True Thought Leadership Is About Giving Away Meaningful Insights

The term “thought leadership” is one of the most misunderstood concepts in professional service because everyone wants to be one, and few know what it really means. More precisely, everyone wants to be a thought leader without putting the work into it as artificial intelligence, marketing automation and other thinking shortcuts tempt the time-pressed professional.

Everyone wants to be published, speak at prestigious gatherings, or be a guest on influential podcasts that impact the way an industry thinks or behaves. But buying your way onto the podium does not make you a thought leader, nor does having your byline included in a publication’s “advisory council.”

AI cannot make you a thought leader either because it only repeats existing consensus and lacks personal experience, original opinions, and lived judgment. AI reconstitutes what is already on the internet; it cannot invent a fresh point of view or a true breakthrough or question conventional wisdom. AI text may sounds polished, but it relies on clichés, abstractions, excessive em-dashes -- and predictable phrasing that readers easily spot as synthetic. Using AI and other technology crutches too often, will also cause your critical thinking muscles to atrophy.

Randy Shattuck, founder of The Shattuck Group, a management consulting and coaching firm that works closely with mid-size financial advisory firms told me that when he started working with a professional service firm, it had “zero thought leadership.” This meant that for every prospect referred to them, they had to build credibility and create distinction while trying to win their business too. “That was a tall task,” recalled Shattuck, “and their win-results showed it.”

But after committing to producing consistent thought leadership materials Shattuck said everything changed. “The firm’s clients used their thought leadership materials as the starting point of the referral process, often sending the prospect an article from one’s of the firm’s advisors which essentially said: ‘this is why you should work with this advisor’” explained Shattuck. “Their thought leadership built credibility before the advisor ever got a chance to talk to the prospect. Their win-results tripled and fee sensitivity dropped through the floor,” he added.

Your hidden gold mine

Most financial advisory firms are sitting on a gold mine and they don’t know it. According to Shattuck, that gold mine is called the collective wisdom and experience of your top people. Your top people are creden­tialed, qualified and experienced. “That expe­rience gets pressed into service with every new client AFTER they engage,” said Shattuck. “But what if that experience could be pressed into service BEFORE you even talk to a prospect? What if that experience could make you so dis­tinct that prospects know exactly why they should work with you—before you even talk to them? How would that change things for your organization?” asked Shattuck.

Real world example

This is what can happen if you commit to thought leadership and to sharing great ideas. For example, in the early stages of working with an RIA firm, Shattuck collaborated with a top ad­visor on an article titled “The Financial Impact of Divorce.” That article demonstrated why the advisor was a thoughtful and sensitive person. It was not all that well received at first. But over time, Shattuck said that article became one of the most popu­lar in a library of more than 100 articles. Ten years later, that article was still bringing great new prospects to his door. “When they came through that door, they didn’t ask him about his credentials or fees. They got right down to business about what was on their mind, expressing trust in him from the start,” explained Shattuck.

For you and your firm to become recog­nized thought leaders, Shattuck recommends hiring a seasoned expert to guide your efforts, not relying on in-house staff or AI. There are three reasons you should do this”

1. Creating though leadership content requires a bit of time and energy from your top people. You need to see an ROI on that time. Novices probably cannot achieve this for you.

2. The process isn’t intuitive. You don’t want to work with someone who is making up their process on the fly. You need someone who can give you the best results from the least amount of time of your top people.

3. Thought leadership content is ulti­mately a form of persuasive writing and that’s something most CPAs, wealth managers and investment advisors struggle with. “This is its own unique art form and it requires a very different sensibility,” cautioned Shattuck. “Your top people should absolutely be the ones coming up with the ideas for your thought leadership content. But they shouldn’t be tasked with the actual writing,” he noted.

Let a persuasive writing pro handle the heavy lifting and have your top people do the final tweaking and review. Randy’s latest eBook (8 Strategies to Create Distinction for Advisor Firms) has more about ideation and thought leadership content process.

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