All executive thought leadership is not created equal. That’s the nature of all work: Some is better and some is worse. So, when an executive writer meets with an executive how do the two ensure the work they produce is as strong as possible?
While there’s no clear, one-size-fits all answer to that question, there are several important points to hit that are non-negotiable.
Prioritize Relevance
What I mean here is go hyper specific. The executive for whom you are writing has a niche, highly-specific set of skills and experience. Ideally the content you create will leverage those unique skills while simultaneously hitting on a timely trend or current challenge within the repsective executive’s industry.
The point here is to identify the relevant area of thought leadership your particular executive wants to create interest around. It has to be something that the executive has deep insight into. That is priority one. If that area of thought leadership also happens to be a timely trend or a current challenge, that much more the better.
Establish a Strong Opinion and Point of View
The point of thought leadership is being at the vanguard of a particular issue. There’s a lot of opportunity in being first. The more opinionated and earlier an executive gets their name out in connection with to a trend or challenge, the better.
Thought leadership is about being bold and being bold early. Executives have a responsibility to drive growth in their organizations in as many ways as possible. The opportunity in establishing oneself as the preeminent thinker in relation to a current trend or industry challenge is substantial. That means taking an opinionated stand and communicating a strong point of view.
We live in a polarized, politicized world. Whether you like it or not, there’s a lot of money to be made by being visibly aligned with any given power. Executives that leverage the power of their own thoughts in a public manner give themselves and their organizations a massive advantage.
Strategic Purpose
Hopefully this gets the point across that executive thought leadership pieces are created with a strategic purpose. That purpose is essentially hyper-focused marketing done for the most visible member of an organization. A member who makes strategic connections not at random, but again, with logically devised intent.
The impact can be tremendous.