Thought leaders are the experts, innovators and driving forces in their fields of study. No matter what topic or area of expertise you examine, you will find just a handful of select individuals who lead the way. They generate the ideas that become the foundation of all work to become and they are the voices people turn to for their opinions and advice.

Thought leaders are trusted, influential and well-connected. The reputation of being a thought leader is powerful and pervasive; people pay thought leaders to speak at seminars, to write books and to spread their ideas.

Naturally, with thought leaders so highly regarded and successful, it’s worth exploring the methods in which you can become a thought leader in your field. Above and beyond the ambition to be recognized for your ideas and achievements, being perceived as a thought leader can open the way for further career advancements and opportunities.

Video on How to Become a Thought Leader

1: Master Your Skill

The first step for any thought-leader-to-be is to recognize their field of mastery. No person can be an expert in anything – in fact, the very reason experts are so influential is that they offer skills and knowledge that others lack. You need to find your passion that is rewarding and motivating to pursue by itself, which will allow you to work hard and drive yourself to be the best.

Understanding your passion is by far the most important step and you’ll find that every thought leader is truly passionate about their field of expertise. Without the underlying passion to sustain you as develop your expertise, your ambition to become a thought leader will be hollow. It’s great if you have the desire to be seen as an expert, but without the actual desire to be an expert, you’ll find yourself in a difficult position.

Moreover, above and beyond simply being an expert in a field you are passionate about, you also need to understand your own unique angle and perspective. There will already be experts and passionate individuals in your area of expertise, so you need to consider what you bring to the table that they don’t. Perhaps you’ve recognized a key trend before other people, or you’ve developed ideas that allow you to be more successful and productive than others before you.

Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t the first person to develop a social media website but Facebook, for example, is the largest and most influential social media platform around. It was Mark’s key insights into the design and nature of social media that made Facebook more successful than it’s competitors and now when it comes to any topic about social media or even the internet in general, Mr. Zuckerberg’s opinion holds more weight.

2: Test Your Ideas

The next step to becoming a thought leader is to test your ideas and consult a trusted group of people around you; friends, colleagues, and people who have a stack in your ideas or project. Thought leaders may be put on a pedestal, but in truth, much of their success comes from activating the people around them.

Steve Jobs, for example, is the name most commonly associated with the success of the company Apple. Nonetheless, it was Steve Wozniak who singlehandedly designed the first Apple computer system – Mr. Jobs simply convinced Mr. Wozniak that the idea was marketable and worth pursuing.

By consulting and seeking the talents and opinions of the people you trust and regard highly, you can refine and improve your ideas. Even if you disagree with the opinions and the advice you hear, there is often a key insight or glimmer of value behind the feedback you’ve received.

It may be a way to improve the product you a designing or re-think your business strategy that you wouldn’t have otherwise considered. You wouldn’t pursue your ideas if you didn’t think they had value, but a healthy dose of criticism will help you filter the hidden gems from the dirt.

3: Network with Others

The third step to becoming a thought leader is to network with other influential and well-connected people in your area of expertise. To be a thought leader is to be recognized as a thought leader, so you will need to drum up support and influence in the right social circles.

This means that you should seek opportunities to talk with other thought leaders in your field, as well as any analysts, journalists and anyone of influence who is willing to talk about or discuss your ideas.

By having people talk about you and what you are saying, you can connect to a much broader range of people than you could possibly do so alone. Go to conventions and make contact with anyone who you think can help you – you may be turned down often, but the few success you have will make waves.

4: Marketing Your Brand

Now will be the time to start marketing yourself as a brand. Any revolutionary idea needs a champion who will fight for that idea and as the person who is the most driven, and understands your own ideas the best, this must be you. Your name must be heard and your story must be told.

People become invested in other people; they empathize with their struggles and they become inspired by their successes. By associating your idea with your story, you can get people who wouldn’t usually be interested in either, to become invested in both.

On top of this, the best way to lead is by example. If you can present yourself with any of the following qualities:

• Intelligence
• Humour
• Competence
• Hard Work
• Ingenuity
• Passion
• Wisdom

You will help associate these qualities with your brand and ideas. If people perceive you as intelligent and competent, they’ll tend to see your ideas as intelligent and competent too.

Additionally, by making yourself, as an individual, be heard, you pave the way to becoming a thought leader later down the line. When you have achieved success, people will look back in retrospect and be saying to themselves that you were the person who first had these ideas or the first person who made those ideas successful.

By taking the risk and pressure to make yourself be publicly known and seen, you will be rewarded later with reputation and recognition.

If you’ve made it to the point where your ideas are being discussed in social circles and public platforms, you’ve made it much further than most other people. Yet now it’s time to pause and reflect. Truly successful people use introspection and careful observation to understand the reasons why they are successful. They look back at their past and recognize the reasons why they failed when they did and most importantly, were successful when they were.

By reflecting on their journey as of yet, thought leaders can develop and refine a way of being or lifestyle that allows themselves and other people to be successful. When people read autobiographies of any famous successful person, people are most interested in the key values, principles, and lessons that these people can teach them.

Warren Buffet, a billionaire and one of the most successful private investors of all time, advocates simple principles such as developing good public speaking skills, spending time with successful people, investing in good ideas and living modestly.

These ideas themselves may not be revolutionary, but the strong reasons why Mr. Buffet endorses these ideas together, has influenced millions of private investors across the globe. Think about your mindset and the ideas that set you out from the crowd – in time, your mindset and psyche may be something other people will pay to understand.

5: Keep Innovating

The final step is to keep chasing the horizon. By now, you should be in a position where you have developed your own brand, both as a person, but also the ideas or product you represent. Yet innovation and progress will not pause and celebrate your success for you, so you need to be constantly working to keep your brand fresh and on the pulse of your industry.

As someone who is known and has more influence due to your perceived authority and reputation, you can afford to make more extravagant claims and more daring predictions. Of course, don’t be controversial or bold simply for the sake of being so, as this can come around and damage your reputation.

Nonetheless, by saying the opinions that other people are not, you’ll keep people paying attention to you and what you are doing.

You can use this attention to market your next idea and change within your chosen field. You are now truly a leader and the person people are watching to set the trends and dictate the pace. Your ideas matter because they are your ideas and people care what you think.

Conclusion

As a final note, patience and persistence are two qualities every thought leader needs. No-one becomes a thought leader overnight and the steps in this article represent a journey that can take years if not decades. Keep working towards your expertise, with grace and skill, and you’ll often find the process of becoming a thought leader will fall into place naturally.

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