Thought Leadership

A rising tide lifts all boats

By Julie Bennett

We’re now heading into our 20th year as a public relations business, working mostly with financial services clients. Along the way, we have helped many business leaders find their voices so that they can publicly demonstrate thought leadership.

This is much more than being able to articulate a corporate vision and values. It’s also more than having and sharing strong, informed opinions on issues that affect your business world – that is, your industry, your clients/customers, your colleagues, and your company.

It’s about elevating rhetoric. That means being able to critically think about issues, develop informed positions on them and perhaps even arrive at creative ideas on how to solve them.

It’s then about being able to express those thoughts, positions, and ideas publicly to a wider audience, in such a way that you openly encourage or (if you’re up for it) provoke debate beyond your current spheres of influence.

Why speak up?

If you’ve worked in this industry for a number of years, you will have formed ideas about what’s right and wrong with financial services and how these things help or hinder the work you do.

The longer you have worked in the industry, the more experienced and knowledgeable you have become and the more opinions and ideas you will likely have formed. In short, you know a thing or two and so it’s highly likely you will have shared at least some of your thoughts with those around you. You might even have put forward some ideas on how the industry might change in order to improve or grow. In this sense, you are already a thought leader, so why make your position public?

A rising tide lifts all boats

There’s the rising tide lifts all boats or altruistic reason – ideas that change the world of financial services for the better improve outcomes for all. Your ideas might inspire action, innovation, discussion, or all three and it’s impossible to ignore how important that is for any industry.

The business case

Then there’s the business case. As a leader who is prepared to talk publicly and knowledgeably about important issues, you will powerfully demonstrate your expertise. You will become recognised as an authoritative expert in your field, inspiring greater trust, and confidence in your brand. Your company will become more visible to wider markets and the likely outcome is you will attract more leads and ultimately, more clients or customers.?

But how do you go about it, if you have never really been public with your thought-leading ideas? We suggest there are a number of steps – but more on that next time.

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