a two-way dialogue that extends beyond his own perspective.
Reid Hoffman engages his audience on social media and grows his community by inviting top-shelf talent on his podcast.
Best practice #5: Measure and optimize
No matter how good you think your thought leadership is, your audience may have other ideas. That’s why it’s important to monitor what’s working and what isn’t. To do this, set clear key performance indicators (KPIs) and measure progress against them. For example, you might want to track engagement rates and followers on social media, leads in your funnel, and media appearances.
As a well-known digital marketing expert, Neil Patel is all about measuring and optimizing his thought leadership efforts. Patel shares marketing thought leadership content across his blog, podcast, YouTube channel, and social accounts — and all of it is data-driven.
Get started with thought leadership today
If you’re looking to grow your personal brand and help your company get to the next level, thought leadership can deliver outsized returns.
But as an executive, you’re already busy. How do you get started on your thought leadership journey while juggling other responsibilities on your plate?
By partnering with a thought leadership agency, you join forces with a team of experts to help create and execute a winning strategy — and continue to hone it over time.
Learn more about getting started with thought leadership that moves the needle.
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