“I want to develop my thought leadership,” my friend said, “but I work full time for a company. Isn’t that a conflict of interest?”
I’ve heard this question from numerous women. They do terrific work in corporate and independently, but they feel bottlenecked by two conflicting identities: corporate employee and independent thought leader.
Your Career is Comprehensive
The happy truth is, there’s no conflict, and thinking otherwise is holding you back. It also prevents you from adding a ton of value to your company! More on that in a minute.
There’s less conflict of interest than you imagine. Your career is comprehensive, and your corporate identity and independent work complement each other, making both strong, incisive, and relevant.
I want to have an individual voice in my field. How do I use my existing corporate platform to form my own identity? How can I build a presence that outlasts my company tenure, while respecting my current role?
Complement, Not Competition
My weightlifting coach is a three-time Iron(wo)man athlete. Last year she got a stress fracture in her foot, and had to take a break from running. “It’s okay,” she said. “It means I can focus on getting even better at biking and swimming.”
This struck me because, distance-athlete-ignoramus that I am, I thought that all cardio exercise was basically interchangeable (I know! You can laugh!). But it turns out you can’t just run to train for a triathlon. You must practice all three skills separately. They complement each other (they’re all endurance cardio) but they’re not interchangeable. Being a great runner doesn’t mean you’re a great swimmer.
Being an asset at your corporate job and being a thought leader are like running and swimming. The skills and outcomes complement each other, but they are not interchangeable and they each require their own investment of time and practice.
Don’t Be Monogamous with your Corporate Career
The problem is we tend to treat corporate jobs like a spouse, as if anything else we do for our career is cheating. It’s not.
In fact, developing your thought leadership is an asset to your company because it:
- Reflects well on your company. It looks damn good for your company if their employee is known for publishing about the latest news, research, and trends in the field
- Primes you to bring fresh insights and ideas to your company that can help them develop corporate assets and provide value to clients
- Attracts new clients to the company, who read your article or heard your podcast
- Singles you out as a candidate for leadership opportunities and promotions, saving management time and resources finding the right person for the role
While it may feel like a risk to publish independent thought leadership, fortune favors the bold. Even in a worst-case scenario in which your company is a jerk and fires you for publishing brilliant work (really???), you’ll be primed to launch yourself to a better position in a better company.
Fortune Favors the Privileged…?
It’s often safer to be bold if you’re white. The unfair reality is that white people are given the benefit of the doubt and assumed to have the best intentions. This is not always true of Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC).
If you’re a woman of color, or nonbinary or trans or queer or first generation, positioning yourself as an independent thought leader might sound like a bad, bad, bad idea. If your career situation is dependent on not rocking the boat, that hesitation is understandable.
Regardless, you can develop your thought leadership without threatening your livelihood or workplace reputation. You can start by following these habits of effective thought leaders:
- Commenting on and sharing the latest news, research and trends in your field. It shows you are abreast of the latest updates without any assets you publish being viewable as a threat or conflict of interest by your company
- Publishing on what you’re doing at work. This raises your company’s profile — it’s free marketing for them — while building your reputation and audience
- Privately developing your thought leadership. Like running, magnetic thought leadership comes from practice. You can start a private blog or newsletter as a container to develop your thinking, and your company never has to know. You will greatly benefit from developing your thinking. And when you’re ready and create the opportunity to go public, you’ll be unignorable and you’ll have a rich archive of material.
These are best practices for all thought leaders of all intersecting identities when you’re balancing your work for corporate with building your own platform (or if you’re an entrepreneur). By starting with these practices you can build your confidence and test the water. Then you can debut your industry-related podcast, article series, or videos.
3 More Habits of Highly Effective Thought-Leaders
To start your thought leadership practice, remember these three keywords: commit, simplify, own.
- Commit by setting up a system. Like building any new habit (exercise, eating, crafting) systems are the solution. Think about a day of the week, morning or night, that you will devote to producing your thought leadership. Think about how long you’ll spend. Be realistic about your production schedule — how often will you publish? Think about the steps you need to take from creating to publishing, and write them down. Then commit. Show up with discipline and patience, and watch your thinking unfold. (Remember this is a marathon, not a sprint!)
- Simplify by choosing one medium. Pick ONE container for your thought leadership. Will it be a podcast, where you interview people in your field (including your coworkers)? Will it be articles? Will it be art or graphics? Will you publish them on Medium or LinkedIn or an industry publication?
- Own your media. Wherever you publish them, I recommend you build your own website where they can live too. You want to have a place online where people can learn about you as your reputation grows.
Your wild and precious career
If you commit yourself to developing your thought leadership, it will pay dividends to your career. Leadership opportunities, promotions, and premium priced services favor bold women who take risks and share our insights.
Whether you want to work in corporate until you retire, or you want to move to Colorado and grow an epic vegetable garden funded by your premium-priced consulting services, thought leadership is for you.
Can you hear that inner voice, eager to join the conversation? Releasing her through thought leadership will multiply your impact and your career options. If your inner voice is ready to make your next bold move, I’d love to connect with you for a Discovery Session.
We’ll map out areas for opportunity to develop your thought leadership, harness your existing corporate platform, and build you a voice that will draw opportunities like a magnet.
It’s free, and it’s a lot of fun. Click here now to complete a brief form, and we’ll be in touch to set up your Discovery Session!
No matter where you work in corporate, your thought leadership is waiting for your attention. Sheryl Sandberg did it, and so can you.
Image by Christina of WOC in Tech Chat via Unsplash.
