Tweet

Howard Gardner talks about thought leadership and 'good work'

Guest post by: Craig Badings

Article Overview: Howard Gardner is the John H. and Elisabeth A.Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He also holds positions as Adjunct Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and Senior Director of Harvard Project Zero. Among numerous honors, Gardner received a MacArthur Prize Fellowship in 1981. He has received honorary degrees from 26 colleges and universities. In 2005 and again in 2008, he was selected by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines as one of the 100 most influential public intellectuals in the world. The author of 25 books translated into 28 languages, and several hundred articles, Gardner is best known in educational circles for his theory of multiple intelligences.

Howard Gardner talks about thought leadership and 'good work'

1. Howard, in the 1990s you investigated professional ethics, or what you and your colleagues termed 'good work'. Can you explain what 'good work' means for companies today?

"Colleagues and I are still investigating good work. As we now define it, GoodWork is Excellent technically; personally Engaging and meaningful; and carried out in an Ethical manner. We speak of the three Es, and of an intertwined ENA. As psychologists, our work focuses on the individual, but clearly the good work analysis can be extended to corporations as well. Also, when it comes to the treatment of work, I would add a fourth E-that individuals are treated equitably, and that the income and privilege ratio is not skewed too much in favor of senior management."

2. You have worked with many noted and pre-eminent psychologists, neurologists and others, what do you think has made some of them more successful than others in building a public profile and becoming known as a thought leader in their market?

"Two different routes:

1. The outstanding quality of work, I would cite my close colleague Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and his ground breaking work on 'flow' or neuroscientist Giacomo Rizzolati,who discovered 'mirror neurons'
2. The capacity to speak and write for a popular audience, and the willingness to go on television, travel, speak to general audiences, get a joke writer, hair stylist, etc. I'll let you come up with examples. Let me simply say that some scholars who achieve popular acclaim, like paleontologists Stephen Jay Gould or astronomer Carl Sagan, were also great scholars."

3. You have written numerous papers and books. Given your experience, what tips can you give aspiring thought leaders in other industries about what it takes to be recognised as a thought leader?

"Even if you begin as an indirect leader, writing for and addressing primarily scholarly audiences, it is crucial to pay attention to reactions. I have in mind both appropriate criticism of your scholarship AND suggestions about how better to present your materials. My presentations have changed as much, because of the reactions of popular audiences (including my own children) as they have been affected by scholarly colleagues who would never go on television or address a rotary club.

"I would add that there are certain things that I would not do, even if they were to give me more visibility. One of them is to appear on Fox television, which I do not consider to be a worthy outlet."

4. In building your thought leadership position around multiple intelligences, what has been your key differentiating factor/s and has there been one stand out tactic that has helped you achieve this?

"While I never anticipated it, the use of the word 'intelligence'; has been crucial. If I had spoken and written about seven or eight talents, gifts, faculties, my work would not have attracted comparable attention.

"Also, I have found it useful to employ a simple analogy: The standard solitary view of intelligence is like a single all purpose computer, which can work well or poorly; the multiple intelligence view posits a set of relatively independent computers-so, for example, one person might have a good music computer and a poor spatial computer or vice versa, while a second person might have a strong linguistic computer and a poor interpersonal computer, or vice versa,

"Over twenty-five years, I have been able both to deepen my own analysis of this work, and to present it in ways that are easy to understand while not being misleading. Every year I think that I improve both my understanding and my ability to communicate effectively-at least I hope so!"

5. What's your view on sharing content and ideas and from your experience, how far should a thought leader go in sharing this information?

"I don't really understand this question. I don't see why anyone should withhold information, so long as they are confident that what they are saying has some validity.

"When it comes to trade secrets, I suppose that is a different kind of problem. Ideas and thoughts are free and should be treated as such."

6. How would you define thought leadership?

"Thought leaders are individuals who develop ideas that have substance and validity and have some success in communicating these ideas to a relevant wider public. Some thought leaders do it primarily through their writings-see the Csikszentmihalyi and Rizzolati examples above-and others do it through a combination of writing, speaking, blogging, tweeting, etc."

Related Articles
  Lesson #1: Find Something That Gets You Excited
  Lesson #3: Everybody Deserves The Opportunity To Succeed
  Lesson #4: Hold On – It’s Always A Bumpy Ride
  Homeless But Not Hopeless: Millionaire Chris Gardner’s Early Years
  Lesson #2: Make A Commitment To Be The Very Best
  The Pursuit of Happiness: Gardner’s Climb to the Top
  Chris Gardner Pursuit of Happiness
  From Rags to Riches: Gardner Lives the American Dream
  Lesson #5: Don’t Forget Where You Came From
  Multiple dumbnesses
  Chris Gardner Story
  Chris Gardner Book
  Content = thought leadership. Wrong.
  Chris Gardner Stock Broker
  Does product, sales or market leadership equal thought leadership?
  Howard Schultz Bio
  Chris Gardner Bio
  Wake Up and Smell the Coffee
  How Multiple Intelligence Theory Reveals Opportunities for Personal Growth
  The Top 5 Techniques 1980

Article Tags: good work, howard gardner, thought leadership



Related Forum Posts
Re: Defining ones self! - Welcome Howard! In all honesty, from the most successful entrepreneurs that I've met and profiled, most of them don't care about their titles - it's more about building a and a high quality team than it is worrying about what to call yourself. Just some food for thought.
Pitching without getting Poached - Hi Kevin, This is a great question and one I get ALOT! The short answer is a non disclosure agreement with a strict confidentiality clause and non-compete. Sadly, it doesnt always work. I recently hired a copywriter to edit some of my women's leadership work - and now I find out she is speaking on Women's leadership to my own Women's group. Eek! In any case, I'm the expert so I doubt it will go far. You do need to be careful and follow your gut on who to trust and how much information to share. Most people are honourable but you do need to cover your butt. J
Key Components - Two key components for success in network marketing are passion and leadership. As others have said, you have to believe in, or be passionate about, what you are selling. But, just as important, is the development of leadership skills. People want to work with a leader -- someone who can show them the way. So you must take the time to study and become a leader if you want to meet with real success in the network marketing industry.
Bad books - One of my pet peeves: I really, [i:3gjt67s5]really [/i:3gjt67s5]hate those "franchise" books like The __________ For Dummies, or The Idiot's Guide to ______________. The titles offend me, and the way they're written (yes, I have looked at a couple), in a "yes we know you're not a dummy but we'll talk to you like you are, anyway" manner, get on my nerves. So any business books coming out of those franchises.... I never look at. I'm also not too sure about those "gimmick" books - leadership skills of Attila the Hun, or of The Sopranos (how sad that someone actually thought it might be amusing to write a book about the leadership skills of characters in a TV show based on the Mafia...)
Re: Forums Question - Thank God, I thought it was my laptop that was misbehaving. And good work for the upgrading Evan. Keep up the good work


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

ROSI Return on SUNK Investment

Leader's Success Secret: Celebration

Link Pyramids

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.