How can you use Thought Leadership to create a strong corporate culture in your startup?

A great example of Thought Leadership for a Startup is when US President Kennedy pronounced that America's mission was to put a man on the Moon and bring him back safely within a decade. The entire nation supported this inspiring mission, all resources were collaboratively put in place, and NASA achieved the goal.

There are several ways to integrate Thought Leadership to create a corporate culture that inspires employees. Recognize accomplishments, empower employees, create a learning culture, aligning values and goals. Creating a community of collaboration and transparency inevitably leads to employee engagement, retention, and motivation.

Every successful startup founder knows this - The beginning and end of your thought leadership journey is to define your purpose. This comes from diving into your personal brand, understanding your mission, vision and why, which then leads to your purpose and target audience you serve. You drill into the problems they have and what they are trying to solve, and finally, how you can help them. When you do that, you will have greater understanding of yourself and those you wish to help. This will also fuel you further to work and improve your impact and success.

My KISS Model - Keep it short and simple. Trust yourself to trust your team to perform at their best by creating a safe space for them to grow and develop. Hold yourself accountable by checking-in and finding out how you can help and assist. Most important identify blind spots and pivot as needed.

Remember, everyone has a unique way of thinking, insights, and perspectives. Respect these differences and allow people to bring their unique perspectives to the table. Allowing people to be their authentic self leads to innovation and creativity. This also leads to greater buy-in because you're allowing for different thoughts to be included in the decision making process.

When you know your values, others will start to see your value. ?? This understanding of your personal brand values will be the foundation upon which the thought leadership brand is built.

Based on my years of experience with startups to medium to large organisations, I have learned that"If it's not written, it's not visible." so content creation is key. I recommend actively sharing your expertise on topics that closely align with your startup's mission and objectives.

One way that I have applied this is to ask leading and open ended questions. It is in this environment that we begin to hear the voice of the team rather than one voice. By asking questions, you can guide the team, audience, and consumer to a place of realizing they need the product, information, or service you provide. When the voice is greater than just one voice, the whole organization resonates with the purposes and values. The longevity of the organization is put in the DNA from the beginning and the foundation is not limited to one voice. This then creates a consistency of thought leadership across all channels. Though one voice is important to start the ball, it is not the long term legacy of a organization.

Think about the case of Google's thought leadership on creating a culture of innovation. One way they applied it was the 20% rule where employees could dedicate 20% of their time to creative projects, leading to huge innovations. Involve your team by actively seeking their input and create opportunities to take on projects that align with the vision.

In my experience, a team learns more by discovery and colaboration with one another rather than being told. As a leader, when we can make them the hero's rather than being the hero in our context, team empowerment becomes not only a reality but a part of the power of the culture of an organization. When we as the "professional" humble ourselves to allow them to discover, we help them past their fears of failure, trepidation, and frozenness in learning something new and give them the power to learn even through failure. Their ownership is greater than any reward.

When it comes to finding your audience, your best guide is LISTENING. If you add empathy and compssion for them it's a bonus. By using these strengths to build an understanding of them, you will be better able to serve them with your content, your programs, and your expertise as a thought leader.

Listening is very important for effective communication. There are people that listen to respond but they fail to listening to understand. Often times we formulate a response while listening instead of understand someone’s perspective to add value and effectively communicate.

Adopt a learner’s mindset. Be open to external influences - investigate and absorb what's happening around you. Then use it to create strategies that resonate with your startup’s values and vision.

I believe it’s essential for thought leader to support a startup by fostering the 4Cs - Communication, Collaboration, Critical-thinking, and Creativity - among its team members. These skills can aid the team to navigate the startup towards expansion and nurture a positive work culture environment.

Think about Tesla, for example. Elon Musk used his thought leadership to transform the way we view sustainability and electric vehicles. There were EVs before Tesla, but Elon brought vision, innovation and high-performance which completely changed the industry.