In Defense of Thought Leadership

Trevor Cook and David Murray skewer the term "thought leadership" on their respective blogs. I agree with both of their arguments to a point. Many people and company's do use the term, "thought leader," in a contrived and meaningless manner. That being said, I completely disagree with the definition of thought leadership as presented by Murray. First of all, thought leaders don't refer to themselves as thought leaders. For the same reason, I think it is silly that many marketers are trying to setup blogs because their bosses told them so. Uh, that's not the point. It's a conversation - a dialog. When I started marketing and selling to executives, a friend gave me this simple advice that's served me my entire career, "just be people with people." In other words, be real, be authentic and put your whole self into what you do. That's the essence of blogging. Okay back on track... So what is a thought leader? A thought leader is a recognized authority in one's field. Elise Bauer wrote an article on InTouch Inc. InTouch is a 50-person company focused on delivering effective lead generation solutions for "the complex sale."