Leadership is about sharing knowledge so write a business book and share it

The 2020s?are the decade of intellectual capital not financial capital.?While cheap money keeps sloshing around the world the real power will belong to those who share knowledge.

The more knowledge is shared the more it grows and works to advance society. The best leaders are authorities in their own right and deeply understand that is not a matter of having the most knowledge it’s about knowing how to share it.

I was thinking about this when reading a post by Peter Diamandis,?20 Technology Metatrends That Will Define the Next Decade.

His number two trend is?Global gigabit connectivity will connect everyone and everything, everywhere, at ultra-low cost:?The deployment of both licensed and unlicensed 5G, plus the launch of a multitude of global satellite networks, allow for ubiquitous, low-cost communications for everyone, everywhere, not to mention the connection of?trillions?of devices. And today’s skyrocketing connectivity is bringing online an additional three billion individuals, driving tens of trillions of dollars into the global economy.

For those who have something to say, know how to say it and write it, this mega trend is exciting and significant.

As a leader, you already have expertise, knowledge and insights that others value. By sharing it, you help others and build your own credibility.

Your business book – how to share your knowledge from one-to-thousands

There's a raft of ways you can share your knowledge from speaking at conferences, creating and sharing videos, podcasts, securing media attention, writing white papers and more. Writing and publishing your business book is still one of the most powerful ways to build and leverage your knowledge within your business, industry and more widely.

Why are business books so highly respected? Because most business people (around 80%) say they want to write a business book, but only 1% actually do. This means as a business book author you have a level of credibility and authority that most of your peers don't.

Not all business writing is created equal

The business world is now overloaded with thought leadership, and most of it is not of great quality. A recent LinkedIn Edleman report noted that there's a glut of thought leadership with 40% of respondents saying they were receiving more thought leadership content than they could manage. Importantly 71% said that less than half of the thought leadership they read gave them valuable insights, 30% was mediocre or poor and only 15% was great. Ouch!

And, as Steve Hall comments in one of his many articles for Top Sales Magazine, The Terrifying Truth about your prospects: 'The fact is your prospects are just like you. They're not thinking about your website, your white paper, case studies, or your social media strategy or your content. The terrifying truth is that your prospects aren't thinking about you at all...They are too busy thinking about themselves.' Thanks for the reminder Steve.

Clearly, there's a problem out there in thought leadership land. Too much average content that doesn't put the reader/audience front and centre and it's not delivered in a way that the audience engages with. It's more about the author than the audience. This is a common misconception about business books, especially self-published ones, and I've covered this in previous articles.

Most business people have significant knowledge and insights, in fact many could fill several books. What happens, however, is that many try to squeeze all the knowledge/insights they have into one book (or worse still take 1-2 years of Blog posts and mash them up into a book). This is how they end up with a book with mediocre/poor content that doesn't share valuable, timely and relevant knowledge or insight.

If you want to be one of the 1% of business leaders who write a great business book, – one that shares your knowledge and insights, stimulates new thinking and timely ideas, delivers robust facts targeted to a specific audience – read on.

5 steps to build the content for your business book

The process of capturing your knowledge and insights might seem daunting but there is a process to do this that I’ve developed over 30 years of business book writing and publishing. As a business writer and publisher I deeply understand the interplay between the knowledge you have, how to identify and understand the key target audiences and how to synthesise this into a coherent, clear and accessible content outline. Once you have this you’ve got your roadmap to writing, then sharing your knowledge and being a real leader in your field.

1. List the key topics you want to write about, areas where you have deep knowledge, practical application of that knowledge, are passionate about and engage with constantly.
2. Identify your key target audiences. You can't write for everyone so focus on the key business people (audience) you want to share your knowledge and insights with. They will also likely be part of your network and in an area where you have some level of recognition already.
3. Work out what your target audience's major challenges are. Don't assume you know, go and ask some of your network. List the top 4-5 challenges.
4. Match up your areas of knowledge with your target audiences' challenges, If you can't, you'll need to go back and either reframe your knowledge sets, target audience challenges or both. You need to get to a point where you have matched your knowledge areas with your target audiences challenges.
5. Using your matched-up knowledge areas/target audience challenges work through each of these and 'create' chapter headings. Some of your 4-5 main topics might have one chapter others 2-3 chapters or more.

You may need to work through this process several times to achieve clarity about the structure and content outline of your business. To morph the great American Express tag line, 'Don't leave home without it', 'don't start writing your business book till you've nailed the structure and content outline of your book'.

Empowering others through sharing your knowledge

Sharing your knowledge and insights through a business book is important in business and the wider community. Your book can foster vision and creativity in others, create the opportunity for new conversations, business and relationships and impact for the better others in your company, industry and community. If you want to be seen as a leader in your field write and publish a great business book.

Success isn’t just about what you accomplish in your life. It’s about what you inspire others to do.

If you’re keen to explore how to write, publish and market your business book look at The Book Adviser website and our 8-Step program. Then book in a time with me for a?FREE 45 minute strategy session?HERE?and get started on the journey of sharing your knowledge through your business book.