You’re Ruining Your Thought Leadership Strategy with this One Common Mistake

What will be the #1 determinant of the success of your thought leadership strategy? You.

Bowdlerization - a term recently introduced to me by Benjamin Carlson, a former Atlantic editor, via his Substack newsletter - describes the castrating effect that censoring controversial content can have on the overall impact or message of a written piece.

I have seen Bowdlerization firsthand, in the context of thought leadership. The client wants to “wow” the world with forward thinking and innovation in a specific area of expertise. They want their thought leader to be headlining major industry conferences within the year, and publishing think pieces in the shiniest publications. Thought leadership begins with owned content, so we write up a few posts that align with their values and could garner the kind of attention they’re seeking. Unfortunately, the client is uncomfortable with even slight deviations from the norm, so we remove all interesting or lightly-controversial statements from the content before publication.

The client wonders why nobody interacts with the piece. 

With so much content competing for consumer attention, you must find a unique perspective and lean into the ways you diverge from the main. 

leader

noun; an organization or company that is the most advanced or successful in a particular area.

Synonyms: pioneer, front runner, innovator, trailblazer, pathfinder

Organizations often find themselves stuck at a crossroads with thought leadership. One pathway is “risky,” allowing a thought leader to express strong, but potentially controversial, opinions. This road leads to the outcomes you’re working towards. The second road is “safe,” full of branded language and passive agreement with your peers. This path leads nowhere.

There is no middle road. 

Do not be mistaken: the risk that comes with thought leadership is not something to be taken lightly. When you pedestalize someone, especially if they embody your brand (think Papa John at Papa John’s), you give them great power over the perception of your brand. And with great power…. comes the potential of a PR crisis. 

Therefore, thoroughly vetting your thought leader and making sure s/he is relevant to your overall comms goals is a serious endeavor. 

Any kind of pioneering is risky. Playing the role of leader makes you vulnerable to criticism, but that’s what leadership is. Investors refer to a risk-reward ratio when assessing opportunities; the same concept applies to thought leadership. As an organization or person considering a thought-leadership strategy, you must decide how much risk you’re comfortable with. Ideal ratios vary across industries, and among types of thought leaders, but in general, lower-risk positioning begets more modest results. 

It’s important to note that controversial opinions don’t have to be inherently negative. It is controversial for a gynecologist to say that many of her patients have experienced total disregard of their symptoms by male practitioners, and that she is passionate about combating sexism in her industry: Controversial, but also clearly identifying the values of her practice.

This statement puts her at risk for criticism from colleagues and industry peers, but it also identifies her as a leader among those peers. 

Hot tip: the most impactful statements of “controversy” are statements that don’t feel controversial to the leader at all, because they are simply a part of the leader’s belief system.

The underlying assumption that propels thought leadership strategy is this: leaders who are outspoken about their values and opinions will not work with organizations that do not align with them. In employing this strategy, the business benefits from the attention of the thought leader’s “controversy,” while limiting its associated risk and keeping its own communications focused on business priorities.

In short: Locate the controversy at the heart of your communications goals, evaluate your risk-reward tolerance, lean into what makes you interesting, and do not allow fear to get in the way of speaking to the people who matter.

An airplane wasn’t built for travel on the ground: thought leadership, bowdlerized, is equally useless.