Sometimes it can feel like the world is pretty awful. At least, that’s what the barrage of bad news on social media would have us believe. 

And in some ways, they’re not wrong – we DO have some massive challenges facing us, as individuals, as organisations, as countries, and as a world. 

But we believe that thought leadership – developing and evolving great ideas, then sharing those ideas – can make all the difference as we move into the future.

Imagine a world without thought leadership

Now, when you’re in the thick of BAU (business as usual) and feeling pretty overwhelmed fighting fires, it can be easy to think that thought leadership is just a nice to have.

But imagine a world where there is no thought leadership. Where no-one is taking the time to develop and evolve ideas that solve problems. No-one is encouraging and inspiring us to think differently. No-one is leading important conversations around the challenges we’re facing and the solutions to overcome those challenges.

Think of how different the conversation around vulnerability and shame would be if we hadn’t had someone like Brene Brown talking about it so openly. Sure, the odd person might be thinking about it, but it wouldn’t have become a normal part of our conversations, or a valid concern within organisations. 

We would also see far less innovation – and when innovation did occur, it would stay restricted to just one organisation, instead of helping more people and organisations to improve. 

Business as usual would stay business as usual. The status quo would remain unchanged. And all that firefighting you’re doing? That doesn’t go away – because no-one has taken the time to try and solve the underlying issues, or been willing to share those solutions with you.

So what’s the alternative?

Now imagine a world where we have MORE people leading with their thinking. More thought leaders, from all industries, education levels, races, genders, neurodiversities, abilities, socio-economic backgrounds, and more.

We have smart, creative, open people consistently looking for ways to solve problems differently, and innovative solutions are coming from all corners. What’s more, those solutions and great ideas are being shared widely so that they can impact more people.

Instead of all our thought leaders looking and thinking in a similar way, we can turn to any number of people and find different ways of approaching the same challenge, to discover what works for us as individuals or organisations. 

Those with really great ideas are recognised for those ideas – because they’re unafraid to share them. They’re able to build careers and businesses off the back of the way they think, because the world values the power of thinking and knows that AI might be an amazing tool, but there’s still a huge need for human creativity and empathy. 

We’re seeing incredible collaboration between thought leaders who are all trying to achieve similar purposes – because they recognise that it’s not a competition. They know that bringing more attention to an issue, and working together to come up with new ideas, is going to be a hundred times more powerful than being the sole voice talking about it or the sole brain thinking about it.

We’re not all stuck in BAU anymore, because we can see pathways out of the ruts we’re stuck in. We’re inspired and motivated to do better – because thought leaders are leading the way.

That might sound idealistic but it is all completely possible – and it starts with you.