Swim like a Thought Leader!

In the new year, many in my team told me their New Year's Resolution is to be thought leaders! That’s awesome! But how? Let’s start from… the fish!

Organizations are similar to schools of fish. Good companies run in unison and troubled companies often operate chaotically. When the strategy is sound and direction is clear, the employees swim like a well-coordinated school of fish. The first 5-10% fish align and define the direction and the rest follow along. If the front fish falls behind or moves erratically, suddenly no one knows where the front is and chaos ensues. The school moves in disarray in search of new leaders that can provide direction. What does this analogy have to do with thought leadership? Do you want to influence the direction of the fish? If so, do you have to be smart? Be strategic? Be data-driven as it’s our edge? Of course, all of those. But the most important thing is you need to swim fast to the front and stay at the front. 

Sure, swim to the front, stay at the front. Easier said than done. How does one swim to the front and remain there without swimming overtime? Here is how. 

I’ve recently reignited my sketching hobby since I recovered from the trauma last year - I want to sketch the beautiful world before I can’t see it anymore (learn more from my other article “Vision 2020”). I was so eager to improve my sketching skills that I reached out to a co-worker with a degree in Art for advice. She invited me to go to community colleges where they hire models for figure drawing.

“It’s only one hour per class.” I said, “oh no, it may take too long for me to draw a figure live and I wouldn’t be able to finish before the class ends.”  

“That is not how it works.” She retorts. “The model will do like 6 poses in an hour, 10 minutes each.”

“What? I would not be able to capture anything within 10 min” was my excuse.

“You need to first focus on the big picture, not the detail of a nose or a finger, and capture it as quickly as you can. You can always refine later on. After the class, you compare your drawing with all the others in the same class at various levels of drawing skills. You will be surprised how others capture the figures as you do. Then you can take your time to refine your drawing later at home. That's the best way to improve your sketching skills.” She explained. 

Hustle, reflect, refine and move on. This is how we should operate when drawing live models, or when we swim to the front of the school of fish.

When you move to the front, there is no one to follow, you need to act fast, learn fast, and keep the pace at the front of the school to lead the way. To maintain at the front you need to also maintain a direction, and you do this by focusing on the big picture and prioritizing the key things that matter.  

On the topic of prioritizing the things that matter, another interesting fact: Do you know how much a gallery curator makes from the sale of an art piece?

The curator makes 50% of the sale price! My team thought it was unbelievable. It takes an artist so many years of practice, so much talent and so much time to finish a masterpiece. How can the curator get such a big cut? I think it reflects the value created by the artist and the curator. The artist is R&D and the curator is the Go-To-Market. The talent, effort and ability to get the art piece to market and get that signed check from the customer is as valuable as the talent, effort, and ability from the artist. To some extent, if not for the curator, the art piece would be worthless. Same as the fish who do not convince those in front to follow it will find itself swimming alone without the school. This is another important lesson for being a thought leader. If you have a good idea but are unable to convey your message to the right party, your thought is worthless. You need to find the best way, best channel and best people to convert your thought into the direction and ultimately value to the company. 

So aspiring thought leaders, the school of fish needs you to keep the direction, to hustle, reflect, refine, and continue to move towards the big picture, the things that matter, and convince the others in front of your ideas. I will see you at the front of the pack as fellow thought leaders!