Are you a Thought leader or a Philosopher?
It’s hard to lead when you don’t take action or dont know where you want to go, and it is impossible without continuously sharing your ideas.
Leader, Philosopher, Thought leader.
Leader: To me, is moving first in a new direction and creating the intention in other people to follow us. Usually, those people are needed/functional to achieve our goal.
A leader needs the willingness to go first and the abilities to have other people choosing to follow her.
Philosopher: could be a person who gives views, assumptions, or theories about profound questions as ethics, metaphysics, logic, or the meaning of life. A philosopher creates systems, models, or ways of thinking that describes “reality.” Thinking about what a human being does, is and what collectively that means.
Thinking without leading or Leading with not thinking, won’t move others far.
By only thinking deep thoughts, no matter how visionary or inspired you are, there is little or no impact. Great ideas or inventions that never see the light of implementation are just good intentions; what is the value of something that never takes form, and nobody ever gets to know or benefit from it?.
Also, leaders can have great ideas and be top-notch in their industry, but true thought leaders dare to express their ideas and inspire others to implement them.”
Thought leader
A thought leader needs to do 2 things: Think and Lead.
- Think: Acquire learnings, insights, experiences (from others and his own). Think in ways no-one else has yet considered. Process the information, create new meaning, discover additional elements, and synthesize the “thinking.” Enrich the thinking with “You”: It is needed to create your own take and pass the thought through your lenses of how you see the world. Make it universal. There’s to be a universal view, or part of it, for that thinking to empower others.
- Lead: Share, implement, distribute. Putting your thoughts out there to the service of followers. Sharing your thinking, even, and especially, when it scares you. Many corporate leaders expose their views and share they’re wisdom, but frequently is not “Them”, but the voice of “their role.” Leading is a choice, a commitment to go first and keep moving despite and in spite of fear, challenges, or defeat.
A thought leader has developed the means to create value for himself from his thoughts. If there is not value for him, the impact on other peoples’ lives will never be sustainable. And again, ‘just’ a good intention.
Where are you now in your journey? Where would you like to be?
If you are not where you want to be, you need to change something.
Most studies have found that it’s challenging to change poor behavior, instead replacing one behavior for another (more positive one) is more simple and effective:
Reflect where you would like to improve the most as thought leader; in the thinking part, the leading part, somewhere in between them?. Focus on behavior not outcomes .
Now, the following are 5 questions to ask your self, to methodically create better results:
1. What behaviors if changed will yield more impact? (e.g., exposing/sharing more your thoughts with the world)
2. What behavior will I substitute? (e.g., shift in thinking from “ideas are for me” to “sharing thinking I help others and get better at creating ideas myself”)
3. What assistance do I need to help with the change? (e.g., ways to share, how to make it sustainable ($/time/energy) overcoming resistance to share or to think deeper)
4. What metrics will tell me I’m making progress? (e.g., how many people did I contact for sharing? people saw/implemented/ had results or changed mindsets after sharing)
5. What will I do to sustain the change? (e.g., boost motivation, link to my purpose, etc)
Think about something that’s important to you, make it yours, find universalism, share it with people, implement it in your own life, and talk about it. Simple, not easy. And greatly rewarding.