Thought Leadership: Creative Skills to Become Valued as an Expert

Does your organization focus on thought leadership … with a creative thinker or maybe two? Or do you rely on thought leadership outside your organization? We often wonder what creative skills are required to become a valued thought leader.

That will be the question this post seeks to answer.

The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get the old ones out.

Dee Hock

A thought leader is a person or entity that is recognized by peers for having progressive and innovative ideas.

Successful thought leaders have proven themselves in the business, academic or political sphere through successful implementation of their ideas.

Thought leaders usually demonstrate thinking that is directional in nature or offers clarity to ambiguous perceptions.

Thought leaders frequently present contrarian views or radical interpretations of situations which can build a considerable following for their commentary.

Thought leaders are by nature mentors and are sought-after strategists.

To Michael Brenner at Forbes, Thought Leadership is simply about becoming an authority on relevant topics by delivering the answers to the biggest questions on the minds of your target audience.

We like the simplicity of this definition.

So here are the creative thinking skills we believe are most critical to becoming a valued thought

leader:

Be great at understanding your target audience.

Identify all the questions your audience are concerned about and understand their concern priorities and interrelationships.

Answer those concerns across multiple formats and multiple channels in a way that adds value to your audience. Start with the most important concerns and work your way down the list.

You must “Give to Getting”  so do not promote or put registration hurdles in front of your content.

Thought leadership … be adept at incorporating both logic and emotion into their thinking 

While there’s often an organizational premium placed on left brain thinking – the quantitative, analytical, logical processing that moves toward definitive answers – the best creative thinkers are skilled at using both a left brain and right brain integration.

Right brain thinking incorporates a qualitative, connecting, and more abstract view of market threats and opportunities.

Rarely do important questions get answered succeed or fail solely through analytical and logic-based analysis.

Continually questioning both the familiar and the new 

Many people are fine questioning what they don’t agree with. As a result, you have people clamoring for change who are excited to question everything about the status quo.

People who are completely comfortable with just the way things are right now suddenly discover their questioning when the possibility of dramatic change rears its head.

The best thought leaders are skillful at questioning yesterday, today, tomorrow, and everything in the future.

Additionally, the more they explore future options, the more new questions they generate.

The creative thinking skills of the best thought leaders are about exploration … imagination and curiosity.

Comfortable thinking beyond thought leadership strategy 

The best thought leaders can free themselves from today to consider multiple possibilities for how their audience’s questions may play out in the future.

When trying to view a current situation dramatically differently, people need to be able to think in ways that have only loose connections to what today looks like.

This makes many people uncomfortable with their standard ways of thinking.

A creative thought leader is fine with that type of thinking.

Develop thought leadership examples

We are big believers in curiosity and imagination. They contribute heavily to creative minds.

We’re first curious about something, and it’s that curiosity that drives us to create.

Try to think of inventors who created something without first being curious or imaginative.

Difficult isn’t it?

There was a study done recently wherein jazz musicians’ brains were monitored while they were improvising during gigs.

Long, boring, tedious, academic story short — these musicians’ brains had essentially learned to “turn off” that little thing in there that tells you that this won’t work or will fail.

So without that stopping them, their imagination thrived, and you’ve heard many of the amazing results.

Observing

Carefully watch things around you to help gain insights into, and ideas for, new ways of doing things. Pay particular attention to areas outside your natural areas of interest.

That worked for Paul, who gained his insights from his own efforts.

Open to not answering or resolving every issue 

While successful executives are largely rewarded for moving things to a successful resolution – and that’s vital for business performance – effective thought leaders have to be able to moderate any tendencies to resolve strategic issues prematurely.

It’s imperative for organizations to be nimble enough to adapt to changing conditions.

That means it can be important to leave certain options open for future consideration.

An adept thought leader isn’t rattled by that possibility.

Open to valuable perspectives from multiple sources 

Some elements of creative thinking skills are certainly enhanced by seniority.

Importantly, though, great thinking is about the right combination of three diverse perspectives: front-line subject experience, broad functional knowledge, and creative energy.

These three mindsets are important because each will process and develop perspectives in different ways.

Any of these groups, working by themselves, will create a thinking direction lacking in some essential way.

Working together, there’s the potential for game-changing moves.

Some people have one of these perspectives; others have two or all three.

No matter how many ones has, the more open someone is to consider perspectives he or she doesn’t possess, the stronger their creative thinking skills.

Create without thinking

This is maybe my favorite lesson on creativity. Create the things that delight you, entertain you, and motivate you. Whatever you create let it be something you love.

Create something that you enjoy, not something you’re under contract to make or something you think others would find pretty cool.

For one, you may lose the motivation to finish it if things don’t go your way.

But more importantly, there’s power in creating from a place of love and enjoyment.

Your finished product will absolutely reflect the joy and happiness you put into it.

Spend daily downtime daydreaming

Creative types know that daydreaming is anything but a waste of their time.  While structured routines are important for the actual process of creating, our minds need downtime filled with the freedom to wander.

Neuroscientists have found that daydreaming involves the same brain processes associated with imagination and creative thinking.

According to psychologist Rebecca L. McMillan, who recently co-authored a research paper titled Ode To Positive Constructive Daydreaming, daydreaming can aid in the “creative incubation” of ideas and solutions to complex problems.

Summary

Don’t fall prey to the myth that only some people are creative and you’re people are not of the chosen few.

We are all creative; it’s just a matter of figuring out in what way.

So find things you’re curious about and are interesting to you, use your imagination a little, stay motivated and work at it, and surround yourself with others who are doing the same.

There are people in nearly every career field who make each day a work of art simply by the way they have mastered their craft.

In other words, almost everyone is an artist in some way.

The important thing is to not let your self-judgment keep you from doing your thing and sharing your creative gift with the world.

Remember … a great thought leader is always curious and keeps refreshing his sources. He knows the problem is almost never the problem.

The problem is invariably the response to the problem.

What are some of your experiences with thought leaders that your business relies on?

Please share an experience with this community.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy continually improve your continuous learning?

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change.  We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. 

More reading on learning from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:

9 Things to Know About Creative Visual Design Content

8 Presenter Mistakes That Are Rarely Made Twice

Know These Great Secrets of Collaboration and Co-Creation

How Good Is Your Learning from Failure?

Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.