Spin #4 : Thought leadership

Deadly spin #4:

You should be a thought leader.

You’re the E.F. Hutton of leaders. When you talk, people listen. Why? Because you always have something to stay that’s important and interesting. You have decades of experience. Loads of charisma. And a unique view on what’s happening, why and what’s next.

So let’s leverage all of that and make you a thought leader.

We’ll build your thought leadership strategy around a hot button issue, worthy cause, big idea or trending topic that you care about. Ideally, it’s an issue or idea that lines up with the mission and vision of our organization and there are lots of people who care as much as you.

Drawing a blank? Not sure what cause to champion? No worries. There’s no shortage of topics to choose from. There’s climate change and sustainability. Practicing corporate social responsibility. Standing up for social justice. Paying a living wage. Building a welcoming and inclusive workplace. Or a workplace that’s free of harassment and sexual violence. Closing the wealth gap and having equal pay for equal work. Rethinking jobs and reinventing the workplace in a post-pandemic world. Winning the war for talent. Being an agile, resilient, innovative or entrepreneurial organization. Using tech for good. Protecting privacy. Earning and restoring trust. Finding common ground and uniting a divided world. Becoming a thought leader checks two boxes at once –it’ll raise your profile and the profile of our organization. Being bold and taking a public stand on an issue that matters will help you, and us, stand out from the crowd and win hearts and minds. Doing good is good for business. Even better is taking a stand that shows up our biggest competitor who’s doing the opposite, doing nothing and will struggle to follow our lead.

And you being recognized as a thought leader is sure to impress employees. Your thought leadership will be yet another reason for us to be proud to work for this organization and follow your lead. Everyone wants to be part of a winning team that’s on the right side of history.

Yes, becoming a thought leader takes work and won’t happen overnight. We’re ready and willing to help. We’ll draft your speeches, op-eds and guest columns. We’ll line up speaking engagements and get you a TED Talk. We’ll tee up media coverage and send you into interviews fully prepped with soundbites that capture the zeitgeist. We’ll nominate you for awards so you’ll be billed as award-winning thought leader. We’ll hire a ghostwriter and land you a book deal so you’ll be an award-winning thought leader who’s an author. We’ll make you a bestselling author by buying a book for every employee. It’ll be the perfect gift.

Be honest. Who are you promoting? Us or you? What’s your motivation for barnstorming conferences, summits and retreats and meeting the press? Are you advancing the strategic priorities of our organization? Or is this an audition for a better job and bigger paycheque? Or a testdrive for a pre-retirement career change as a consultant, author and professional speaker? Maybe you’ve rewarded, tolerated or ignored the misdeeds of someone on your team or in our organization, a supplier, contractor or key customer. You’re a champion of a welcoming and inclusive workplace yet there’s zero diversity on your executive team and the golden parachute you gave to a senior leader who’d been harassing women for the past decade. Here’s a thought for your next talk –people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

You’re a thought leader who’s MIA here at work. Big decisions are being put on hold in your absence. We’re waiting on your signature and blessing. Meetings are being scrubbed and pushed months out because of your limited availability.

It’s bad when you’re not around yet worse when you get back. You return with a head full of ideas and an armful of books courtesy of the thought leaders you’ve wined and dined with at conferences. And on your way through the airport, you pick up the latest Harvard Business Review and skim the articles on your flight home.

Like a lousy boxer, you’re leading with your chin. When the punches come, all of us will feel the pain. In less time than it takes you to deliver your TED Talk, someone will dig up proof that you’re a hypocrite.

Maybe it’s something you’ve said or done recently or in the distant past. Our reputation could also take a beating because of what you haven’t said or done. It’s a bad sign that none of us at work can ever remember you publicly or privately talking about what you’re now pontificating about from podiums and in opinion pages. What’s worse, you’ve never reached out to the people who’ve dedicated their careers to the cause you’re championing. This makes you, and us, seem opportunistic. We’re going to get called out for virtue signaling, greenwashing or something worse.

Or maybe you’re passing yourself off as a resident expert when everyone knows, or will quickly realize, you’re clueless. You have no idea what you’re talking about. You’re all hat, no cattle. Again, not a good look for you or us.

And for the record, no one wants your book. We’re never going to read it. We’re not going to regift your book to family or friends. That would be cruel. We’ll either dump your book in the recycling bin or drop it off at our local thrift shop.

Instead of writing a book, how about reading a story. There’s a lesson to be learned from Hans Christian Andersen’s The Emperor’s New Clothes. Here’s an excerpt.

“But he hasn’t got anything on,” a little child said.

“Did you ever hear such innocent prattle?” said its father. And one person whispered to another what the child had said, “He hasn’t anything on. A child says he hasn’t anything on.”

“But he hasn’t got anything on!” the whole town cried out at last.

“The Emperor shivered, for he suspected they were right. But he thought, “This procession has got to go on.” So he walked more proudly than ever, as his noblemen held high the train that wasn’t there at all.”

What you can do instead

Listen to Bill Gates. “The world is not exactly lacking in rich men with big ideas about what other people should do or who think technology can fix any problem.”

Unfortunately for Bill, he ignored his own advice. One of the world’s richest men went ahead and wrote a book telling the rest of us how to avoid a climate disaster, with a major assist from world-saving technology. That sentence about rich men with big ideas is lifted from his book –it was a brief and fleeting moment of self-awareness. Bill led with his chin. And then came the punches.

Here’s the lede from a column about Bill’s book courtesy of Tom Peck with The Independent in the UK. “Bill Gates appears to think he is the hypocrite the world needs. He’s got big ideas about how to tackleclimate change(or rather, he’s gota book outcontaining other people’s big ideas about how to tackle climate change), but he’s also not going to stop eating hamburgers or flying by private jet.”

The hits kept coming.

Here’s Jason Murdock reporting in Newsweek. “Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates defended owning a private jet while warning about the dangers of failing to reduce carbon emissions.”

A story in The Sun starts with “Billionaire eco-warrior Bill Gates told Brits to give up their cars today –while admitting he still uses a private jet.”

The Nation’s Tim Schwab wrote “the billionaire’s new book, a bid to be taken seriously as a climate campaigner, has attracted the usual worshipful coverage. When will the media realize that with Gates you have to follow the money? It seems likely he will continue to take up oxygen in the climate discourse going forward.

“If so,” continues Tim, ” he proceeds from a precarious position, not just because of his thin credentials, untested solutions, and stunning financial conflicts of interest, but because his undemocratic assertion of power—no one appointed or elected him as the world’s new climate czar—comes at precisely the time when democratic institutions have become essential to solving climate change.”

David Thorpe, writing for the Fifth Estate, made it personal. “Bill and Melinda Gates’ home in Medina, Washington, which cost over $60 million to build, covers more than 6100 square metres of floor space and contains $80,000 worth of computer screens, garages for 23 cars, a home theatre for 20 guests, six kitchens, and 24 bathrooms. Gates reportedly pays to have sand imported from St Lucia in the Caribbean to the shore surrounding it. He has plenty of other homes too, including a vacation ranch in Wellington, Florida, and the 28-acre Rancho Paseana, California, not to mention strings of hotels, three private jets, and a collection of expensive cars.”

If those takedowns can happen to Bill, they’ll happen to you.

So what should you do? Be honest with yourself and your PR team. For thought leadership to work, it takes a sustained effort over many, many months. It’s not a one and done speech and op-ed. Do you really have the time, energy, drive and desire that thought leadership demands?

Your PR team was ready and willing to put in a ton of work on your behalf. Have them shift their focus to pitching journalists and creating in-house content. Make it clear that you don’t want to be the centre of attention.

Instead, amplify other voices within your organization and in our community. Rather than telling us what to think, recommend who we should listen to. Put the spotlight on the people with deep expertise and lived experience, who’ve dedicated their careers to driving real change on issues that matter.

Remember, great leaders redirect rather than seek the spotlight. Sure, you could own the stage for 15 minutes of fame and hopefully escape with your reputation intact. Or you could show some humility, cede the stage and let your actions speak louder than any thoughts that you and your PR team could dream up.

Don’t call yourself a thought leader. Don’t let your PR team brand you as one. Arrogance isn’t a classy look.