This doesn’t apply to everyone, but be open-minded for a moment, and consider this:

Can you show some thought leadership this year?

Thought leadership is the act of contributing to the intellectual evolution of your professional area or industry.

And being a thought leader is a powerful means of boosting your personal brand, profile and success.

Success? How?

Case in point 1

Take the professional services industry for a second. Consultants. Lawyers. B2B and B2C service providers. And so on. Lots of people competing for the same dollars.

One way of standing out from the crowd and building credibility with your potential and current customers is to offer extra value, before, during and after the sale. Delivering thought pieces is one way to do that.

Case in point 2

Let’s say you work in a company and you are in IT, or finance, or business development, or well, pretty much anywhere. Developing expertise in a relevant, up and coming area and then demonstrating that expertise and knowledge in a tangible way (with finesse of course), can get you profile and open doors into project assignments or job opportunities.

Here are some ideas:

• Write a white paper

• Do a survey and publish the results

• Conduct and write-up an analysis

• Blog on your industry

• Do a podcast

• Pose provocative, future-based questions

• Present to small or large audiences

• Study, research, investigate so that you have the expertise

• ….

Action Item:

• Brainstorm or mind map how you could show some thought leadership this year.