Thinking in Public

This week, I got a forced nudge out of my current routine. I led a conversation with the Bay Area Content Marketers group about how to find your voice and be a “thought leader” during a global crisis.

Putting together that presentation, with new ideas and new frameworks and new examples, was a surprisingly energizing gift. It reminded me of a lesson I always forget until it smacks me in the face again: Thought leadership is a virtuous cycle. When you force yourself to organize your ideas, put them in writing, and teach someone else, your thoughts crystallize in unexpected ways. Working on my presentation gave me new, immediately useful ideas and helped me push through some sticking points in my client work.

Creating any kind of thought leadership actually helps you think more clearly. That’s because thought leadership is just thinking in public. It’s sharing your thought process and showing your work.

When you think about it in such a simple way, “thought leadership” as a weighty discipline becomes a lot more approachable. What decisions are you making this week? Could you share how you arrived at those decisions? Could you show your work?

In weird, no-headspace, frenetic times, just thinking in public is leadership. Your thought process could inform or inspire others.

And how you do that — the format, the style, and the degree to which you share — depends on who you are as a leader, and what your audience needs from you. In the presentation, I broke down the 3 kinds of thought leaders who are inspiring me right now:

• THE BEACON: A beacon works in public very transparently, shares their decisions in real time, and shines as an example for others.

• THE CURATOR: A curator gathers together people and ideas. They make connections, simplify the noisy, and rally communities.

• THE CHALLENGER: A challenger offers new perspectives and alternate viewpoints. They start conversations and shift mindsets.

For examples of beacons, curators, and challengers, you can watch the 30-minute presentation or just peek at my slides

How could you start thinking in public? Which kind of thought leader do you want to be?