The Value of Thought Leadership in a Noisy World

12 things humans (still) bring to the table

[The heart of this article was first published in 2011 in The Wealthy Thought Leader Playbook: Securing the Future of Our Income Streams, and has been updated for republication.]

As human beings evolve alongside non-human intelligence, so do our needs and desires.

One of the newer desires I notice is to be more clear about how we – humans – add value in the world. That may seem like a rather dull desire at first, but in the context of A.I., it takes on some urgency.

What previous generations found valuable is different from what we find valuable today. For example, we’ve valued speed and accumulating more things for a long time. When I think about the poverty my parents and grandparents grew up with, it makes a lot of sense, and I can’t blame them for accumulating, or even hoarding, material things. But for those who never wanted for material goods, studies increasingly show the opposite. (See: Generation Z’s perceptions of a good life beyond consumerism.) I like to say “we’re paying more and more for less and less, and one day we’ll give everything we have for some nothing.”

Yes, it’s tongue in cheek, but also true. Look for “no gluten, no eggs, no dairy” and you have a certain expectation for the price you’ll pay, right? (A lot, for those who’ve never looked.) Or, research a peaceful retreat where there are no-kid pools, no connectivity and no outside world to intrude. That nothing is going to cost you a whole lot. Or consider new forms of digital minimalism—where people pay to be device-free or retreat into real-world-only spaces, just to remember what unfiltered time feels like.

In fact, saying “less is more” is not cutting it anymore. In my view, it’s time to uplevel and say “more is less.”

In the work I do with thought leaders, the rise of new technology is a common topic. These are people I admire, the ones who want to positively shape the world, no matter what the head winds are. To me, thought leadership is the pinnacle of what being human means and therefore what we need more of.

Using our imaginations to dream of a better world, thought leaders listen to the people we hope to help and from that dialog emerges more dialog, and better ideas. When we do this interacting, we’re doing what Yuval Harari describes as the fundamental, if not only, characteristic that makes humans different from any other organic being – “the ability to cooperate flexibly in large numbers.” Stepping into thought leadership has always been an imagination game.

Thought leaders are the engines of the economy as we know it – heck, even the economy as we know it is the work of thought leaders imagining things. Here are some common and uncommon ways thought leaders add value to the people they’re in dialog with:

1. Expertise
   You know something and you share it with people who don’t know what you know yet.

2. Synthesis
   You connect dots. You think thoroughly or in a different way about something and that brings new insight. I think of this as applied expertise, or expertise with vision.

3. Productivity
   You have the ability to get something done. For example, help writing speeches or books, such as I do. Or hire and train team members. Create appealing websites, etc.

4. Experience
   You’ve lived through something that others haven’t.

5. Relationships
   Maybe you don’t have a lot of the above items, but you have a great network of people who would take your call. There’s a lot of value in that.

6. Persuasion
   You have the ability to suggest ideas, to change a person’s mind or influence others.

7. Leadership
   You see things that other people don’t, and you’re able to show other people the path towards that vision.

8. Skills
   A thought leader may have tangible nuts and bolts skills.

9. Attention
   The capacity and determination to pay attention to something, spending time focused, can be of great value to the world, especially when done in depth.

10. Pleasure
    Demonstrating that there is enjoyment and pleasure to be had in something can make an ordinary journey completely different. That’s value as well.

11. Accountability
    Value also gets added when a thought leader creates a container that helps people get things done.

12. Status
    Maybe you bring credibility to a project, even if you don’t do hands-on work. A name can help a project get the green light, and when you don’t have that name, making progress can be very difficult.

Try this thought experiment

In other words, there are a lot of ways to add value in the world, beyond being productive or busy. Try on a little thought experiment and ask yourself:

“How and where am I already adding value? And what new ways can I add to the mix?”

Or, if this idea is new to you, think about someone you work with. What value does that person add to your life? Check the list above and try to be precise about how value shows up because this person is around. Then reverse the question: “What value from the list do you add to their life?”

Adding value doesn’t always look like 'doing more'—especially now that 'more' is so easily delivered by technology. In fact:

Human discernment not only endures but becomes even more valuable in a world saturated with automated output.

Part of enduring and succeeding as a thought leader is finding joy in adding value to others. In fact, I think finding new ways to add value is one of the best parts of the thought leader’s job.

Do you think thought leadership is more or less valuable today, or is it becoming less relevant?

Photo by Delaram Bayat on Unsplash