The recipe for appetizing thought leadership

by Peter Schram

Reprint

Let’s face it: most thought leadership is bland, heavy and unappealing. Boiled up in corporate boardrooms and agency sweatshops, thought leadership is generally considered the ‘meat and potatoes’ of the Communicator’s Cook Book.

But while the recipe for your garden-variety thought leadership may be relatively easy to duplicate, most end up with a product that is either too cumbersome to consume or too dry to digest.

There are, however, a few trade secrets that can help professional communicators turn their Hamburger Barn into Le Cordon Bleu: 

Use fresh ingredients: Any cook will tell you that making a great meal is all about the quality of the ingredients. Make sure your main idea or thesis is fresh, new or provocative. This is no time for leftovers.

Watch the calories: When serving up your thought leadership, take every opportunity to trim the fat. Try to get one main idea across and stay single-minded about communicating that message. Remember: there’s nothing wrong with a lean, yet high-impact meal.

Offer a balanced diet: Man cannot live on data alone. Thought leadership demands context and illustration. Always try to include a healthy dose of case studies, diagrams and charts to support your ideas in more creative ways. Much like with meals, side dishes should always be selected based on colour and nutritional value.

Cater to demand: If nobody’s ordering what you’re serving up, you should rethink your menu. Thought leadership has to be relevant to your audience and provide them with some level of value. Know what your audience wants, and focus on delivering it to them on a silver platter.

Feed the brain… and the stomach: Thought leadership is no place for cerebral musings or scholastic theories. To be of any value to your audience, your ideas need to be both achievable and actionable. Always try to offer readers a level of prescriptive advice – without sharing your secret ingredients.

Hire an experienced Sous-Chef: In the end, the quality of thought leadership still largely depends on the experience of the chefs and the recipe they use. To provide a consistently appealing product, make sure that everyone on your team – from the original subject matter expert to the contract writer – are the best people for the job and are fully briefed on the tone, scope and objectives of the project.

Bon appétit!