It’s #ThoughtLeadership Thursday here at Mindjet HQ once again. This week: learning from the late Nelson Mandela, developing thought leadership with LinkedIn, and defining the difference between thought leaders and experts.
What Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Nelson Mandela: Reflections on Thought Leadership
From Huffington Post:
Mandela’s activism planted the seeds for what is now known as social entrepreneurship. This movement is growing rapidly because people are increasingly hungry to reclaim their humanity and bring out the best in themselves and others. It begins with an idea that gains momentum, spurs key “chess players” to make a move, and subsequently change the face of history…Thought leadership is not only a digital marketing tactic and CEO’s strategy to provide a bird’s-eye view into company culture. It is not only a way for writers/authors to get on a soapbox, to stand out and showcase their genius (or lack thereof) but, when done right, thought leadership can enhance one’s balancing of humanity vs. technology, nourish one’s cerebral thought processes with one’s emotional attunement, and propel a person’s career trajectory. This is especially true of entrepreneurship today.
An entrepreneur has real impact when displaying both architectural prowess (planning) and eloquent artistry (execution and storytelling), sensitivity, and grace. All are needed to propel one’s balance of humanity with technology and intellectual honesty with emotional attunement. Both are needed for successful entrepreneurs to solve real problems, and incidentally profit from creative disruptive innovation.
LinkedIn Top Contributors: New Alternative for Developing Thought Leadership
From Social Media Today:
Everyone wants to be a thought leader in their industry and social media allows people to do that through tools like Quora, Twitter, and others. Remember LinkedIn Answers? It used to allow you to tout yourself as an expert by giving advice to questions posed by others. If your answer got voted as the “best answer” you got this nebulous recognition of being credible. However, LinkedIn Answers got retired last year with a few other features as LinkedIn cleaned up its portfolio, look and feel, prior to going public. Yet, LinkedIn continues to make small enhancements that keep making it a better tool for professionals and this one is no exception.
Thought Leader or Expert? You Decide!
From Thought Leadership Lab:
“One accounting firm in San Francisco tracked the source of business they completed over a year and discovered that every piece of business – from existing clients or new clients – could be traced back to a contact between that client and someone in the firm in the 10 days prior to the accounting engagement. This might have been a client running into a partner at a golf game, cocktail event or industry function; a client attending a program where someone from the firm was speaking; or the client reading about the firm in the paper or seeing an ad they placed. It could also be one of the firm’s employee calling on the existing client to check in. It wasn’t really important which form the contact took – what was key was how recent it had been. Only when you are top of mind will your expertise pay off.
What are you doing to stay top of mind this year?
The post Thursday #ThoughtLeadership Roundup: Mandela’s Legacy, LinkedIn Leaders, and the Expertise Differential appeared first on Conspire: A @Mindjet Publication.