This Week in PR (19 April newsletter - the thought leadership issue)

There are over 20 content links in this week’s roundup. From these, one theme emerges strongly. Let’s talk about thought leadership.

If you’ve just groaned inwardly on reading that, then it’s probably no different from how so many people react to the term public relations. We know that both can be effective, but to be so they need to operate behind the scenes, invisibly. As soon as we become aware of people going through the motions, then there’s a loss of credibility. Thought leadership has to feel authentic, not synthetic; public relations has to be about actions and not just words.

Gini Dietrich provided this analysis of thought leadership, linking it to Google’s guidelines.

‘Thought leadership expresses ideas demonstrating expertise in a particular field, area, or topic. A thought leader is typically known for their unique point of view and the ability to inspire others to think differently. And because they demonstrate experience and expertise, they create authority and trust.’

Yet can’t anyone become an instant expert on any topic thanks to AI? The point is that AI can give the appearance of expertise (it’s very well read), but like some imaginary ivory tower academic it doesn’t have the lived experience to draw on.

To provide an example of thought leadership from this week’s links, how about this article from Anita Rathod? It’s full of self-awareness as well as addressing an important issue. Since the stereotypical model of leadership draws on assertive, male and extroverted examplars, how can a self-described introverted woman of Indian heritage demonstrate authentic leadership?

‘My path to leadership has been a journey of learning. Through practice, I’ve learned to adapt my style, pushing myself to learn extrovert traits to be a better leader – challenging the negative misconceptions of introversion.’

That level of emotional intelligence (academics call it reflexivity) is authentically human and clearly distinctive from AI content.

This point was reinforced by Paul MacKenzie-Cummins:

‘Thought leadership is exactly what it says it is—the ‘thoughts’ of ‘leaders’ and other senior figures. So, until generative AI can access your brain to extrapolate the wisdom inside your head, the content that such platforms produce simply cannot possibly be considered ‘thought leadership.’ It is content, yes. But it’s not thought leadership content.’

This week we’ve also had a memorable way to describe the related concept of personal branding from Chris Ducker interviewed for Katie Macaulay’s podcast.?

‘At the core of a personal brand, it’s your reputation. Your personal brand is what people say about you when you’re not around. What are you known for?’

He went on to discuss content, one of the means of establishing a personal brand or professional reputation and talked bullishly about the ability of high achievers to gain financial rewards from their expertise by demonstrating thought leadership.

To link thought leadership back to public relations, issues management expert Tony Jaques argued:

‘Thought leaders need to have original thoughts, not simply churn out corporate messaging and industry clichés. We certainly know what thought leadership isn’t. It’s not the CEO talking endlessly about their own organisation.’

He makes the point that thought leaders use their authority to change something, in the same way that the best public relations is about change, not just about communication.

How to demonstrate authority and set yourself apart from most of your peers? Chris Ducker recommends writing a book. An author is literally an authority.

And it does seem that everyone has a book in them, which perhaps isn’t so surprising given the number of thinkers and writers in public relations.

This week, I’ve attended the launch of Rachel Miller’s book Internal Communication Strategy (our review by Martin Flegg will be published at PR Place Insights next week). This followed her podcast episode exhorting IC colleagues to demonstrate confidence in their expertise.

‘An internal communication team sets the communication standards for the rest of the organisation. You are the subject matter experts and you determine what excellent internal communication looks like. You are the centre of excellence.’

I’ve also attended the online launch of Women’s Work in Public Relations, edited by Liz Bridgen and Sarah Williams. Comments by one of the contributors, Aimee Postle, on her chapter were included in the round up.

If a book sounds like too much work, then there’s an open invitation to contribute a short article to a crowdsourced publication called Renewal to be edited by Stephen Waddington, Sarah Waddington and Jon White ‘exploring the future of Britain through the perspective of corporate communications and public relations practitioners.’

Women have quite rightly dominated this summary. So you’ll allow me to end by singling out Alan Anstead as another exemplary thought leader (he in turn credits Amanda Coleman for inspiring his thought piece). In recent weeks he’s been mentioned in this column for praising Aristotle as the true father of public relations and for highlighting an early episode in the storied career of Sir Stephen Tallents. This week he’s moved onto a different topic by challenging us to consider the importance of the defining image arising from a crisis alongside our focus on the words we use to frame the crisis.

While thought leaders are generally subject experts who can communicate their expertise in compelling language, a public relations expert also has to be capable of changing topics quickly and adapting their communication style for different audiences.