Tweet

How can failure and thought leadership go hand in hand?

Guest post by: Craig Badings

Article Overview: The very nature of true thought leadership means that you will fail at some point. If you are leading the conversation, debate, research, commentary in your sector there will always be detractors. Don't let fear of failure hold back your thought leadership campaign.

How can failure and thought leadership go hand in hand?

Failure and thought leadership go hand in hand

Being a thought leader in your sector means that you will fail at some point.

Why? Because you can never satisfy everyone, not everybody will see you as a thought leader and you will always have your detractors. In fact some people and organisations may attack your position outright. That’s the price of being a leader.

Thought leaders aren’t shy, retiring types.

The very nature of thought leadership requires that you put yourself out there. If you want to be seen to be leading or framing the conversations around a topic, if you want people to sit up and take note and think differently about the way they do things, if you want to highlight issues or trends that we have not yet experienced you are opening yourself for criticism at some point with some audience.

Does that mean you have failed as a thought leader? Not at all.

Throughout history some of the greatest thought leaders have been criticised by the media, their competitors, government and other detractors.

Look at some of the great innovators and inventors of our time. Over the centuries they too have been wrong. Consider how many times some inventions or ideas failed before they came to fruition or before they were generally accepted.

Thought leaders require vision, courage and perseverance

The fact of the matter is that the very nature of leadership whether it be thought leadership, innovation or leadership per se requires three key characteristics – vision, courage and perseverance.

It is also precisely why so many large corporations don’t embark on thought leadership campaigns. True thought leadership often falls into the too hard box making it very easy for its detractors in the organisation to explore what could go wrong, how much IP they are going to have to give away and what the immediate return on investment might be.

It is far easier for the marketing department to stick with the tried and tested above the line campaign or PR campaign that disseminates media releases and marketing collateral. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that this stuff is not important to the marketing success of the company, indeed we could all name many a campaign which stands out and that really hit the mark.

However, more and more today the standard marketing and PR campaigns are probably not going to deliver your brand the cut through you need to stand out from the crowd.

If your thought leadership campaign isn’t working what do you do?

If you have a thought leadership campaign currently running and it’s not hitting the mark try some of these tips:

• Get closer to your customers, clients or whoever it is aimed at. Ask them what they like about it, what is most useful, what they don’t like and how it could be improved to truly deliver something of value to them. Far from failure, this should be viewed as a great opportunity to engage with your audience in a really authentic manner, a manner that shows you care

• As a matter of course, like any good marketing campaign does, your thought leadership campaign should be cross checked to make sure it is delivering on your initial objectives. Go back and re-evaluate these and measure them against what it is currently delivering

• Follow in the footsteps of the great inventors and thought leaders of our time. Don’t give up. Tweak your campaign, use the interactions and feedback from your market to adjust your campaign and you will end up with a far stronger thought leadership property than you initially envisioned.

Fear of failure will leave you lagging

If you aren’t prepared to give your thought leadership campaign a go because of the fear of failure you can be sure that you will remain in the marketing trenches doing what everyone else is doing.

I’d love to hear from thought leaders out there who have failed and who have come back better for it with a more robust campaign.

Related Articles
  Content = thought leadership. Wrong.
  How to take your thought leadership campaign to market: One – strategic business imperative
  Does product, sales or market leadership equal thought leadership?
  Rent Billboard Ad Space on a Left-Hand Read
  Leadership = Accepting Failures
  Avoiding sales' seven deadly sins - thought leadership
  Lesson #1: Smart Companies Encourage Smart Failures
  If You Want Customers to Be Happy, Give Them Less Product Information
  How to get more people to like you - it really is stunningly simple!
  Delegation Is About Effective Management
  Leadership for Growth
  Shackled to Our Own Ideas
  The secret questions of successful thought leaders
  Gestures and Hand Signals - What They really Mean
  Three key challenges facing thought leadership
  Why Trying Is Just Failing Without Taking Responsibility
  The impact of thought leadership on your employees
  Proposal and Presentation Tips
  Which Franchise is right for you How do you choose
  The Most Important Rule of Business

Article Tags: being a leader, conversations, detractors, failure, font weight, leadership, nature of thought, nbsp, organisations, rsquo, span style, style font, style text, text decoration, thought leader



Related Forum Posts
To label or not to label? - I just received (hot off the press) our companies first advertising post cards. I have about 35 businesses who are not yet clients with us, that I'd like to send them to advertising what we do. Should I print up address labels for each one or should I hand write them out (I have a very neat handwriting). On one hand, printed is neater anyway and looks more professional on the other hand, handwriting them shows I put personal time and effort into each one and so they may notice it more. What do you all think?
Re: Ridiculous Ideas That Made Millions - Hi GT I think it must have been similar to the stuff that is sold to kids today called Slime. It come packed in a plastic container and you can squeeze it & change it from hand to hand & it doesn't stick. MichelleJ
Re: Quote of the Day - "Don't be embarrassed about asking "stupi - One of my favorite requests when leading a class, workshop, lecture, interview, whatever... There are no Stupid Questions, don't be afraid to ask - someone else has the same question, but is afraid to ask On the other hand - try anticipate the questions Back to the first hand - Some People ARE dummer than a ROCK
Postcard marketing campaign - Way to go on getting that deal! 3,000 is too many to hand out at networking events (unless you are a crazy networker!) How about making a partnership with other people who sell to your target market? For example business coaches and other technology vendors. You can also do free seminars on topics that relate to your business and hand out the postcards there.
Re: Re-Branding and Re-tooling - Dear coopadventures.com Sounds like you are on the right track. Websites and advertising go hand in hand. A great website can be built in 20 min. It can be like a great restaurant in the desert with no roads leading to it. A website must get traffic to turn a profit.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Selling On Ebay The Good The Bad And The Ugly

20 MORE Must-Have Search Engine Marketing Tools

Good News Travels Fast

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.