Developing Thought Leadership as a Learning Professional

Do you imagine you need to sit like The Thinker for years to become a thought leader? A review of the literature suggests that there are practical strategies for developing innovative thinking in any field. If you are interested, thought leadership is a skill you can build over time. And if you are working to stand out in the field, thought leadership is one of many paths you can take. (See How to Increase Your Visibility for other ways.)

Defining Thought Leadership

Individual thought leadership has many dimensions. It’s often defined as the ability to generate, share, and promote original and innovative ideas. An important distinction is that thought leadership differs from managing people or leading a team toward a common goal (McCrimmon, 2005).

Thought leaders are strong communicators who share their ideas through writing, speaking, podcasts, videos, and strategic roles. They build trust and credibility over time, often attracting a following of peers who value their insights and seek their input when making key decisions.

Why Consider Thought Leadership?

Thought leadership feels more essential now than ever. In our hyper-connected world, we’re acutely aware of the complex problems around us. Even in our field, challenges seem to emerge more quickly than we can keep up with. We instinctively know that now is the time for fresh ideas rather than stale and recycled ones.

If you can provide valuable insights that will have a positive impact and if you would like to scale your influence, this could be the right time to develop your thought leadership.

Overview of Thought Leadership Strategies

You may think your ideas aren’t fresh or innovative. But with the right strategies and focused effort, you may discover that you’re already generating valuable insights. You just haven’t fully recognized or developed them yet.

I’ve gathered strategies from academic journals, business books, and articles to help you uncover, strengthen, and articulate the ideas that make your perspective stand out. Just researching and writing this article has made me more aware of my messy thinking processes.

Step 1: Develop Greater Self-awareness

• Thought leadership begins with self-awareness. Through reflection, you gain a clearer understanding of your strengths and limitations. This awareness forms the foundation for a growth mindset, which is essential for evolving your thinking over time.
• Lawrence et al. (2018) found that self-assessment tools can support this process by fostering self-reflection and uncovering thought patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed. These tools help you identify where your thinking is strongest and where it may need development.
• Metacognition, or being mindful of your thinking, enhances your self-awareness and ability to delve into complex problems. When you actively monitor, question, and refine your mental processes, you sharpen your insights, become more aware of cognitive biases, and increase your capacity to generate original and meaningful ideas.

Step 2: Strengthen Your Advanced Thinking Skills

• Advanced thinking skills involve mental processes such as analyzing complex systems, challenging assumptions, refining ideas, integrating diverse perspectives, and applying critical reasoning.
• Metacognition plays a key role in sharpening these skills. Research by Rivas, Saiz, and Ossa (2022) found that metacognitive prompts, particularly those tied to the task, significantly improved critical thinking performance.
• As you develop your ideas, it’s beneficial to share your thinking process and work in progress. Letting others see how your ideas evolve not only builds trust but also helps them gain expertise.

Step 3: Capture Your Ideas

• Lay the groundwork for your thought leadership by identifying your core areas of knowledge. Begin  collecting your ideas in a digital format. Organize and structure them in folders by topic. The folders can hold mind maps, diagrams, notes, references, and relevant resources. Or you might design a different system that fits your workflow and thinking style.
• If you’re unsure about your key areas of expertise, consider working with a coach or mentor. Through informal interviews or structured reflection, they can help you find your strengths and identify patterns in your work that you might overlook. They may also recognize ideas with strong potential that meet a real need in your field (Raber, 2024).
• Thought leadership involves learning and growing. Whether that’s reading widely, enrolling in structured programs, or getting more hands-on experience, you’ll find that the more you know, the more your ideas will evolve. Lifelong learning is the easy part for learning professionals!

Step 4: Expand Your Ideas (and Find New Ones)

The line between capturing ideas and expanding them is often blurred. Many strategies can help you discover fresh ideas and develop them into high-quality content. The following seven strategies serve both purposes. Use them to build a steady flow of high-quality ideas that others find helpful, relevant, and timely.

1. Answer questions no one else is answering.
   Look for questions in your area of expertise that lack clear answers. Read forums, community threads, and online discussions to spot recurring uncertainties or gaps. Then, be the person who steps in to provide clarity (Expert Panel, 2020). You can expand your response into an article, a visual, a podcast, a video, or a webinar.
2. Report on lessons learned.
   Build the habit of reflecting on completed projects or professional experiences. Analyze what worked, what didn’t, and why. Then, share your findings, starting with what didn’t work and how you could improve it. Thought leaders often earn trust by helping others avoid mistakes or streamline their efforts through honest and thoughtful reflection (Brosseau, 2013). Listen to the podcast episode where Jane Bozarth explains Why You Should Show Your Work.
3. Standardize and systematize a repeatable process.
   Much of your expertise may be tacit—things you do automatically and haven’t verbalized. To make your thinking accessible to others, consider documenting your approach in a framework, methodology, or set of guiding principles. Turning your know-how into a system makes your ideas easier to adopt and scale (Brosseau, 2013).
4. Conduct a literature review of best sellers.
   You can use best-selling books to generate thought-leadership ideas, as many strong ideas build upon those of others. Reading widely gives you background knowledge and helps you understand diverse perspectives. Review current best-sellers, books that have remained influential, and timeless classics in your niche. As Church, Cook, and Stein (2016) explain, “A thought leader will read a book, highlight the relevant points, and start asking themselves: What do I think about this?”
5. Identify trends and find the gaps.
   Review credible sources such as LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report and research from Deloitte, McKinsey, or Gartner. Listen in on online conversations and use tools like Google Trends to look for signals. Identify emerging needs, rising questions, behavior shifts, or gaps in current solutions. Then, respond by explaining the trend, challenging it, or offering a practical solution.
6. Make cross-discipline connections.
   Identify a persistent challenge in your field, and then explore practices from other disciplines that address similar problems. Adapt the terminology and tools to fit your context. For example, in Learning and Development, we’ve borrowed Agile methodologies, Design Thinking, and mood boards to enhance instructional design. The book The Checklist Manifesto famously adapted aviation checklists to reduce human errors in medicine.
7. Create context for your idea.
   Presenting a big-picture view of your idea gives others a clear framework for understanding it. This might take the form of a diagram or model. An example is Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Similarly, using a metaphor to explain your idea can provide helpful context and make abstract concepts easier to grasp. Church, Cook, and Stein (2016) include this big-picture model as one component of a broader process for developing intellectual property. But even on its own, context can make abstract ideas more concrete and memorable.

Conclusion

As you step into thought leadership, your credibility is one of your most valuable assets. You’ll need to ensure that your data, references, and research are accurate and well-supported. While AI tools can be helpful for brainstorming or refining your writing, they can’t replace your thinking.

AI tools often fail to understand the context, intent, or nuance behind your insights. To be seen as a credible and impactful thought leader, the real work of reflecting, questioning, and shaping your ideas must come from you.

Do you want to amplify your thought leadership? Get a free 7-day email crash course on increasing your visibility. Use the form below.

References:

1. Brosseau, D. (2013). Ready to Be a Thought Leader?: How to Increase Your Influence, Impact, and Success. Routledge.
2. Church, M., Cook, P., & Stein, S. (2016). The Thought Leaders Practice: Do work you love with people you like, the way you want. Thought Leaders Publishing.
3. Expert Panel. (2020, September 9). 11 actions to take today if you want to become a thought leader. Forbes.
4. Lawrence, E., Dunn, M. W., & Weisfeld-Spolter, S. (2018). Developing leadership potential in graduate students with assessment, self-awareness, reflection and coaching. Journal of Management Development, 37(8), 634–651. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-11-2017-0390
5. McCrimmon, M. (2005). Thought leadership: A radical departure from traditional, positional leadership. Management Decision, Vol. 43(7/8):1064-1070. DOI:10.1108/00251740510610062.
6. Raber, B. (2024, February 16). Thought leadership 101 – How to become a thought leader in six months. Brainz Magazine. https://www.brainzmagazine.com/post/thought-leadership-101-how-to-become-a-thought-leader-in-six-months.
7. Rivas, S. F., Saiz, C., & Ossa, C. (2022). Metacognitive strategies and development of critical thinking in higher education. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, Article 913219. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.913219