Back to School

Thought leadership is about expertise. Being the smartest person in the room. Being the boss and making sure everyone knows why. Right?

My answer: Not really. At least not the thought leadership I’m interested in. I think the best thought leadership is about learning, growing, stretching, and staying curious.

What I’m learning now

Back-to-school season has me feeling the pull to learn something new. This September, my second grader is learning about place values and number lines. My preschooler is learning new routines and rules. And I found myself Googling continuing ed courses and writing workshops near me.

I’m feeling ready to stretch myself a little bit.

One way I’m experimenting: writing fiction. I have been a creative writer since I was tiny, and used to write poetry and stories all the time…until I graduated college and started working full-time (as, ahem, a writer). And in the years since, I haven’t written for myself much. So this week, I’m trying out a new practice: writing for 15 minutes every day. (I’m using a dog-eared copy of this book of fiction writing exercises that I started in high school. I love seeing which passages my fifteen-year-old self highlighted!)

It’s a slow start, but it’s something, and I have already learned/remembered how hard it is to do something new. My writing is awful. Trying to write dialogue feels forced and canned, like I’m drawing bad sitcom characters with a dull crayon. My ego is taking a rest in the corner. But this experiment has also reminded me that learning something new is an important part of being a happy, interested, interesting adult.

Thought leaders need to keep learning

Here’s where this ties into thought leadership. When people think about “thought leaders,” they think about expertise. People who are at the top of their game. Confident people with healthy egos and plenty to say. And maybe that superficial, not-entirely-positive image of a thought leader is why so many people shirk away from being called a “thought leader.” And if they aren’t one already, they certainly wouldn’t try to become one. (How embarrassing.)

But my lesson in learning can give us a different take. In my view, thought leaders aren’t necessarily the smartest or most important people in the room. They’re the people who are most interested in learning, in what’s working, in experimenting, in trying new things. Interested people are interesting people. Curiosity breeds conversation and connection. If you’re feeling stuck or bored, explore something new. Get interested again.

Thought leadership isn’t about sitting proudly on your perch of collected accomplishments. It’s about using that perch to more clearly understand the long, craggy road that brought you there — and developing a vision of where you want to go next.

What is a thought leader?

My definition of a thought leader makes room for learning, growing, and staying curious:

Thought leaders are people who think in public. They share what they know, how they learned it, and what’s coming next.

Let’s break that down a little bit:

Thought leaders are people who think in public. (<< Thinking implies that you’re still developing your ideas. You might not have all the answers, but you’re interested in finding them. And you’re doing that exploration at least partly in view of others, inviting them into the messy process of learning and understanding together.)

They share what they know,

(your perch of collected achievements and lessons learned)

how they learned it,

(the long, craggy road — potholes and missed turns included)

and what’s coming next.

(your vision for the future, including what you still need to learn – all of which you can see because you’ve traveled the long road to get where you are).

I hope you can make time to learn something new this season – whether you write really bad fiction like me, take a beginner’s tennis class, or just pick up a magazine about an unfamiliar topic.

Let’s keep learning!